











^v' 


















"* 






V X 



^ 



























.'. <T 






% ' 



*b/ 

>° \ °°* % 

/ 


















«feV* 

o j,* , • " • - •** ~ • . ^b a* 












\/ .-ate-, v \/ .-afe-- \ 












«5°x> 



o « I 






'•> 






■ .0 J 






, - 

V* 












•f 4 °^ 3.° ^ '- V 






A 






• ,o r ^ a ^ .g^ 



^ 






,4 W 



w 






"of 










































.V-* 
^ ^ 






VV 






















V* 






A. ■ w 



4.°-^ 





o V 













'- 

o 









■4 o 
■a? ^*. 





















>>« <v> 



























° 0< 





















<> 


















\ 


















,* v 









BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT 

CYCLOPEDIA 



OF 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY, 

PENNSYLVANIA, 



CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND 
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY, 

TOGETHER WITH AN 

INTRODUCTORY HISTORICAL SKETCH 



EDITED BY 

SAMUEL T. WILEY, 

Author of Histories of Niagara and Washington Counties, New York; Presto?, md Mongalia 
Counties, West Virginia; Fayette, Westmoreland, Blair, Indiana, Armstrori 
Schuylkill, Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
BIOGRAPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

1895. 






60573 

The Press of 

West-Johnson Company, 

Printers, 

Easton, Penna. 















a\l> 



qo 



PREFACE. 




IISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY— the life of the nation and the story of the 
individual — are inseparably connected, for history is the synthesis of 
biography and biography is the analysis of history ; and that depart- 
ment of history most valuable for the intelligent study of national life is 
biography, as it affords one great means of historical generalization. 

Biographical history is now popular because important. It secured 
national recognition in the Centennial year of the American Republic, 
when Congress recommended to every city, town and county of the 
United States the necessity and duty of securing for preservation and future 
use their local history and the biographies of their prominent and worthy citizens. Biog- 
raphy teaching the highest good by presenting worthy examples, has become an indispensa- 
ble element of all branches of history, and aids largely in the study of the philosophy of his- 
tory. In its earlier stages of growth, biography was only the story of the lives of heroes 
and great men often but partly and partially told, but in its later development it is the more 
impartial and satisfactory record of the great, the deserving and the useful in every walk 
of life. Biography also preserves the names of thousands remarkable for wisdom, virtue, 
intelligence, energy and ability, and who only lacked opportunity to have won fame and 
distinction. 

History and biography have ceased to be ponderous and pompous; have ceased to be 
the story of monarchy and the record of kings, and are now the life of the nation and the 
chronicles of individual effort. We have in local biographical history a most potent and 
entertaining method of instructing by precedent, of inciting to emulation, and of preserv- 
ing the names of those who contributed to the transformation of the counties of this 
State from a primitive condition to their present wonderful state of development. No 
less important is a just and fitting memorial to those men and women who have im- 
pressed themselves upon their respective communities, whether through industrial, polit- 
ical, professional or civic relations. The history of the past is the history of the few ; the 
history of the present is the history of the many "who by head or hand, force of character 



4 Preface. 

or high attainment have made themselves centers or sources of influence in their respec- 
tive communities." These biographies taken together make a complete history of a 
county, political, social, commercial and industrial. 

Montgomery county occupies an important and honorable position in the "Keystone 
State" of this great republic, and demands the best work upon the part of historian, bi- 
ographer and publisher. Neither time, labor or expense has been spared in the prepara- 
tion of this volume, and it is placed before the public with the belief that it will be found 
equal to any work of similar character published in this country. The development and 
progress of Montgomery county is not due to any particular race, but is the combined re- 
sult of the brain and brawn of all the nationalities whose home has been within her bor- 
ders, since the days of Quaker settlement and English colonization on the banks of the 
Delaware. 

The geology given is mainly taken from the volumes of the Second Geological Sur- 
vey of Pennsylvania ; the mineralogy has been compiled from Prof. O. C. S. Carter's de- 
scription of the minerals of the county ; while the notice of vegetable and animal life is 
condensed from the articles on each by Dr. P. Y. Eisenberg- and William J. Puck, the 
historian. 

The concise account given of political, judicial, medical, military, journalistic, finan- 
cial, educational and religious matters, has been carefully compiled from all sources of 
reliable and accurate information available. 

A new and special feature that has been introduced is that of the appendix devoted 
to the prominent dead of the county, whose worthy careers entitle them to ample space 
and distinguished mention. 

Produced by a vast amount of careful ami diligent labor, this cyclopedia supplies a 
general and permanent want, and contains no information that will become obsolete 
through the advance of knowledge. It seeks to preserve all of value in the past, and yet 
includes the men and women who are performing- the work, and moulding- the present 
thought of the county in its every line of progress and development. 

The Publishers. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. BOUNDARIES AND AREA — TOPOGRAPHY 

— TERRITORIAL CHANGES — GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION — GEOLOGICAL 

STRUCTURE — MINERALOGY — ZOOLOGY. 




HILE it is not within the scope 
of a work of this character to 
give a complete or extended 
history of Montgomery coun- 
ty, yet the publishers have 
deemed it most essential to 
make a brief presentation of 
the most important events of 
the history and development 
of the county before proceeding to record 
the biographical sketches of its useful and 
leading citizens. 

Boundaries and Area. — M< >.vn;< imi.kv 
County, Pennsylvania, is the ninth in 
order of age of the sixty-seven counties of 
the Keystone State, is in the southeastern 
or garden part of the Commonwealth, and 
lies between the fortieth and forty-first de- 
grees of north latitude, and the seventy-fifth 
and seventy-sixth degrees of west longitude 
from Greenwich, England, or the first and 
second degrees of east longitude from Wash- 
ington city. As a political division of the 
State, Montgomery county is bounded on 
the north-east by Lehigh and bucks coun- 
ties ; on the south-east by Philadelphia 
county; on the south-west by Delaware and 
Chester counties; and on the north-west 
by Berks count}-. According to "Smull's 
Legislative Hand Book," the county con- 
tains four hundred and eighty-four (484) 



square miles, or three hundred and nine thou- 
sand seven hundred and sixty (309,760) acres. 
The territory of the comity was organized 
as a part of Philadelphia, one of three 
original counties established by Penn in 
16S2, and continued as such until Sep- 
tember 10, 1784, when it was organized 
under the name of Montgomery county. 

There arc three theories for the origin of 
the name of the county; first, that it was 
named for Montgomeryshire, Wales ; second, 
that it was to commemorate the name of 
the lamented General Montgomery, who 
fell at Quebec ; and third, that it was in 
the honor of Joseph and William Mont- 
gomery, who were then members of the 
Pennsylvania legislature and worked hard 
for the passage of the bill creating the 
county. "It is possible that the Montgom- 
erys' of the assembly anticipated the natural 
wishes of the Welsh, and utilized the name of 
Genera] Montgomery with that of their own." 

In geographical position, Montgomery 
county is one of the south-eastern counties 
of Pennsylvania, while its geographical 
center and center of population are not a 
great distance apart, and both are said to be 
in the neighborhood of Centre Point, in 
Worcester township. 

The county is in the Seventh Congres- 
sional district, composed of the counties of 



Historical Sketch. 



Bucks and Montgomery ; while within it- 
self it constitutes the Twelfth Senatorial 
and Thirty-eighth Judicial districts, and is 
entitled to five members in the Pennsylva- 
nia House of Representatives. 

Topography. — The surface of Montgom- 
ery county is undulating and hilly, while 
its soil is good and very productive. It is 
well watered, and in the past was well 
wooded with oak, hickory and chestnut, 
which have been largely cut away for 
fuel, charcoal, lime-burning and to sup- 
ply the Philadelphia markets. Well de- 
fined ranges of hills run from north-east 
to south-west. In the south-eastern por- 
tion of the county are the Gulf, Barren 
and Chelten hills ; and in the central part 
are the Providence and Skippack hills ; and 
in the northern part are the prominent, 
rugged and somewhat mountainous Stone 
Hills. The Schuykill, Plymouth and 
Perkiomeu valleys are very fertile, while 
the large areas of rolling lands drained 
by the Wissahickon creek, Indian Swamp 
and Manatawny creeks, are highly produc- 
tive. The entire county is a rolling 
country of hill and dale, with rich farms, 
good roads, comfortable dwellings and fine 
residences. 

The general drainage of the county is to 
the southeast by the Schuylkill river and its 
tributaries, of which latter the principal ones 
in Montgomery are, Perkiomen, Stony and 
Wissahickon creeks. Skillful engineers 
who have examined the Upper Perkiomen 
valley, state that its elevation and volume 
of water are sufficient to make a great 
reservoir that could supply the city of 
Philadelphia with pure water for a century 
to come. 

Geology. — The geological structure of 
Pennsylvania is complicated in form and 
various of quality and age. The great sub- 



terranean floor of Pennsylvania formed of 
granite, gneiss, mica, slate and marble, lies 
from one to twenty thousand feet beneath 
the present surface, and contains vast de- 
posits of iron. These great floor rocks were 
originally sandstone and limestone, but 
were changed into granite and gneiss, mica, 
slate, and marble, by pressure, heat and 
chemical action. 

Prof. J. P. Lesley gives the following 
characteristic sketch of Montgomery county 
in the Second Geological Survey of Penn- 
sylvania : " The geology of this county is 
the same as that of Bucks county, between 
which and the Schuylkill it lies, with a 
length of thirty-eight (38) miles (along its 
northeast line) and an average breadth of 
sixteen (16) miles (along its northwest line). 
Two of its townships, Upper and Lower 
Merion, lie on the west side of the river. 
Philadelphia city (once county) is cut out 
of its southern corner. Four-fifths of the 
county has a surface of Mesozoic (New Red 
Trias) soft red shale and Sandstone dipping 
gently northward. A ridge of greenstone 
trap in Marlboro township is gapped at Sum- 
neytown by a branch of the Perkiomen, the 
main creek flowing (south) past the west 
end of the dyke at Green Lane. Another 
small hill of trap rises one mile north of 
Pottstown. The North Penn railroad tun- 
nel at Gwynedd cuts trap in the hill. The 
villages of Morgan Hill, Sorrel Horse, 
Dreshertown, Fort Washington, Hickory- 
town and Plymouth mark the line of the 
south edge of the New Red, where the Pots- 
dam quartzite No. 1 (North Valley Hill 
rock of Chester county) comes out from 
under it, in a series of diagonal (anticlinal) 
ridges, with basins of Chester count)- lime- 
stone No. 11 between them. The Chester 
county valley heads up eastward through 
Upper Merion and Whitemarsh township. 



Historical Sketch. 



The southern edge of the limestone No. n 
crosses the Schuylkill at Conshohocken, and 
runs past the marble quarries, Marble Hall, 
and the north corner of Cheltenham town- 
ship to a point two miles east of Pinetown. 
The narrow southern outcrop of No. i rnns 
alongside of the limestone from Consho- 
hocken eastward to within a mile of Sorrel 
Horse. A narrow belt of the South Valley 
Hill slate rnns from Conshohocken west- 
ward as a continuation of the belt of No. i. 
South of this slate and south of the ontcrop 
of No. i, all across the comity, rnns a belt 
of the older gneiss, bordered on the south 
by the Chestnut Hill and Edge Hill line of 
garnetiferons and serpentine-bearing schists. 
Three lines of serpentine ontcrop cross 
Merion, one of them at Merion Square, the 
two a mile and two miles north of it. From 
Jenkintown eastward Edge Hill carries the 
famous eurile or itacolumite ontcrop, which 
has been assigned to the Potsdam formation 
No. i." 

The following formations and deposits 
exist within the county : River mud, Trenton 
gravel, red and yellow clay and gravel, 
Bryu Mawr gravel, trap, mesozoic, serpen- 
tine, Chestnut Hill and garnetiferons schists, 
Philadelphia and Manayunk schists, South 
Valley hill slate, Potsdam sandstone or Edge- 
Hill rock, and syenite and granites supposed 
to be laurentian. 

Mineralogy. — The precious minerals 
have been found in Montgomery count}-, 
but not in sufficient quantities to pay 
for working. Traces of gold are found 
in the azoic rocks and in the Delaware 
river sands. In one reported case a hun- 
dred pounds of gravel yielded nearly 
twenty-seven cents worth of gold. Traces 
of silver associated with argentiferous sale- 
nite was found some years ago at the Ecton 
mine at Shannonville. Copper veins exist 



near Shannonville, and in Upper Salford 
township, and are also found about one and 
a half miles below Norristown. Near Shan- 
nonville, Stephen Girard sunk a shaft on the 
copper vein, but did not obtain ore in pay- 
ing quantities. Others sunk shafts with no 
better results, and the Ecton and Perkiomen 
mines were worked at different times from 
1829 to 1S58, but never more than paid ex- 
penses. In one year there were taken from 
the last named mines five hundred and 
twenty-four (524) tons of copper, worth 
nearly thirty-one thousand dollars ($31,000), 
and it is claimed that under a more economi- 
cal management the returns would have 
yielded a profit. Eead ores are found in 
slight quantities associated with the copper 
ores. Slight traces of tin are found in Fran- 
conia township, where it exists in its native 
state in a gold-bearing gravel. Thin veins 
of coal from one to two inches in thickness 
and limited to very small areas are found in 
different localities of the county, but no 
larger or heavier veins have ever been dis- 
covered. Graphite exists near Henderson's 
Station. 

The more common and more useful min- 
erals of the county are clay, kaolin, glass 
sand, limestone, marble, iron ore, and build- 
ing rock. 

The clay beds are in the limestone belt, 
and are principally found in Springfield, 
Whitemarsh, Plymouth and Upper Merion 
townships. The most important kaolin bed 
is about two and a half miles from Con- 
shohocken, and in Plymouth township. It 
was opened in 1877, and yields a white pot- 
tery clay, a red terra cotta clay, and a blue 
fire brick clay much used at the Albertson 
.Star glass works, at Norristown. Fine white 
glass sand is found near many of the kaolin 
deposits. The Montgomery limestone val- 
ley commences in Abiugton township and 



Historical Sketch. 



widening out passes through Cheltenham, 
Whitemarsh, Springfield, Upper Dublin, 
Plymouth and Upper Merion townships into 

ster county, where it is known as Ches- 
ter valley. Most oi the limestones in the 
Montgomery valley are highly magi. 
Immense quantities of lime have been burned 
in this valley for building and agricultural 
purposes, and tor shipment to Philadelphia 
and other cities. As early as 1840 the value 
oi the lime burned in the county was over 
a quarter of a million dollars. The earliest 
mention of lime burning in the comity was 
in 16S6, when Madam Farmer, of White- 
marsh township, offered to sell ten thousand 
(10,000) bushels at six pence per bushel. The 
lime used in the building of the old State 
house at Philadelphia was hauled from the 
Ryner Tyson kilns, in Abington township. 
The limestone area is between fifteen (15) 
and twent square miles, and its main 

shipping points are Norristown, Port Ken- 
nedy, and Swedesburg. At Ambler Station, 

m salts and various other magnesia 
compounds are manufactured from these 
limestones. Marble, which is but limestone 
crystallized by extreme heat, exists in large 
quantities in the Montgomery valley. Nearly 
all the quarries are open on the southern 
edge of the limestone belt. The Marble 
Hall quarries, the largest in the county, were 
opened over a hundred years ago, and fur- 
nished the white marble used in building 
the Washington monument, at the national 
capitol. Marble Hall quarries contain the 
only vein of statuary marble found in the 
county. Other leading and important quar- 
ries are, Spring Mill, Hitner's, Hender- 
son's, Graver's, Corson's, Williams', Smith's, 
Phipps', Coxe's, Ramsey's, Marple's, Lee- 
dom's, O'Brien's, Derr's, and the different 
Rambo quarries near Swedesburg. The Den- 
quarries furnished the marble for the Xorris- 



town court-house, and the William Rambo 
marble quarries at Swedesburg, have large 
lime-kilns connected with them. 

The princial iron-ores oi the county are : 
Magnetic, red hematite, brown hematite, 
spathic or siderite, titanic, and chromic. 
There are no large beds <A~ magnetic iron- 
ore in the county. The brown hematite is 
a common ore in the limestone belt, occur- 
ring in clay deposits, from which thousands 
oi tons have been mined. The Edge Hill 
blast furnace used this ore extensively. The 
red hematite is found in several parts of the 
iron-ore belt, and is sometimes discovered 
in connection with the brown hematite. 
Traces of spathic and titanic iron-ores ha\ e 
been reported as found in some of the town- 
ships, but the brown hematite is the abun- 
dant and representative iron-ore of Mont- 
gomery county. The main building rocks 
oi the county are marble, red sandstone, 
syenite and granitic. Marble, the most im- 
portant rock, is largely used in public and 
private buildings and weathers better in the 
country than in a city. The new red sand- 
stone, quarries oi which are worked in 
nearly every township, is coming into gen- 
eral use, as it weathers far better than Pots- 
dam sandstone, that was once quite popular. 
There are extensive beds of syenite and 
granitic rocks in the county, that in time 
will furnish large quantities oi a good, 
strong, medium grade building stone. 

Botany. — The first description and cata- 
logue of the plants of Montgomery county 
was made by Dr. P. Y. Eisenberg, and is 
given in Bean's history of the county. Dr. 
Eisenberg classifies over seven hundred 
species of phaenogamous or flowering plants; 
and thirty-three species of the cryptogamous 
or flowerless plants. Dr. Eisenberg was un- 
able to make his catalogue full and com- 
plete, but it is a work of great value and 



Historical Ski 



will make highly interesting the study of 
the plant-lif county. 

Zoology. — The zoology or animal life 
of Montgomery county so far has received 
its fullest treatmentat the hands of William 
J. Buck, whose- catalogue of quadrupeds 
contains thirty-five species, embracing eight 
kinds of bats, three of shrews, five of squir- 
rels and seven of rats. The other spei 
are the wild cat, red fox, weasel, mink, otter, 
skunk, raccoon, and opossum. 

Mr. Buck's ornithological catalogue in- 
cludes two hundred and thirty-two species 
of birds and embraces thirteen kinds of 
hawks, two of eagles, eight of owls, two of 
cuckoos, eight of woodpeckers, six of swal- 
lows, nine of fly-catchers, four of thrushes, 
twenty-one of warblers, eight of wrens, ten 
of sparrows, seven of herons, three of plover, 
five of snipe, five of sandpipers, four of rails, 
fifteen of ducks, three of geese, three of 
stills, three of grebes, two of black bin 
two of crows, two of orioles, two of robins. 
It also includes the turkey buzzard, hum- 
ming bird, whip-poor-will, king-fisher, pe- 
wee, blue bird, great shrike or butcher bird, 



gray creeper, nuthatch, red bird, yellow 
bird, linnet, finch, indigo bird, cow bird, 
meadow lark, wild pigeon, turtle dove, 
pheasant, partridge, snake driver, kill-deer, 
turn Stone, swan, COOt, loon and pelican. 

The reptile by .Mr. Buck's catalogue num- 
ber thirty-th cies, of which the rattle- 
snake and copperhead, fast disappearing, 
the most dangerous. He gives a dozen 
kinds of snakes, eight of turtles, eight of 
frogs, two of lizards, and six of salaman- 
ders. 

Twenty-five species constitute Mr. Bu 
catalogue of fishes, among which are sun- 
fish, bass, perch, trout, chub, roach, sucker, 
catfish, car]), eel and lamprey. 

With the geography of the county all arc- 
well acquainted, and the First and Second 
Geological Surveys of Pennsylvania have 
done- much toward giving the history of its 

ology and mineralogy, yet there is much 
to be learned about its geological struc- 
ture and the extent of its minerals, while 
its botany and zoology are fields in which 
many future discoveries await the ardent 
and painstaking student. 



CHAPTER IT. 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT. PRE-HISTORIC INHABITATION 

— MOUND BUILDERS — INDIAN TRIBES — INDIAN PURCHASES — 

DEVELOPMENT PERIODS. 




|0 GRANDER page in the his- 
tory of the new world will ever 
be written than that of Swedish 
settlement and Quaker coloni- 
zation on the Delaware, for 
each was projected in the in- 
terests of religions freedom, 
and the latter was also the 
exponent of universal peace in 
a time when Europe was ruled by might 
and war was the arbitrament of all national 
controversies. 

The history of the founding of the Key- 
stone State is a long and interesting one 
from the discovery of the Delaware by the 
Dutch, to the planting of New Sweden and 
its absorption in the colony of Penn. Two 
hundred sixty-two years ago the mighty 
Gustavus Adolphus, wearied with war and 
religious strife, sought to found in the new 
world, a great empire where political and 
religious freedom should prevail. But his 
death at Lutzen, left to other hands a half 
century later, the founding of this grand 
ideal State, and upon the weak and feeble 
New Sweden of the warrior monarch was 
planted the strong, prosperous and peaceful 
Quaker province of William Penn, which 
developed into the present powerful and 
populous " Keystone State " of the Ameri- 
can Union. 

William Penn, the " Quaker King," in 
founding the province of Pennsylvania, not 
only provided an asylum for the persecuted 
of his day, but laid broad and deep the 



foundations of popular power, free govern- 
ment and a lofty civilization, and contribu- 
ted in a large degree, to the birth of a nation 
whose magnificent progress has been the 
wonder of the world, and whose future 
career will largely control the destinies of 
the human race. 

Xo more truthful epitaph is recorded of 
any benefactor of the human race than that 
which is inscribed to William Penn on a 
tablet in the old State House at Phila- 
delphia, and reads : " William Penn, born 
in Loudon, October 14th, 1644, laid the 
foundations of universal liberty, a. d. 1682, 
in the privileges he then accorded the emi- 
grants to Pennsylvania and thus enabled 
their descendants to make the colony the 
Keystone State of the Federal Union in 
1789." 

Pre-Historic Inhabitation. — Before 
proceeding to treat of the early settle- 
ment of the county by the whites, it 
will be necessary to make brief mention of 
the pre-historic inhabiting races, the Mound- 
bnilders and the Indians. For the rude 
objects of ancient art are mute witnesses of 
a period of human existence back of the 
scope of written records, and supply the long- 
sought means of tracing man from almost 
his first appearance in the world down 
through his conquests over nature to the 
time when history takes up the thread of 
his career. The pre-historic is separated in 
the United States from the historic by the 
discover}' of America by Columbus, so that 



Historical Sketch. 



it 



whatever here is ante-Columbian is also 
pre-historic. 

Mound Builders.— The Mound-build- 
ers, so named on account of the earth- 
mounds which they erected all over the 
Mississippi valley, are claimed to have pene- 
trated as far east as the Delaware river, but 
there are no written accounts of any temple, 
altar, effigy, or tomb mound ruins existing 
in Montgomery county at the time of its set- 
tlement by the whites. Of the Mound- 
builders' fate we have nothing but Indian 
traditions which are unreliable. The Indians 
claimed to have driven them out of the 
country, which is hardly probable, as a num- 
erous semi-civilized race would hardly be 
vanquished by an inferior race of no greater 
numbers. Whether famine, fever or war 
wasted the Mound-builders, or they were at- 
tracted by sunnier skies to Mexico or Peru- 
vian lauds, none can tell. 

Indian Tribes.— The successor of the 

Mound-builder was the Indian, of whose or- 
igin nothing certain is known. Two of the 
eight great Indian families of the United 
vStates were the Algonquins stretching from 
Virginia to New England, and the Huron- 
Iriquois, whose most powerful confederation 
was the Iriquois or famous Six Nations of 
Central New York. The Six Nations were 
the most intelligent, advanced and ferocious 
of all the Indian nations, and were bound to- 
gether in a confederacy that in some re- 
spects resembled our federal union. In each 
nation were eight tribes arranged in two 
divisions, as follows: 

Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, 
Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk. 

In this manner was constructed the Tribal 
League of the Hodenosaunee or Six Nations, 
which forms "an enduring monument to 
that proud and progressive race, who reared j 



under its protection, a wide spread Indian 
Sovereignty." 

The. Algonquin family was divided into 
several nations, one of which was the Lenni 
Lenape or Delaware nation, whose tribes 
inhabited the larger part of the territory of 
Pennsylvania. The Delaware nation was 
divided into three branches, the Turtle, 
Turkey and Monsey or Wolf tribes. 

The territory of Montgomery county was 
occupied by several of the Monsey or Wolf 
tribes, whose names if ever known by the 
first settlers were allowed to perish by the 
earlier historians. No account can be found 
at this late day of their trails and war 
paths which were in daily use when the 
early settlers came into the county. These 
Wolf tribes were tenuants at will of the 
Six Nations and had numerous camping 
places and villages, especially along the 
streams, of which there is neither record nor 
tradition, except that a village was near the 
junction of Elliot's run and the Schuylkill 
river. Indian axes, arrow-heads, toma- 
hawks, pipes, knives, spear-heads, pestles 
and other stone weapons and implements, 
have been found in large quantities in dif- 
ferent townships. On the Webster farm 
in Horsham township, is the " Indian 
Spring," near which tradition asserts that 
the Indians had a camping place. The 
history of the Indian tribes of the county 
would have made an interesting chapter if 
it had been secured and preserved in Mont- 
gomery as it has been in some other 
counties of the .State. 

Indian Purchases.— The territory of 
Montgomery county was purchased b\ Penn 
and his agents from the Indians at the fol- 
lowing dates : On June 25, 1683, of Winge- 
bone, for his lands on the west side of the 
Schuylkill up from the lower falls; July 14, 
i6S3,ofSecaneand Idquoquehan and others, 



12 



Historical Sketch. 



for lands between the Schuykill and Chester 
rivers up as far as Conshohocken Hill ; also 
July 14, 1683, of Neneshickan, Malebore, 
Neshanocke and Oscreneon, for lands be- 
tween the Schuylkill and Pennepack as far 
northwest as Edge Hill ; June 3, 1684, of 
Maughongsink, for lands along the Perkio- 
nieii creek ; on June 7, 1684, of Mettamicnot, 
to lands along the Pennepack ; on July 30, 
1685, of Shakhoppa, Secane, Malebore and 
Tangoras, to lands between Chester and Pen- 
nepack creeks to the northwest for two full 
days journey ; and July 5, 1697, Tanamy, 
Weheeland, Wehequeekhon, < iaqueekhon 
and Ouenamockquid, sold their lands be- 
tween the Pennepack and Neshaminy 
creeks, and thus was extinguished 
the Indian title to the entire county. 
Of the sixteen Indian chieftains, or 
men of note, who made these land sales 
to Penn, we do not know how many of 
them resided on the territory of the county 
or to what tribes they belonged. The 
Indians retired from Montgomery county 
as the white settlers came into its territory, 
but at what time the last of them left or 
where they went, past history and tradition 
are alike — silent. 

Pioneer Races. — The pioneer races in 
the settlement of the territory of Montgom- 
ery county in order of age, were the Welsh, 
English, German, Swede and Scotch-Irish. 
Although the territory of the county was 
pretty fully explored and parts of it 
regularly traveled from 1640 to 1680 by the 
vSwedes, Dutch and English, successively in 
the prosecution of the beaver trade, yet their 
journeys were by means of canoe, and the 
reports of these traders caused no emigra- 
tion up the Schuylkill beyond the site of 
Philadelphia. Penn's purchase probably 
led to the settlement of the county twenty- 
five years earlier than it would have been 



accomplished by the slow northward ex- 
tension of the Upland colony, at the present 
city of Chester, in Delaware county. 

The Welsh were the first to become per- 
manent residents, and Edward Jones, "chir- 
urgeon," is entitled to the honor of being 
the first settler of Montgomery county, his 
settlement being made near the site of Dib- 
ertyville, in Dower Merion township, Au- 
gust 18, 1682. The Welsh had purchased 
forty thousand acres of land of Penn before 
he left England. These Welsh purchasers 
were from Haverfordshire, Shropshire, and 
Cheshire, Wales, and a part of their tract, 
which they intended to become a munici- 
pality, was in Dower and I'pper Merion 
townships. In Lower Merion Dr. Thomas 
Wynne, father-in-law of Edward Jones, set- 
tled in 1682, and the next year came John 
Roberts, who erected the third mill in the 
province. Following Roberts came John 
Thomas, Hugh Roberts, Rowland Ellis, 
Robert Jones, John Cadwallader, Benjamin 
Humphreys, Robert and Thomas ( (wen, and 
others. The Welsh settled rapidly in Up- 
per Merion, where they numbered two-thirds 
of the thirty-two taxables returned in 1734. 
They also were numerous among the early 
settlers of Gwynedd, Montgomery and Ply- 
mouth, but the Merion townships seemed 
to have been the centre of their settlement. 
They were principally Friends, and in 
Lower Merion, in 1695, built the first church 
in the county. In 1 734 there were one hun- 
dred and eighty-one (181) Welsh in the sev- 
en hundred and sixty (760) taxables of the 
county, but the tide of emigration from 
Wales declined rapidly from the time reli- 
gious persecution ceased in that country. 
The Welsh were an intelligent, energetic 
and enterprising people, who made the 
best of citizens, and their descendants to- 
daj are among the most substantial and 



Historical Sketch. 



13 



progressive men and women of the county. 
The second race element in order of set- 
tlement was the English. The pioneer 

English settler seems to have been Toby 
Leech, from Cheltenham, in ( rloucestershire, 
England, who in the latter part of [682, 
settled on Tacony creek, in what is now 
Cheltenham township, and built a grist mill 
and tannery. Following Leech into Chel- 
tenham township, came Richard Wall, 
Patrick Robinson, John West, John Day, 
Nehemiah Mitchell, William Brown, Ever- 
ard Bolton, John Ashmead, John Russell, 
Mary Jefferson, Thomas Phillips, and Wil- 
liam Frampton. In 1684, Dr. Nicholas 
More, from London, settled on the manor 
of More-land, and the next year Mary Far- 
mer and her family made the first settle- 
ment in White-marsh. About [685, John 
Barnes settled in Abington, and some time- 
later Thomas Palmer and Thomas Eredell 
settled in Horsham. About 1685, James 
Fox, Richard Grove, Francis Rawle, and 
John Chelson, all from Plymouth, England, 
settled in Plymouth township. Edward 
Lane and Joseph Richardson, in 170 1, located 
in Providence. In 1734 there were twenty- 
four English taxables in Abington ; fortv- 
seven in Moreland ; twenty-three in White- 
marsh ; fifteen in Upper Dublin ; and nine 
in Springfield ; while the total number in 
the county was one hundred and sixtv- 
three. Mrs. Mary Farmar burnt the first 
lime from limestone in Pennsylvania, and 
the English built their first church, Abing- 
ton Friends' meeting house, in 1607. The 
English element, principally Friends, were 
a peaceable, thrifty and law-abiding people, 
of intelligence, will and fair education. 

.Succeeding the English came the third 
inhabiting and most populous pioneer race, 
the German, which still holds its own'in 
numerical strength in the count}'. The 



founding of the Germantown colony opened 

up the way for German emigration into the 
territory of Montgomery count}. In [69] 
naturalization papers were granted to thirty- 
three Germans, of whom nearly three- 
fourths became pioneer settlers in the 
count}-. In 1702, Matthias Van Bebber 
purchased a tract of six thousand one hun- 
dred and sixty-six acres of land on Skip- 
pack creek, and constituting over one-half 
of the southern part of Perkiomen town- 
ship, lie divided this land into lots, and 
sold them to actual settlers. Between 1702 
and 1701), he made sales to Heinrich Panne- 
backer, Johannes Kuster, Johannes Um- 
stadt, Clans Jansen, Jan Frey, John Jacobs, 
Edward Beer, Gerhard and Herman Inde- 
hoffen, Dirck Renberg, William Renberg, 
William and Cornelius Dewes, Herman 
Custer, Christopher Zimmerman, Johannes 
Scholl, Daniel Desmond, Jacob Johannes, 
Martin Kolb, and John Strayer. The- Ger- 
mans were- the pioneer settlers of Perkio- 
men, Towamencin, Upper and Lower Sal- 
ford, Hatfield, Franconia, Frederick, Marl- 
borough, New and Upper Hanover, and 
Douglass townships, and a few of their 
number were Hollanders. By 1734, the 
German element of population had in- 
creased so rapidly that three hundred and 
ninety-five of the seven hundred and sixty 
taxables of the count} were Germans. The 
first protest against negro slavery was by 
German Friends at Germantown, and had 
such an effect on their race that Germans 
held but few slaves in Montgomery or any 
other count}- of the state. The Germans 
founded the Mennonite, Lutheran, Reformed, 
Dunkard and Schwenkenfelder churches 
in the county. The Germans were honest, 
industrious and frugal, and soon became 
prosperous and influential. 

The Swedish element of population dates 



H 



Historical Sketch. 



back to about 1712, and in 1734 was con- 
fined to Upper Merion township, where in 
the last named year the names of Mats Hol- 
stein, Peter Yocum, and Mounce, John, 
Gabriel and Elias Rambo appear on the list 
of taxables. The earliest settled race on 
the Delaware, they were nearly the last to 
come into Montgomery county. Peter Cox 
seems to have been the first Swedish settler 
and purchasing his land as early as 1702. 
The Swedes were a pious, industrious and 
thrift}- people. 

The fifth pioneer race was the hardy, con- 
scientious and aggressive Scotch-Irish, who 
came into the eastern part of the county 
some time after 1715 and in 1734 numbered 
some sixteen or seventeen taxables only. 

After the Scotch-Irish came it is said that 
a small number of French and also of Irish 
came into the county between 1734 and 
1742. 

The Germans, including a small number 
of Hollanders, had settled in the northern 
and western parts of Montgomery county, 
the Welsh and English occupied the south- 
ern and central parts, while the Swedes had 
located in the southern part, and the Scotch- 
Irish and French were scattered in the east- 
ern part from the Delaware westward to the 
center. 

Development Periods. — The record of 
Montgomery county's progress and develop- 
ment, from its pioneer days to its present 
moment of existence, is one of worth and 
honor and of substantial prosperity. While 
this progress has not been phenomenal in 
character, yet it has been solid and substantial 
and the county ranks favorably to-day with 
the old and progressive counties of the middle 
Atlantic States. 

Montgomery county has passed several 
consecutive periods of development that 
have been differently named by different 



authors. The history of the county may be 
divided into the following eleven periods, of 
which the two war periods are not properly 
development periods and will be treated of 
in the military chapter: 

1. Pioneer Period — 1682 to 1742. 

2. Backwoods Period — 1742 to 1775. 

3. Revolutionary Period — 1775 to 1783. 

4. Pike Period — 1783 to 1812. 

5. War of 1812 Period — 1812 to 1814. 

6. Canal Period— 1814 to 1826. 

7. Early Manufacturing Period — 1S26 to 1834. 
S. Early Railroad Period — 1834 to 1861. 

9. Civil War Period — 1861 to 1S65. 

10. Improvement Period — 1S65 to 1876. 

1 1. Progressive Period — 1876 to 

The Pioneer Period, sixty years in dura- 
tion, was one of privation and much suffer- 
ing. There were no grist mills for nearly 
twenty (20) years, and then only four seemed 
to have been built during the remaining 
forty (411) years of the period. The log 
cabin and the small clearing were prominent 
landmarks from 16S2 to 1742, yet frame 
houses were being built, small farms cleared 
out, and twenty-five (25) townships had been 
organized, while four (4) grist mills had been 
built and fifteen (15) churches were erected. 
The matter of most public interest during 
this period was the fish dam war on the 
Schuylkill river between the shoremen and 
the farmers who carried their grain to Phila- 
delphia in canoes. These canoes often up- 
set in being forced over or through the dams 
and their cargoes were lost. Victory finally 
declared for the farmers in 1738, when the 
sheriffs of Chester and Philadelphia counties 
caused the fish dam to be removed from the 
river. One of the most important events of 
this period w r as the erection of Green Lane 
forge in 1733, twenty miles north of the site 
of Norristown and on the waters of Perkio- 
men creek. This forge was built by Thomas 
Mayburry, and the pig-iron for its use was 



Historical Sketch. 



15 



broueht from Durham furnace. The for<je 
was chiefly worked by negroes for several 
years. 

The second or Backwoods Period extend- 
ed from the year 1742 to the opening of the 
Revolutionary war thirty years later. Farms 
were increasing in number and in size, but 
the larger part of the laud was still in woods. 
Frame and stone houses were rapidly suc- 
ceeding the log cabins, and every community 
was being connected by dirt roads. Over 
twenty (20) grist mills were built, eighteen 
churches erected and old Mount Joy or Val- 
ley Forge was built ( 1751 ) on the waters of 
Valley creek. The three main events of 
this period were the commencement of town 
growth in 1753 when John Potts laid out 
Pottstown ; the introduction of stage coach 
travel in September, 1763, by George Klein, 
on the " King's Highway" or the old Beth- 
lehem road between Philadelphia and Beth- 
lehem ; the observation of the transit of 
Venus in 1769, at the Norristown observatory 
by the celebrated David Rittenhouse. 

The Revolutionary war came in 1 775, and 
interrupted the development of the territory 
of the county. At its close commenced the 
Pike Period, which continued till the com- 
mencement of the war of 1S12. The earliest 
notable events in this period were the coun- 
ty formation and the laying out of its seat 
of justice by the name of Norristown. 
About the same time, if not really earlier, 
Isaac and David Potts built the second Val- 
ley Forge. Better houses and churches 
were being built, subscription schools were 
opened and farms increased in size. But 
improved highways were the demand of the 
day. An attempted canal had failed, and 
the people needed good roads for travel and 
to transport their farm products to market. 
The old dirt roads were not fit, and the Lan- 
caster turnpike, the first macademized road 



in America, was commenced in 1792, and 
completed in 1794 from Philadelphia to 
Lancaster at a cost of seven thousand, five 
hundred dollars ($7500) per mile. Four and 
one-half miles of this pike were in Mont- 
gomery county. The Lancaster turnpike 
was followed by the Germantown and Per- 
kiomen turnpike, built between 1S01 and 
1804, on the Reading road for twenty-five 
(25) miles at a cost of over eleven thousand 
dollars (#11,000) per mile. The Cheltenham 
and Willow Grove turnpike was next in or- 
der of age, being built in 1803 and 1804, 
and had a length of eleven miles, costing 
eighty-eight thousand dollars ($88,000). 
The third pike was the Chestnut Hill and 
Spring House, on the Bethlehem road, and 
whose length of eight miles cost over seventy- 
five thousand dollars ($75,000). The last 
pikes commenced in this period were the 
Perkiomen and Reading and the Ridge ; the 
one twenty-nine miles and the other twenty- 
four miles in length. In the latter part 
of this period several lines of stages were 
running through the county, and substan- 
tial stone bridges were taking the places of 
old wooden ones. The Perkiomen stone 
bridge built in 1798 cost sixty thousand 
dollars ($60,000,) and the Pottstown stone 
bridge was completed in 1805 at a cost of 
thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000). Dur- 
ing the Pike Period two post-offices were 
established in the county, the first one at 
Pottstown in 1793, and the second one at 
Norristown about 1798 or 1799. The first 
newspaper, The Norristown Gazette, made- 
its appearance in 1799. The close of the 
period found Montgomery county pretty 
well recovered from the effect of the Rev- 
olutionary struggle, and the war of 18 12 
that followed checked but did not materially 
retard the development of the county. 

The Canal Period that followed the war 



i6 



Historical Sketch. 



of [812 and extending from 1814 to 1826, 
was a period during which turnpikes were 
still built and heavy substantial bridges 
thrown over many streams, but the main 
theme of public interest was the construc- 
tion of canals as cheaper routes to market 
than the turnpikes were. In 1792 a 
company was incorporated to construct a 
canal from Norristown to Philadelphia, and 
two companies commenced the work but 
failed in 1794, after spending nearly half a 
million dollars. In 181 1 the companies 
were united as the Union Canal company, 
and in 1821 commenced work on the aban- 
doned canal whose line was re-located and 
finished in 1N26. The canal was carried to 
the Susquehanna river, leaving the Schuyl- 
kill four miles below Reading:, in Berks 
countv, while the Schuylkill Navigation 
Company carried the north branch of the 
canal from up the Schuylkill and to Port 
Carbon on Mill Creek in Schuylkill county. 
Packet boats were put 011 the canal in 1825, 
carrying passengers as far south as Pawling's 
bridge in this county; but in the succeed- 
in- year the packet boat " Planet" com- 
menced making regular trips from Reading 
to Philadelphia. In the commencement of 
this period the first banking institution was 
opened at Norristown in 1S14 under the 
name of the bank of Montgomery County. 
And at Norristown, toward the close of the 
period, the first secret society was organized 
in 1823. This organization was Charity 
Masonic Lodge, No. 190. 

The opening of the Canal wassucceeded by 
the Early Manufacturing Period, which was 
short, being of only eight years duration, 
commencing in 1S26 and closing in 1834. 
During this period all the material interests 
ot the county were progressive, and to 
manufactures public attention was directed 
as much, if not more than any other indus- 



try. In 1S20 there were two cotton fac- 
tories and four fulling mills, whose date of 
establishment cannot be obtained. During 
this period, ten batteries, two forges, two 
trip-hammers, seven naileries, two gun 
manufactories, thirty tanneries, twenty-four 
flax-seed oil mills, sixty-three distilleries, 
one carriage factory, fifteen paper mills, 
five gun powder mills, ninety-seven grist 
mills, thirty-three lime-kilns, four brick- 
kilns and four marble yards were in opera- 
tion. Toward the close of the period, the 
Corliss iron works were established at Cou- 
shohocken. 

The next development period was the 
Early Railroad Period commencing in 1834 
and terminating in 1861, with the opening 
of the late Civil war. Progress in every 
line moved forward during this period and 
several large furnaces and iron-works were 
erected, while the first agricultural and the 
present count)- medical societies were 
formed. Put a new factor in material pro- 
gress now appeared in the railroad and 
gave name to the period in which it took 
travel and freight alike from pike and 
canal, and inaugurated the great change 
which it wrought later in State and nation- 
al development. The Philadelphia, Ger- 
mantown and Norristown railroad was for- 
mally opened to Norristown on Friday, 
August 14, 1835, amid great rejoicings. 
The second railroad to pass through the 
count)' was the Philadelphia and Reading, 
which was opened from Reading to Potts- 
town about 1840 and completed to Phila- 
delphia in 1842. The North Pennsylvania 
railroad, the last road built in this period, 
was opened July 7, 1857, from Philadelphia 
to Bethlehem. Further railroad building 
was interrupted by the commencement of 
the late Civil war. 

Succeeding the Civil war came the tenth 



Historical Sketch. 



17 



historical or eighth development period 
which may be fitly termed the Improve- 
ment Period, extending from the close of 
the war to the time of the Centennial year. 
In those eleven years the county fully re- 
covered from the effects of the war. New 
furnaces and rolling mills were built, six 
railways were constructed, and farm ma- 
chinerv was largely introduced throughout 
the county. Invention and machinery 
were adding to the products and the com- 
forts of the people, and improvement was 
everywhere discernible, from the farm, mine 
and factory, to the shop, counting-room 
and school house. The use of the telegraph 
and telephone, the introduction of labor- 
saving machinery and the invention of the 
phonograph distinguished the closing years 
of this period and were prophetic of a won- 
derful future. 

The Centennial year of the nation was 
likewise the initial year of a Progressive 
Period in Montgomery county, whose ter- 



minal boundary line lies hid in the future. 
The Centennial exhibition had something 
to do with hastening this period by some 
years. The hundreds from the county who 
visited that great exhibition and witnessed 
the wonderful exhibits in every department 
of industry, came back with new ideas of 
progress whose consummation, aided by 
improved labor-saving machinery, has 
placed Montgomery in the front rank of the 
progressive counties of the state. 

Tasteful residences and beautiful farms, 
fine school buildings and splendid church 
edifices, good roads, first-class railways and 
electric street cars are distinguishing fea- 
tures of the progressive present ; while 
the full development and the ultimate 
supremacy of its greatest inventions will 
only be attained in the twentieth Cen- 
tury, when the present railways may be 
succeeded by air ship lines that have suc- 
cessfully solved the problem of aerial nav- 
igation. 



CHAPTER III. 



LEADING INDUSTRIES. 



IRON MANUFACTURE — TEXTILE FABRICS — PAPER- 
MINOR INDUSTRIES. 




IGRICULTURE is the earliest 
and main occupation of a 
people during a pioneer period, 
and the first developed in- 
dustry of the mineral counties 
of Pennsylvania was the man- 
ufacture of Iron. 
Iron Manufacture. — In Montgomery 
county iron-works were established at Valley 
Forge as early as 1750. These works were 
burned by the British in 1777, and new 
works were afterward built by the Potts 
family. Other iron works were erected in 
the county, but in 1820 there were only two 
forges, two trip hammers and seven naileries 
in Montgomery county. Sixty-four years 
later there were a large number of furnaces, 
rolling mills and steel works. The blast fur- 
naces were: Plymouth, built in 1843; Merion 
and Elizabeth furnaces, erected at West Con- 
shohocken, in 1847; Swede, 1850; William 
Penn, 1854 ; Montgomery, at Port Kennedy, 
1854 ; Anvil, Pottstowu, 1867 ; Kdgehill, 
1869 ; Norristown, 1869 ; Warwick, Potts- 
town, 1875, and Lucinda, at Norristown. 
The rolling mills and steel works were : 
Conshohocken iron works, commenced in 
1832 ; Norristown iron works, 1846 ; Potts- 
towu iron works, 1846 ; Stony Creek 
rolling mill, 1849; Pen Coyd iron works, 
1852 ; Pottstowu Iron Company's works, 
1863 ; Glasgow iron works, 1874 ; Plymouth 
rolling mill, 1881 : Longmead iron works, 
1882, and Ellis and Lessig's rolling mill, at 
Pottstown, in 1884. The Schuylkill iron 
works at Conshohocken were built in 1858, 



and the Standard Iron Company's works at 
Norristown were erected during the pre- 
vious year. The value of the products of 
the nineteen iron and steel establishments 
in 1880 was over seven million dollars. 

Textile Fabrics — The manufacture of 
textile fabrics was commenced at an early 
day, and in 1810, besides ten thousand 
looms and three hundred caiding ma- 
chines in operation, there were two cot- 
ton manufacturing establishments in the 
county, and the value of all kinds of cloth 
woven in 1810 was nearly one hundred 
thousand dollars Seventy years later, 
Montgomery county had seven cotton goods, 
nine mixed textile and fourteen woolen 
goods establishments, the combined value 
of whose products was nearly six million 
dollars. One of the oldest cotton mills in 
the State is Simpson's, of Norristown, 
built in 1826 by Bernard Mc Creedy. 
Among other cotton mills in the county- 
are Hunter's, at Norristown, built in 1836 ; 
Merion mills, 1836 ; Washington or Watts', 
built in 1849, as Moy Craig mill ; Consho- 
hocken mills, 1856 ; Ford Street mills, 
Norristown, 1856 ; Albion Print works, 
1865, and Jones mill, which was opened be- 
fore 1880. The Fairview cotton mills 
were started in 1825 an< ^ burned in 1884. 
Many cotton mills were partly turned into 
woolen mills The Valley Forge woolen 
mills, now idle, were started in 1810 as a 
cotton mill by James Rogers. Of woolen 
and yarn mills, Worrall and Ratclift's 
woolen mills were started about 1861, when 



Historical Sketch. 



19 



the Rose Glen mill also went into operation ; 
Bullocks, 1863; Lee's carpet mills, 1864; 
New Union, 1870, and Smith's 1883. 

Paper. — The earliest authentic mention 
that we have of a paper mill was of the 
Langstroth paper mill, built on the Penny- 
pack in Moreland township. This mill was 
built in 1794, by Thomas Langstroth, and 
burned in 1809. Some claim the old Dave 
paper mill of Lower Merion township was 
older than the Langstroth mill. The Rock- 
hill or old Scheetz mill was built in 1798 in 
Lower Merion, producing hand made paper 
for many years. The Riverside paper mill in 
YVhitemarsh township was started in 1856, 
and produces fine book, card and envelope 
paper. In i860, the Rudolph or Ashland dye- 
wood mills were changed into a paper mill, 
whose product is newspaper material. Ten 
years later the Rebecca manilla paper mills 
of Bridgeport were started, and in 1884 Cox 
and Dagers built the present Norristown 
manilla paper mill. The manufactured 
products of the six paper mills in the county 
in 1880 was over half a million dollars. 

Minor Industries. — One of the most 
important and largest of the minor in- 
dustries of Montgomery county is that 
of the manufacture of agricultural im- 
plements. David S. Heebner commenced 
the manufacture of farm machinery upon 
a very small scale in 1840, and since 
then the business has grown into large pro- 
portions at several places in the county. 
The Heebner Agricultural works of Lans- 
dale were started in 1862, and fourteen 
years later the Ellis Keystone Agricultural 
works of Pottstowu were established. About 
184S Harper's Hoe and Rake works were 
started, and two years later the Rittenhouse 
foundry and machine works made a specialty 
of heavy farm machinery work. The 
latest improved farm and agricultural ma- 



chinery of all kinds is made in Montgomery 
county, and shipped to all parts of the civil- 
ized world. In 18S0, the thirteen agri- 
cultural implement establishments of the 
county had an output worth nearly a quar- 
ter of a million dollars. 

Another industry worthy of notice is the 
manufacture of glass, which was never un- 
dertaken upon a large scale until 1868. In 
that year a glass works was started at Nor- 
ristown, that became the commencement 
of the present Star Glass plant of that 
place. In 1884, the Penn glass works were 
started at Rover's Ford. 

The terra cotta industry was introduced 
in 1856 in Whitemarsh township by the 
erection of the Scharff Terra Cotta works. 
Ten years later the Moorhead Terra Cotta 
works were started in the same township. 
Among other industries in the county may 
be mentioned those of lumber, brick and 
tile, leather, fertilizers, marble, lime and 
building stone. Each of these make re- 
spectable showing, while some give indica- 
tions of future prominence. 

One of the later industries of the county 
is that of dairying, and its products from 
numerous creameries in different sections 
find ready sale in the Philadelphia market. 

Montgomery exceeds all of its adjoining 
counties except Philadelphia in the value 
of its products, which were worth over 
twenty million dollars in 1880. 

Montgomery county will cross the thres- 
hold of the twentieth century as one of the 
leading manufacturing counties of the great 
manufacturing belt of the United States 
that stretches on the Atlantic seaboard 
from Maine to Virginia, and gives promise 
of leading every other county in the " Key- 
stone State" except Allegheny and Phila- 
delphia, whose great cities alone place them 
foremost in Pennsylvania manufactures. 



CHAPTER IV. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOLS — PUBLIC SCHOOLS — COUNTY INSTI- 
TUTE — ACADEMIC SCIK ioI.S — BUSINESS SCHOOLS — PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS — 
PENNSYLVANIA FEMALE COLLEGE — URSIN-US COLLEGE. 




HE CITIZRNS of Montgom- 
ery county may be justly- 
proud of their public schools, 
and the excellence of their 
higher institutions of learn- 
ing. Of the pioneer schools of 
the county, considerable in- 
formation is given by Prof. 
Abel Rambo, in his centen- 
nial historical school sketch. The early 
school houses were rude round log struc- 
tures, daubed with clay mortar, where one 
log was left out for a window which had 
oiled paper for panes of glass. After the 
war of 1812 there was an increase in the 
number of elementary or subscription 
schools and a steady improvement in school 
buildings, until the passage of the free 
school law in 1834. 

Public Schools. — Although the law 
for free schools was passed in 1834, yet it 
was nineteen years before the last district 
in Montgomery county accepted the pro- 
visions of that law. Since then the growth 
of the public schools has been steady, alike 
in the mixed schools of the rural districts 
and the graded schools of the larger towns. 

County Institutes. — A teachers' coun- 
ty association was formed in 1845, and num- 
erous county and local institutes were held 
up to the passage of the act for county 

institutes in 1S67. The county institutes 
for the last fifteen years have been made 
interesting and useful to the public school 



teachers and all others in attendance during 
their sessions. 

Academic Schools. — The earliest regu- 
lar academic school in the county, of which 
there is record, is Washington Hall Colle- 
giate Institute, founded by Henry Prizer, at 
Trappe, in 1S30. In 1S49 Prof. Abel Rambo 
became its principal, and under his adminis- 
tration the institution became very popular. 
Many of his students now occupy high and 
honorable positions in life. 

The second academic school was Tre- 
mount seminary, established in 1844, at 
Norristown, by the celebrated Rev. Samuel 
Aaron, A. M., one of the most efficient edu- 
cators of his day. In 1858, Rev. Aaron left 
Norristown, and three years later Prof. John 
W. Loch transferred the De Kalb Street in- 
stitute to the Tremouut seminary buildings, 
where he conducted an excellent school 
for over twenty years. 

Succeeding Tremouut seminar)' in order 
of age came Oakland Female institute, 
founded by Rev. J. Grier Ralston, in 1845, 
at Norristown. Rev. Ralston was an ex- 
cellent educator, and the institution was 
closed in 1881 by the death of its founder, 
which had occurred in the preceding year. 

The fourth academic school was Freeland 
seminary, established in 1848, by Abraham 
Hunsicker, and his son, Rev. Henry A. 
Hunsicker. The seminary continued in 
active operation from 1848 to 1869 when it 
was merged into Ursinus college. 

Fifth of the academic schools, was Cot- 



Historical Sketch. 



21 



tage seminary, of Pottstown, founded in 
1850, by Rev. William R. Work. It was 
established for the education of young 
ladies, and closed its doors in 1881. 

The next institution for the education of 
women was the Montgomery Female insti- 
tute, of Collegeville. It was organized by 
Abraham Hunsicker and Prof. J. Warrene 
Sunderland, in 1851, and two years later 
was merged into Pennsylvania Female col- 
lege. 

Business Schools. — The Hill school 
was founded in 1851, by Rev. Matthew 
Meigs, ex-president of Delaware college, 
who was succeeded as principal by his son, 
John Meigs, Ph. D., in 1S76. The school 
property adjoins the borough limits of Potts- 
town, and its graduates, who sought a col- 
legiate course were always able to enter any 
college in full standing. 

The North Wales academy and School 
of business was started by Prof. S. U. 
Brunrier, in 1867, at Kulpsville, but four 
years later was removed to North Wales. 
Separate academic and commercial depart- 
ments were established and the institution 
scion became prosperous. 

Parochial Schools — Before the public 
school system went into general operation, 
the Lutherans, Mennonites and other re- 
ligious denominations had separate or pa- 
rochial schools, whose existence in many 
instances dated back to the organization 
of tlie particular church to which they were 
attached. There are now in the county two 
parochial schools; one, St. Patrick's Cath- 
olic parochial school at Norristown, and 
the other, a Catholic parochial school at 
Coushohocken. 

Pennsylvania Female College. — In 
1853 this pioneer college for women was 
organized through the efforts of Prof. 
J. W. Sutherland, Abraham Hunsicker, 



and Luannie Sutherland, and has been ever 
since a potent factor for the intellectual 
and moral advancement of women. The 
object of its founders was to aid in starting 
a work that would go on until " woman 
would be fully accorded her true position in 
all the avenues of usefulness, influence and 
honor consistent with her possibilities in a 
continental republic resting upon a liberal, 
intelligent and Christian civilization." 

Ursinus College. — Ursinus college 
was chartered in 1869, and "owes its es- 
tablishment to the lively interest felt 
by its founders in the advancement 
of education in the higher branches of 
education upon the basis of Christianity, 
and with chief regard l<> religious ends." 
The college bears the name of one of the 
great reformers of the sixteenth century. 
Ursinus was the renowed theologian of the 
Palatinate, Germany, and wrote the larger 
part of the Heidelberg catechism. Ursinus 
college, though not under synodical con- 
trol, yet has the approval of the general 
synod of the Reformed church of the 
United States, and endeavors to meet the 
wants of the age in its educational system 
by adopting a medium between the abstract 
ideal and materialistic utilitarian theories. 

Rev. J. H. A. Bomberger, the founder of 
the college, served as its president from 
1870 until his death in 1890. During 1891- 
92, Rev. George W. Williard was acting 
president, and in 1892 Rev. Henry YV. 
Super was elected president. The Free- 
laud seminar}' buildings were first used for 
the college, and in 1S72 an east wing was 
added. In 1892 the Bomberger .Memorial 
hall was completed at a cost of sixty-two 
thousand dollars (#62,000), and Ursinus col- 
lege has now ample buildings at College- 
ville, to prosecute her future work success- 
fullv. In concluding this brief mention of 



22 



Historical Sketch. 



Ursinus college, whose splendid and useful 
work has won high commendation, we give 
an extract from the address of President 
Super at the dedication of Bomberger 
Memorial hall, which throws additional 
light upon the early college history : 

"Ursinus College originated in a desire to furnish 
men for the Christian ministry. Harvard, Yale, 
Princeton and other colleges were established for the 
same purpose. To prepare men properly for the 
ministry, institutions of learning must be established 
where thev can obtain an education in general knowl- 
edge and fit themselves for the further and special 
work of their calling. Hence colleges were ap- 
pointed for a general purpose. They carry forward 
and extend the course acquired in the public and 
high school and prepare the way for the special 
courses of the university, the medical, law, theologi- 
cal and other departments. The work of the college, 
of this general character, commends itself to those 
who do not propose to continue it in one of the pro- 
fessions. All ranks and classes, so far as able, should 
avail themselves of the college course for the train- 
ing of the mind and the cultivation of the intellectual 
powers. This lifts the intelligence and culture of the 
community and enables men to fulfill the duties of 
life with greater fidelity and acceptance. All should 
seek its halls and as few as possible come short of its 
advantages and benefits. This college may be said to 
have had its start in a convention of its friends at 
Myerstown, Pennsylvania, in 1S67, aided by the es- 
tablishment of the Church Monthly, under the editor- 



ship of Rev. Dr. Bomberger, in 1868, and the gather- 
ing and consultation of a number of clergymen and 
laymen who then resolved to go forward in the estab- 
lishment of an iustitutiou for the Reformed Church in 
Eastern Pennsylvania, devoted to the doctrines of the 
Reformation of the sixteenth century and true to the 
creed of the noble men who effected that great move • 
ment in the progress of religious and civil liberty and 
in the return to the purity and simplicity of the 
apostolic times. In 1S69 funds were contributed for 
the purchase of Freeland seminary and for the en- 
dowment of at least one chair, that of the presidency. 
A charter was obtained. A board of directors was 
chosen. The faculty was selected and the institution 
fully inaugurated. It opened its doors in the fall of 
1S70, and immediately met with encouragement. A 
check was given to its progress, however, by the 
financial crisis of 1S73, which crippled its resources. 
Nevertheless its friends gathered around it, its 
students increased in number, the faculty was self- 
denying and devoted and the work went forward. 
Each year found an advance on the year previous. 
The building was found to be insufficient for the ac- 
commodation of the increasing number of students. 
A general desire was felt for a new aud larger build- 
ing. The board of directors, prompted by the gener- 
ous gift of Robert Patterson, one of its number, of 
twenty-five thousand dollars, resolved to build. The 
death of Dr. Bomberger, about the same time, led the 
Board to call the building "Bomberger Memorial 
Hall." The corner stone was laid June 25th, 1891. 
We are here to-day (June 23, 1892,) to pronounce the 
building finished." 



CHAPTER V. 



JUDICIARY AND BAR. FIRST COURT — JUDICIAL DISTRICTS — PRESIDENT JUDGES- 
ADDITIONAL LAW JUDGES — ROLL OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY BAR. 




|HE FIRST court held for 
Montgomery county, was on 
December 28, 17S4, and it 
convened in the barn of the 
Barley Sheaf Hotel, a short 
distance northwest of the site 
of Hartranft Station, in Nor- 
riton township. The follow- 
ing justices of the peace were 
present : Frederick A. Muhlenberg, James 
Morris, John Richards, Henry Sheetz and 
William Dean. Justice Muhlenberg, by 
priority of commission, became presiding 
judge, and in 1785, was succeeded by 
Justice Morris who served until 1789, when 
a judge learned in the law was appointed 
by Governor Mifflin. 

Judicial Districts — In 1791 Montgom- 
ery county was placed in the First district 
with Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia 
counties. In 1806, Montgomery, Bucks, 
Chester and Delaware counties were consti- 
tuted the Seventh district, and in 1821, 
Delaware and Chester counties were taken 
from the district. From 1806 up to 1874, 
Montgomery county remained in the Sev- 
enth district, but in the latter year, Mont- 
gomery county was constituted the Thirty- 
eighth Judicial district of the State of Penn- 
sylvania. 

President Judges. — From 1784 up to 
the present time, the following president 
judges have been appointed and elected : 

1784, Frederick A. Muhlenberg ; 1785, 
James Morris; 1791, James Biddle ; 1797, 
John D. Cox ; 1805, William Tilghman ; 



1806, Burd Wilson ; 1818, John Ross ; 1830, 
John Fox ; 1841, Thomas Burnside ; 1845, 
David Krause ; 1851, Daniel M. Smyser ; 
1862, Henry Chapman ; 1872, Henry P. 
Ross ; 1882, Charles H. Stinson ; 1882, B. 
Markley Boyer; 1888, Aaron S. Swartz. 

Additional Law fudges. — 1869, H. P. 
Ross ; 1871, Arthur G. Olmstead ; 1872, L. 
Stokes Roberts; 1873, Richard Watson; 
1889, Henry K. Weand. 

Associate Judges. — 1784, John Rich- 
ards, James Morris, Thomas Craig, Henry 
Scheetz and Peter Evans; 1785, James Mor- 
ris; 1786, Christian Weber; 1787, Charles 
I iaird, Jonathan Shoemaker and John Jones; 
1789, Henry Pauling, Anthony Crothcv> 
and Robert Loller ; 1791, Samuel Potts, 
Benj. Rittenhouse, Robert Loller and Benj. 
Markley; 1793, John Jones ; 1822, Richard 

B. Jones ; 1824, Thomas Lowry ; 1837, 
Joseph Rover; 1841, Morris Longstreth ; 
1S43, Josiah W. Kvans ; 1848, Ephraim 
Fenton and Josiah W. Evans ; 1849, Joseph 
Hunsicker ; 1851, Henry Longaker and 
Josiah W. Evans; 1855, Nathaniel Jacoby ; 
1856, Henry Longaker ; i860, Nathaniel 
Jacob)' ; 1861, John Dismant ; 1865, Hiram 

C. Hoover ; 1866, John Dismant ; 1870, 
Hiram C. Hoover ; 1871, Isaac F. Yost. 

Roll of the Montgomery County Bar. 



NAME 

Acker, Ephraim L. 
Boyd, James 
Bush, George W. 



DATE OF ADMISSION. 
February S, 1888, 
August 16, 1842. 
August iy, 1861. 



Browuback, Harry M. December 14, 1S82. 



Brunner, Heury U. 
Bickel, Johu W. 



September 26, 1866 
October 18, 1S71 



24 



Historical Sketch. 



Boyer, Henry C. 
Brown, Henry R. 
Baker, Frank H. 
Childs, Louis M. 
Chain, B. Percy 
Corsou, George N. 
Chism, Isaac 
Clift, William M. 
Day, T. Jefferson 
Dickinson, Henry B. 
Davis, Charles 
Dannehower, \Vm. F. 
Detlra, John M. 
Dickinson, Wairen M. 
Evans, Montgomery 
Evans, Miller D. 
Evans, Rowland 
Egbert, Eugene D. 
Fornance, Joseph 
Freedlev, Henry Jr. 
Fox, Gilbert R. 
Fox, Henry I. 
Gibson, Muscoe M. 
Gotwalts, Jacob V. 
Garber, Henry B. 
Hunsicker, Charles 
Hallman, Edwood L. 
Hoover, George C. 
Hobson, Freeland G. 
Holland, James B. 
Hendricks, Abr'm H. 
Hamniersley, E. G. 
Hillegass, Jacob B. 
Jenkins. J. P. H. 



April 6, ib;s 
November 13, 1S66 
January 15, 1881 
March 14, 1876 
May 7, 1S83 
August 2r, 1856 
September 14, 1881. 
June 1, 1882 
August 21, 1871 
November 16, 1863 
November 13, 1S65 
June 7, 1SS0 
December 14, [886 
October 5, 1887 
December 2, 187S 
November 15. 1S64 
August 20, 1873 
February 7, lSS 1 
April 12, 1S66 
November 5, 1S7S 
May 23, 1S85 
April 4, 1S95 
June 7, 1SS3 
August 20, 1867 
August 7 1S&2 
August 19, 1837 
January 15, 1S81 
June IS, 1877 
March 1, 1880 
March 1, 1886 
June 2, 1890 
December 1, 1890 
June 5, 1S93 
May 2, 1874 



Jennings, Waller S. 
Kratz, C. Tyson 
Knipe, Irvin P. 
Kane, Edward F. 
Lougaker, Abraham B. 
Larzelere, N. H. 
Lougaker, A. Edwin 
Long, Edward E. 
Larzelere, J. B. Jr. 
March, Franklin 
Mooney, Samuel, Jr. 
Miller, John F. 
Place, Albert R. 
Ross, David H. 
Rogers, George W. 
Reuuvson, William 
Stinsou, Charles H. 
Swartz, Aaron S. 
Schrack, James W. 
Strausburger, J. A. 
Sutton, William H. 
Slough, E. F. 
Solly, W. F. 
Savior, Henry D. 
Stinson, C. Henry 
Stevens, Henry A. 
Styer, Freas 
Shaw, Walter M. 
Sheive, Conrad S. 
Tracy, Henry M. 
Tyson, Neville D. 
Weand. Henry K. 
Wanger, Irving P. 
Yeakle, J. Morris 



February 7, [831 
June 4, 1876 
June 4. iS89 
March 3, 1890 
September 28, 1873 
September 29, 1877 
March 4, 1889 
December 5, 1SS7 
December 5, 1S92 
August 31, t85o 
December 16, 1S70 
March 7, 1892 
October, 5, 1S87 
March 5, iS83 
January 23, 1S54 
May 3, 1SS6 
May 22, 1849 
May 10, 1S75 
November 15. 1S73 
June 6, 1S7S 
May 17, 1S75 
March it, [88 1 
September, 1, 1S79 
February 5. 1SS3 
June 7, 1886 
October 23, 1848 
October 5, 18S7 
December 3. iSSS 
March 4, 1889 
September 13, 1S82. 
August 17, 1869 
April 21, i860 
December [8, 1875 
June 5, 1S93 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. EARLY PHYSICIANS— MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEDICAL 
SOCIETY — WOMEN PRACTITIONERS — REGISTERED PHYSICIANS SINCE [88l. 



I 

a 








RADITION asserts that Dr. 
Griffith < )wens was the first 
regular physician that ever 
visited the territory of this 
county. Dr. Thomas Graeme, 
was the first resident physi- 
cian, and was succeeded by 
Dr. Christian Frederick Mar- 
tin. Dr. Jonathan Potts com- 
menced practicing in 1771, and Dr. Wil- 
liam Potts Dewees located in Abington 
township in 1789, but both of them soon 
removed from the county. In 1793 Dr. 
Isaac Huddleson settled at Norristown and 
contemporaneous with him were Drs. 
George and George W. Thomas. In 1802 
Dr. John Jones located in Horsham town- 
ship, Dr. Gove Mitchell at Hatboro, and 
Dr. Joseph Meredith near New Wales. Dr. 
Samuel Gartley was another early physician 
and located at Norristown in 1803. 

Montgomery County Medical Society. 
— In 1847 Drs. George W. Thomas, Hiram 
Corson, William Corson, and W. G. Nugent 
urged and secured the organization of the 
present Montgomery County Medical socie- 
ty, whose membership now includes some 
of the ablest physicians of south-eastern 
Pennsylvania. The society holds its meet- 
ings at Norristown and sends delegates to 
the Pennsylvania State Medical society and 
the American Medical association. 

Women Practitioners. — The first wo- 
man to practice medicine in Montgomery 
county was Dr. Margaret (Phillips) Rich- 
ardson, who was "raduated from the 



Pennsylvania Female college in the 
class of 1853, which was the second 
class of that medical institution. Dr. 
Mary H. Stinson, a native of this county, 
was the first woman in the United States to 
be elected as a physician in an asylum for 
the insane. Dr. Stinson was elected in 
1880, as resident physician for the women's 
department of the State hospital for the in- 
sane at Norristown, but declined to accept, 
and Dr. Alice Bennett, of Massachusetts, 
the present incumbent, was then chosen. 
Since 1880, several women practiced in the 
county. 

Registered Physicians Since 1881. 
No. Name. Residence. 

1. N. H. Longabough, Norristown. 

2. H. H. Whitcomh, Norristown. 

3. II. M. Bunting, Norristown. 

4. W. C. Roney, Pottsgrove. 

5. H. II. Drake, Norristown. 

6. Margaret Richardson, Norristown. 

7. J. II. Harner, Collegeville. 

8. John Davis, Pottstown. 

9. Horace Still, Norristown. 

10. Helena M. Davis, Pottstown. 

11. J. S. Schrawiler, Upper Dublin. 

12. A. D. Markley, Hatboro. 

13. J. Paxson, Jenkintown, 

14. Robert Coltman, Jenkintown. 

15. M. W. Gilmer, North Wales. 
Hi. \V. B. Hill, Hatboro. 

17. H. P. Slennner, Norristown. 

18. J. N. Fanst, Frederick tp. 

19. G. H. Rantlle, Jenkintown. 

20. Franklin Powell, Norristown. 

21. O. H. Fisher, Graters Ford. 

22. A. R. Tyson, Norristown, 

2j. II. U. Umstead, Upper Pottsgrove. 

24. C. N. Houpt, Norristown. 

25. M. A. Withers, Pottstown. 



26 



Historical Sketch. 



26. J. K. Weaver, Norristown. 

27. E. M. Corson, Norristown. 
2S. Thomas Davis, Evansburg. 

29. B. K. Johnson, North Wales. 

30. H. S. Jacoby, Sumneytown. 

31. L. W. Read, Norristown. 

32. J. VV. Winter. L. Merion. 

33. J. R. Umstad, Norristown. 

34. S. C. Seiple, Centre Square. 

35. Hiram Corson, Whitemarsh tp. 

36. G. B. R. Umstad, Upper Providence. 
37 E. B. Rossitor, I'ottstown. 

38. S. N Wiley, Norristown. 

39. P. Y. Eisenberg, Norristown. 

40. E. C. Leedom, Plymouth Meeting. 

41. Henry Boff, E. Greenville. 

42. H. M. Bellows, Huntington Valley. 

43. Joseph W. Anderson, L. Merion. 

44. Harry Pawling, Norristown. 

45. Cornelius Bartholomew, New Hanover tp. 

46. F. M. Knipe, Frederick tp. 

47. David Shrack, Norritou tp. 
4S. R. L. Cooper. 

49. G. A. Blauk, Green Lane. 

50. G. N. Highley, Jeffersonville. 

51. W. McKensie, W. Conshohockeu. 

52. W. A. Gerhart, Lausdale. 

53. Milton Newberry, Ft. Washington 

54. John G. Hillegrass, Pennsburg. 

55. William Corson, Norristown. 

56. M. F. Acker, Tylersport. 

57. J. H. Scheetz, Pottstown. 

58. F. S. Wilson, Jarrettown. 

59. C. T. Waage, Peunsburg. 

60. A. R. Benner, Norristown. 

61. 0. Leedom, Plymouth tp. 

62. G. K. Meschter, Worcester tp. 

63. J. Y. Hoffman, Gilbertsville. 

64. J. L. Tyson, Gwynedd tp. 

65. H. F. Slifer, North Wales. 

66. J. K. Reid, Conshohockeu. 

67. G. N. Stiles, Conshohockeu. 
6S. John Todd, Pottstown. 

69. F. B. Keller, I'ottstown. 

70. R. H. Andrews, Lansdale. 

71. R. H. Chase, Norristown. 

72. O. C. Robinson, Huntingdon Val. 

73. R. K. Keeler, Salford tp. 

74. S. M. Rauibo, Oaks Station. 

75. C. W. Gumbs, Oaks Station. 

76. E. K. Blank, Hatfield. 

77. John Shrack, Lower Pottsgrove tp. 

78. J. Y. Bechtel, Schwenksville. 

79. J. W. Rover, Trappe. 



So. 

81. 
S2. 

S3- 
84. 

«5- 
86. 

87. 
88. 
89. 
90. 

91- 

92. 

93- 
94- 
95- 
96. 

97- 
98. 

99- 
00. 
or. 
02. 
03- 

OL. 

05- 
I 16. 

07. 

oS. 
09. 
10. 
11. 

12. 

13- 
14. 

IS- 
16. 

17- 
18. 

19- 
20. 
21. 
22. 



S. C. Mover, Lansdale. 

H. D. Rosenberger, Hatfield tp. 

H. G. Groff, Salford tp. 

V. C. Keelor, Harleysville. 

Samuel Wolf, Jr. Skippackville. 

W. H. Eck, Pottstown. 

J. O. Knipe, Norristown. 

John B. Carrel, Hatboro. 

H. D. Pawling, King of Prussia. 

I. N. Evans, Hatboro. 

Mar}- Alice Bennett, Norristown. 

Anna Kugler, (removed) Norristown. 

J. G. Mensch, Pennsburg. 

C. H. Mann, Bridgeport. 

M. Y. Weber, Evansburg. 

C. B. Hough, Three 

J. E. Bauman, Telford. 
Dwing Jordan, Norristown. 

D. R. Beaver, Conshohocken. 

D. K. Bechtel, Kulpsville. 
S. A. Knipe, New Hanover. 

A. G. Coleman, Lintrop. 
M. K. Knapp, Gwynedd tp. 
Edward Reading, Hatboro. 
L. W. Reading, Hatboro. 

W. J. Ashen felter, Pottstown. 
H. A. Arnold, Merwinville. 
Carrol Corson, Plymouth meet — 

B. Y. Shelly, Palm. 

J. S. Morey, Providence tsp. 
G. P. Sargent, Bryn Mawr. 
M. B. Fretz, Soudertowu. 
W. C. Powell, Jr., Bryn Mawr. 
Mahlon Preston, Norristown. 
Wm. Saveuy, Bryn Mawr. 
G. S. Gerhard, Ardmore. 

C. Vau Artsaalem. Cheltou Hills. 
M. A. Long, Pottstown. 

J. E. Ritter, Pottstown. 
J. E. Peters, Jenkintowu. 
Charles Bradley, Norristown. 

B. F. Lismant, Limerick tp. 
J. S. Hill, Ardmore. 

1882. 
A. H. Mellersh, Merion. 
John A. C. Tenuey, Collegeville. 
T. L. Pratt, Norristown. 
T. U. W. Gardiner, Pottstown. 
G. W. Rouey, Pottstown. 
P. H. Markley, Hatboro. 

E. M. Clifford, Valley Forge. 

C. Z. Weber, Norristown. 
O. H. Fretz, Salfordvile. 

J. K. Gerhard, Worcester Twp. 



Historical Sketch. 



27 



133. Abauus Styer, Ambler. 

134. H. R. Loux. Soudertou. 

'35- J- W. Lodge, Lower Meriou Twp. 

136. S. B. Swavely, Pottstown. 

137. R. W. Saylor, Pottsgrove Twp. 

138. D. W. Shelly, Ambler. 

139. J. K. Blanck, Hatfield Twp. 

140. H. P. Lormaii, Philadelphia. 

141. G. S. Kirby, Pottstown. 

142. Annetta Krarz, Lansdale. 

1883. 

143. C. M. Robinson, Ambler. 

144. E. J. Longshore, Reading. 

145. N. J. Reiff, Pottstown. 

146. E. M. Furey, Norristown. 

147. S. C. Heysham, Port Kennedy. 

148. W. M. Hall, Conshohoeken. 

149. James Dotterer, Pennsburg. 

150. Mary P. Hallowell, Horsham Twp. 

151. L. J. Lantenbaeh, Philadelphia. 

152. Alex Kirkpatrick, Philadelphia. 

153. R. S. Hill, Weldon. 

154. W. L. Shoemaker, Geitzwatertown. 

1884. 

155. J. K Bowers, Reading. 

156. E. F. Gerhard, Norristown. 

157. A. L- Miller, Tylersport. 

158. G. A. Cross, Jenkintown. 

159. D. H. Bergy, North Wales. 

160. F. G Bigouy, Line Lexington. 

161. S. E. Ayers, Philadelphia. 

162. B. H. Nice, Norristown. 

163. P. O. Wickeit, Salfordville. 

164. R, H. Alison, Ardiuore. 

165. E. M. Johnson, Norristown. 

1885. 

166. S. P. Seese, Lansdale. 

167. A. S. Ashmead, Jr., Jefferson ville. 

168. C. A. Vokum, Pottstown. 

169. H. Y. Neiman, Pottsgrove Twp. 

170. O. C. Heffner, Douglas Twp. 

171. J. D. Weaver, Norristown. 

172. A. C. Heritage, Jenkintown. 

173. Titus Albright, Hatfield Twp. 

174. H. M. Freas, Conshohoeken. 

175. John Hoffner, Lancaster. 

1886. 

176. G. F. Hartman, Port Kennedy. 

177. J. I. Brockbank, Conshohoeken. 
17S. E. H Egolf. Pottstown. 

179. Edwin Kirkpatrick, North Wales. 

180. J. M. Allebach, Skippackville. 



1 8 1. 

1S2. 
183. 
184. 
185. 
1S6. 
187. 

ISS. 

189. 

190. 

191. 

>9-- 
'93- 

194. 

195- 

196. 
197- 
198. 
199. 
200. 
roi. 
202. 
203. 
204. 
205. 
206. 
2o7. 
208. 
209. 
210. 
211. 
212. 

213- 

214. 

«5- 

216. 
217. 
218. 
219. 
220. 
221. 
222. 



223. 
224. 
225. 
226. 
227. 
22S. 
229. 
230. 
231- 



Sarah A. .Spare, Philadelphia. 
C S. Horning, Shannonville. 

E. S. Johnson, Skippaek. 
J. R. Clare, Worcester, twp. 
Emma Richards, Norristown. 
G. M. Wells, Norristown. 

J. E. Blanck, Sumneytown. 

L- T. Trumbower, Norristown. 

J. M. Peebles, Royersford. 

L. H. Thompson, Reading, Pa. 

A. J. Reading, Hatboro. 

C. F. Teigmeier, Conshohoeken. 

J. P. Hillegrass, Pennsburg. 

G. W Seip, Reading, Pa. 

1887. 
L. C. B. Yorgey, Pottstown. 
S. G. Ginuer, Philadelphia. 
J. J. Fulmer, Philadelphia. 
J. E. Porter, Pottstown. 
Silas Burns. Rover's Ford. 
W. J. Thoruley, Norristown. 
E L. Anderson, Haverford College. 
M. S Mengel, Limerick Square. 
Thomas Theel, Ambler. 

F. G. Theel, Ambler. 

G. W. Everhart, Graters Ford. 
W. B. Shaner, Pottstown. 

E. A. Krusen, Ardmore. 

S. M. Lane, Limerick. 

Harry Jarrett, Norristown. 

E. T. Bruen, Bryu Mawr. 

E. T. Brady, Norristown. 

Harriet N. Lewis, Norristown. 

Ida Virginia Reel, Norristown. 

L. L. Cope, Hatfield. 

T. E. Cooper, Hatfield. 

J. G. Hersh, East Greenville. 

Eliza A. Shetter, Reading, Pa. 

Thomas Anderson, Norristown. 

W. H. Reed, Norristown. 

J. C. McWhinny, Spring City, Pa. 

T. D. Koonz, Norristown. 

J. D. Thoruley, Pottstown. 

1888. 
Andrew Lindsay, Bryn Mawr. 
A.J. Marston, Philadelphia. 
A. B. Sherman, Norristown. 
J. B. Powell, Reading, Pa. 
E. E. Johnson, Norristown. 
S. G. Godshall, Edge Hill. 
C. W. Saalfrauk, Cheltenham twp. 
J. D. Graber, Trappe. 
I. L. Peters, Lehigh county. 



28 



Historical Sketch. 



232. J. W. Gioff, Harleysville. 

233. Cyrus Trego, Chester county. 

234. John Henry, Norristown. 

235. T. F. Conover, Fort Washington. 

236. M. F. McTaggart, Reading. Pa. 

237. James Tyson, Philadelphia. 



23S. 

239- 
240. 
241. 

242. 

243' 

244. 

245- 
246. 
247. 
2 ( s - 
249- 
250. 

251- 
252. 
253- 
254. 

255- 
256. 

2 57- 
258. 



259- 
260. 
261. 
262. 
263. 
264. 
265 
266. 
267. 
26S. 
269. 
270. 



271. 
272. 
273- 
274 
275- 
276. 

277- 
278. 

279- 

2^. 

281. 

282. 
283. 

2S4. 
285. 
2S6. 
287. 
288. 
2S9. 
290. 



1889. 

John W. Good, Chester county. 

G. E. Abbot, Bryn Mawr. 

G. A. Weida, Frederick. 

W. I-:. Donough, Edge Hill. 

J. A. Hatzpield, Pottstown. 

W. C. Widmayer, Ambler. 

Mabel W. Moore, Norristown. 

W. J. Davia, Pottstown. 

H. D. Stichter, Lansdale. 

A. A. Bancroft, Pottstown. 

A. C. S. Herman, Lansdale. 

W. I{ Ely, North Wales. 

O. 1'. Blank, Rover's Ford. 

J. N. Hunsberger, Skippaek. 

Thomas Reading, Haihoro. 

Susan J. Tabor, Norristown. 

F. Q. McQuade, Norristown. 

Mary Morey, Norristown. 

Henry Svkes. Norristown. 

Henry L. Lindoliottom, Norristown. 

1). S. Shade, Royer's Ford. 



1S90. 



E. B. 
A. L. 
I>. A. 

S. I'.. 
W. F 

G. S. 

J. c. 

G. It. 

D. G. 

G. E 

P. c. 

John 



Manger, Slowe. 
Gillars, Pottstown. 
Wilson. Norristown. 
Horning, Evansburg. 
. Lee, Ardmore. 
Cressman, Conshohocken. 
ECnipe, N< irristown. 
Trillige, Conshohocken. 
Hersh, East Greenville. 
. Gramru, Ardmore. 
Mensch, Pennsburg. 
W. Brauin, Ambler. 



1891. 
A L Wilson. 

B. H. Markley, Reading, Pa. 

E. C. Town, Merion tsp. 

F. 1. Bicker, Providence. 
W. B. Stewart, Bryn Mawr. 

E. G. Whinna, Norristown. 

C. I). Smedley, Delaware county 
K. H. Breckland, Brvn Mawr. 

1'. W. Buskirk, Pottstown. 

G. W. Stein, Rynipton, Pa. 
A. J. Bevau, Hryn Mawr. 

R M. Clork, Center Square. 
Robert Whinna, Norrist wn. 
Walter Crystic, Bryn Mawr. 
J. H. Seiple, Centre Square. 
Ella M. Boyd, Cheltenham tsp. 
Robert Coltman, Jr., Jenkintown. 

F. R. Pierson, Royer's Ford. 
E. M. Graniin, Norristown. 
J. B. Mintzer, Philadelphia. 



291. H. P. Boyer, Barren Hill, Pa. 

292. H. Y. Evans, Bryn Mawr. 

293. J. S. Patterson, Hatfield Station. 

294. J. J. McGuigar, Philadelphia. 

295. S. D. Barr, Philadelphia. 



1892 and 1893. 



296. 

297. 

2L|8. 

299. 
300. 
301. 
302. 

3°3- 
301. 
305 
306. 
307. 
v iS 

3°9- 
310. 

3"- 

3 '2. 
3'3- 
3M. 
315- 
3>6- 
3'7- 
3>8. 
3'9- 
320. 
321. 
322. 
323- 
324- 
325- 
326 

3-'7. 
32S 
3-9- 
33°- 



331 
33 2 - 

333- 
334. 

335' 
336. 
337. 
33*- 

339 

.V|o. 
34i 
342. 

: 13 
344. 
3 4.S. 
34b 
347. 



Pa. 



W. E. Reifsnvder, Reading 
W. E. Rotzell, Narberth. 
F. A. McGrath, Norristown. 
J. J. Kauer, Norristown. 
M. K. Neifler, Jenkintown. 
W. N Leedom, North Wales. 
T. P. Tyson, Jenkintown. 

C. E. Laudis, Limerick Square. 
W. O. Smith, Philadelphia. 

R. G. Gramble, Naiberth. 
J. W. Warren, Bryn Mawr. 
L. B. Evans, Philadelphia. 
W. S. McGadgen, Manayunk. 
A. o. Gery, Palm. 
A. W. Hendrick, Schenksville. 
H. F. Scholl, Green Lane. 
W. A. B. Knapp, Pottstown. 

E. L. Acker, Norristown. 
J. W. Reber, Norristown. 
J. R. Baer, Sansanville. 
Albert Ellershaw, Bridgeport. 

F. L. Hamilton, Lafayette Station. 

D. H. Bradley, Meadow Brooke. 

E. C. Suke, Royer's Ford. 

J. R. Hobensack, Norristown 
Edward Humphreys, Philadelphia. 
Bernard Schoettler, Philadelphia, 
J. H. Bradley, Conshohocken. 

E. M. Vaughan, Rover's Ford. 
L. L. Hand, North Wales. 

J. C. Spear, Jr., Norristown. 
W. H. Hunsberger, Pennsburg. 

G. W. Kehl, Rexburg, Pa. 
I. O. Drain, Ardmore. 

C. B. Williams, Abington. 

1894. 

W. II. Long, Jr., Philadelphia. 
G. H. Crabtree, Royer's Ford. 
A. A. Hoopman, Hatfield, Pa. 
A J. Britt, Norristown. 
T. F. Branson, Philadelphia. 
L. S. Walter, Jenkintown. 
Hiram Ritter, Soudertou. 

D. It. Richardson, Norristown. 

G. W. MeCaffery, W. Norristown. 

W. G McKinuey, Pottstown. 

W. H. Knipe, Pottstown. 

J. D. Lippincott, Norristown. 

A. C. Mills, Norristown. 

J R Knapp, Montgomery tup 

F. E. Yerkes, Hatboro. 
H. S. Neff, Berth Avres. 

E. T. Miller, Limerick. 



1895. 

348. P. II. Corson, Plymouth Meeting 

349. E. G. Kriebel, Worcester. 



CHAPTER VII. 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 




I R ST in order of age of the reli- 
gious denominations of Mont- 
gomery county is the Society 
of Friends. The Friends' 
Welsh Meeting house at Me- 
rion was built in 1695 ; Ab- 
ington, in 1697 ; Gwynedd, in 
1700; Plymouth, 1712 ; Hors- 
ham, 1724 ; Upper Provi- 
dence, 1743 ; Pottstown, 1753; Upper Dub- 
lin, 1814 ; and Norristown, 1852. 

Almost contemporaneous with the 
Friends came the Mennonists or Menno- 
uites. The history of this denomination is 
very scant. Their first meeting house is 
supposed to have been built in Perkiomen 
township about 1725. Five years later Fra- 
conia and Sal ford meeting houses were 
built. In 1742, Providence was built ; in 
1 75' 1, Kulpsville was erected ; and before 
1812, Methacton and Towamencin churches 
were added to the list. There are now 
over a dozen churches in the county. 

The German Baptist or Dunkards, seem 
to be third in order of age of the religious 
denominations in the county. The Dunk- 
ard churches are mainly in the Perkiomen 
valley and number about ten or twelve. 
But little can be secured of their early his- 
tory. Salford church was established about 
1 72 1 ; Towamencin before the Revolution- 
ary war, and Worcester about 1809. 

The Protestant Episcopal church dates 



its existence back to 17 10, when St. 
Thomas' congregation, of Whiteinarsh, 
was founded. St. James church of Lower 
Providence, was organized in 1730; .St. 
John's, of Norristown, 181 2 ; Christ's, of 
Pottstown, 1828; Church of the Redeemer, 
of Lower Merion, 1848 ; St. Paul's Memo- 
rial, about 1850 ; Calvary, of Conshohocken, 
1858; Church of Our Saviour, of Jenkin- 
town, 1858 ; St. Paul's, of Cheltenham, 
t86o ; Church of the Messiah, of Gwynedd, 
1870; St Peters, of Weldon, 1883; and the 
church at Lansdale, in 1885. 

The Baptist church was founded in the 
county in 17 19, by the organization of 

1 Montgomery church, which was its sole 
representative for nearly a century. Lower 
Providence and Lower Merion churches 
were organized in 1809; Norristown, 1832 ; 
Mt. Pleasant, in Whitpain, 1834 ; Hatboro, 
1835; Cold Point, in Whiteinarsh, 1842; 
Bridgeport, 1850; Pottstown, 1859; North 

I Wales, 1862 ; Conshohocken, 1870 ; Rover's 
Ford, 1879 ; Jenkintown, 1880; and Lans- 
dale, 18S4. 

The first Presbyterian church was Ab- 
ington. It was organized about 1 719. 
Norristown Presbyterian church was organ- 
ized in 1735 ; Providence, 1738 ; First Nor- 
ristown, 1819; Pottstown, 1848; Second 
Norristown, 1849; Central, of Norristown, 
1855 ; Grace, 1870 ; and Ashbourne, 1878. 
The Lutheran church, strongest in mini- 






: I I' II 



l|| .,1 III' 

, win) . , .1 i,.,. I to (/ jo, v.li. ii 

1 1.,,,. i || •,>/• d, 7Aon 

• i in i , jq i « >M ■ q 
i,. uboppi ii, i Qosb uboppi i», 

,i 'i rappi , i; I ppi i 
Dublin i; 8i I ■ ■ ■ fern 

,i, in, 171 fobn '/-•/ . Potl 1 

1 ,,,,. rid 11, 'i rinll , forrl 
1 ,., mrl ; The 

. . ,1. .., rj 1 h ii 1, hi 1 

church in 1 npi 1 1 1 ftboul 1 , 6 

ii,. |ii 1., 1 m. ri church va ■ ' ibll hi d In 

1 n u 1 1 In uin 

iin 1 ni 1 hurch Tin fii 1 Refm iin d 

liurcli ■ 1 1 1 movi 1 " 1 1 In 

iin " • ni church ■ ' foi 1 In 

Palknci mip 1; > H • 

I 11 In uhnppi hi ,i U01 Inn hi fun 
1 ( |., '.I l nl 1 ,1 1 1 ippi 1 1 1 ... 

In nhopi .1 1 1 1 urtl 1 1 

1 rusa I Pi h 1 1 6g 1 inn 1 

|p] 1 1 pension, N ■■ 11 > 1 

th VhIi [861 1 1 1 lull . ••hi 

,, , 6 

1 II. 1 lln I. .1111. 1, 11 ..I I In 

I nl In 1 HI -nil I.. I . Inn, In • inn I In 

1 .Mi I of till icll I nl I. Itl 1 Tll( 

; , ialfurcl ich eukfelter church wm 

I .III ■ .1 III . I lln 1 , 1 Il 



in 1 /',•, 1 if 1 Wqti ■ '• church b< fori th* 

'I In ,1. I In-! .1 < Ii in < 1 

■ ,| 111 , |. , ii 1 ;- .,nn | COUUl "' '//".'' 

1 in foi iijfll Ion "i ill' I' 1 tin 1 ''i Supplei 

, Inn, Ii 'I'll. I nn.n .1. tliodll I Kpl COpal 

.Inn.: ed i 11 18141 l I foi 

< In II. nil. nil, 1 j • I I, mm I 

Hill, )•' . - 1 latboro i- jj Potl to 

1 .. . 1 1. m, I, 1. |.. 1 ,n burg 
1. 1 1 1 quan 'i ' onsho- 

In,, I . 1, ,. j 1 / ,1 ' ,li. ■ I ...i 1 1 1 

, 1 1 ni,, iii. 1 1. ■ 1 .1 1. 11.. n 1 ■ -, . 

I . ,n .1 ||. .!■'./. . I I . ■ ' UN. ...I I I tO ' 

, M In! I 1 n '.Ii • 1 1876I '"' 

I'., .1 I-, 1. 1 [879 

iin 1 ,1 in. in church 1 founded in I hi 

13 I. 1 1 ml 1 ' ol ' -I 

Patricl church at Norristown, St. Aloj 

111 I ftl liolil I Inn. Ii - 1 I I .1 .11 PottD 

to 11 bi i"" 1 16 81 Iflttln of I on 

1 1. .in,. 1 ' n 1 .'.■,. . 1 hurch ol Mm 1 in n 

l.i ' ..in potion, I' nl nil 1 1 1 6a 

nid Si ' .inn 1 ni , .,1 1 ,11 iii. iboul [8715 

Till I in . In il ... Ill • I III III 

A|. I In "1 1 I Q • 'I 1 1 Inn. Ii il I i I 

1 .1. . 11 ill. ill I In 11 |.i. . nl . Inn. In in 

I I mil ,'. • 11 1 foi in. .1 in 1 

'..l.iii ..I Potl I IB, ni'' I ni ,1 il. 

1 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PRESS AND POLITICS. RARU NEWSPAPERS PRRSEN1 COUNTS PRE! PROMINENT EI)] 

HOB it i SIDENTIAL VOTES BIN( i 183a STATE SENATORS AND Ml HB1 B 

OF THE HOUSH 01 REPRESENTATIVES UISTS OF SOJ 

Till; IT IDING < "I VI \ 1 HI U I M.S. 



EARLY NEWSPAPERS 



f 




HE INITIAL newspapei ol 
Montgomerj count} was The 
\ 01 1 istown (>ii 1 tie, wlih h 
in. nil ii . 1 1 1 •■ .11.1111 1 on funi 
13, i, wi, and gave waj .1 
\. .11 I. itci to the Herald, It 
w as .1 foui pag< three column 
sheet 8 ' [xio inches It w as 
pi in ted bj David Sower, at 
one dollai pei annum in the first j eai < >> 
1 In present c< atui y, Mi Sow< 1 stai ted 1 he 
Herald, which has Qontiuued up to tin 
present time, ad> ocat ing incci ivelj tin- 
in 1 mi 1 ties "i the Pederal, W h ig and Re 
publican part ies. The in st issue 1 it 1 he 
ll,i ,1/1/ was "ii ( Ictobei 1 1 , [800, and it 
editoi a ha\ e bei n 1 David Sowei , Chai li 
Sower, Jr., I >. « \ i < I Sower, Ji , John Hodg 
son, Robert Iredell, Morgan R. Wills, 
Robert Iredell, Jr., Howard M feukinsand 
Morgan R. Wills. < in 1 lecembei 11 1, 1861 1 
M 1 . Wills issued 1 he first numbei oi the 
Daily Herald, the first dailj in the county, 
and its columns was in tde highl) 1 nt< rtain 
in" li\ 1 In- product ions ofjohn 11 W illiams, 

whose reputation as a humorist 1 bi 

came rial ii ma I 

Tin rival "i t In Herald made its ap 

pearance some 1 inn in 181 » i, and its otr nei 

was a Mi Wilson. The Registet has been 

upportei sin cessivel; ol thi Nat ional 



1 - ■ 1 ■ 1 1 . 1 .mil Democrati) parties 1 1 

proprietoi havi been : - — Wilson, 

|.nm . Winnard, Samuel D. Patten , 

Powell, Adam Slemmer, John B 
Stei igere, I >i . E, I,. Vcker, Isaiah B. 

I [oupt .nnl I'.. K. K in -ult -. 

The Herald and Register foi b hall a 
century, were the <'itl\ permanent papei 
in the count} A inong the othei earl) 

papers started in 1 1n- count j maj be na 1 

The Pot tstov n Times, t8ig 1831 . Wont 
•:<■/ v I edgei , 1 83 1 1 895 Fret Press, 
i.s.'w [83; ( Hive Branch, [84 • 1 ,, , N01 
ristowu Republican, [857-1865 ; Bauer n 
Freund, [837-1895 ; Montgomery Democrat, 
Montgomery Watchman, 1849-1858, and 
the National Oefendet , [856 t8g 

Present County Pre**. 

Papei s. /'/•/■ . Politii 1 

1. , Amblei , Independi nl 

1 1 11. I.', Aiilnh.il , Republii hi 

Newt it 1 11 1 1 1. 11 in- Niw'., Hi \ 11 Mawr, I int. 1 It III 

run nl. n. 1 1 11.I1 |kii.I. ni , 1 ..1 1 Ille, ludepi ii.tt hi 

1 eci rder, I om bohoi ken, i ndependi nl 
r, 1 1 lomi n 1 . .1 - 1 1 tat Greenville, Local 
Hnrleyvllle, 1 ,01 il 

I'ni.ii. Spirit, 11 itl 1 Indi 1 Ii nl 

Mirror, 1 Eatfleld, 1 r oi al 
t .111.1. , |. 11U Intow ii, 1 iO< at 

I l.iiiii N. !• |nl IntOV, 11. I.i.i .il 

Reobachl in), 1 insdale, Local 

i.t, i,, iii-.il. ti. , Independent 
Republican, I, an dali , Ri publii an 

in i .m ',.,iii itoM n. B ' publii ,ni 



32 



Historical Sketch. 



Montgomery County Post (G. ). Norristown, Democrat. 

National Defender, Norristown, Democrat. 

Register, Norristown, Democrat. 

Register and Montgomery Co , Norristown, Democrat. 

Democrat, Norristown, Democrat. 

Review, Norristown, link-pendent. 

Schuylkill Valley Sentinel, Norristown, Independent. 

Times, Norristown, Republican. 

Record, North Wales, Independent. 

Bauern Freund (German), Pennsburg, Democrat. 

Ledger, Pottstown, Neutral. 

Montgomery Ledger, Pottstown, Neutral. 

News, Pottstown, Independent. 

Tribune, Rover's Ford, Independent. 

Item, Schwenksville, Independent. 

Montgomery Transcript. Skippack, Republican. 

Neutralist I German), Skippack, Republican. 

Independent, S ludertou, Independent. 

Prominent Editors. — Of the early edi- 
tors we have but little account. Robert 
Iredell did much to advance journalism in 
the county and made his paper a success. 
Adam Slemmer was an early editor of 
force and influence, and his successor, 
Albrecht Kneule, has won prominence 
and success as a journalist. Another edi- 
tor of prominence and usefulness is Wil- 
liam J. Binder. Morgan R. Wills, while 
active and prominent in journalism, is also 
the author of the able historical sketch of 
Montgomery county in Dr Egle's History 
of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wills' former asso- 
ciate, Howard M. Jenkins, is the principal 
writer on the " Memorial History of the 
City of Philadelphia," the first volume of 
which has just come from the press. We 
give the following extract from Mr. Jen- 
kins' work in that history, which explains 
how and why the Quakers in 1756 gave up 
the control of the general assembly of 
Pennsylvania : 

"In the midst of the war excitement the time 
came lor taking the assembly out of the hands of the 
Quakers. It was not an easy matter. With their 
own strength in the three older counties, and that of 
the Germans still firmly adhering to them in these 
and the newer ones, a majority of voters could not be 



procured against their candidates. Even under the 
alarm and excitement of Braddock's defeat, the 
election in October, 1755, resulted as usual. But 
earnest efforts were on foot to loosen their hold on 
Pennsylvania. They were to be deposed in the as- 
seuiblv, as they had been in the governorship, and in 
the city corporation. Late in 1755 a petition against 
them, strongly signed in Philadelphia, was sent to 
the king. It declared that there could be no effectual 
way of preventing the people from electing the 
Quakers to the assembly but to disqualify the latter 
from sitting in that body. The provost of the college, 
Dr. William Smith, then in Loudon, wrote letters to 
the newspapers there, some of which were reprinted 
here in pamphlets, to the like effect. He proposed to 
disqualify the Quakers for seats in the assembly, to 
disfranchise the Germans till they acquired a "suffi- 
cient knowledge" of English, and to suppress the 
periodicals issued in the German language. The 
royal government had yielded to the pressure so far 
as to propose an act of parliament making a test oath 
— such as the Friends could not take — necessary for 
membership in the assembly, when the Friends in 
London brought about a compromise. They under- 
took to see that enough of their members who had 
seats in the assembly should resign or decline re- 
election to give the majority and responsibility to 
those not scrupulous on the war question. The 
1 Meeting for Sufferings,' a standing and executive 
committee of Loudon yearly meeting, sent over a 
strong letter, urging the Friends here to yield their 
difficult and practically untenable position, and sent 
also two prominent Friends, John Hunt, of London, 
and Christopher Wilson, of Cumberland, to use per- 
sonal persuasion if necessary. In the summer of 
1756, six of the Quaker members of the assembly re- 
signed, three of them being from Philadelphia — 
James Pembertoii, Joshua Morris, and William Cal- 
leuder — two from Chester, and one from Berks. At 
the election in October that year, others of the 
Quaker members declined to be candidates, and wdieu 
the assembly met a fortnight later, four more with- 
drew, stating their understanding that 'the ministry 
have requested it.' The assembly thus passed out of 
the hands of the Friends." 



Popular Vote of riontgomery County at 
Presidential Elections Since 1832. 

1S32 Democratic, Andrew Jackson, 3,315. 

Anti-Mason, William Wirt, 2,507. 
1S36 Whig. William H. Harrison, 2,409. 

Democratic, Martiu VanBuren, 3,446. 
1S40 Whig, William H. Harrisou, 4,068. 

Democratic, Martin VanBuren, 4,869. 



Historical Sketch. 



33 



1844 
1S4S 
1852 
1856 
i860 

1864 
1868 
1S72 

1876 

1880 

1884 

[888 

IS92 



Whig. Henry Clay. 4.491. 
Democratic, James K. I'olk, 5.596. 
Liberty, James G. Birney, 49. 
Whig, Zacbary Taylor, 5.040. 
Democratic, Lewis Cass. 5,627. 
Free Soil, Martin Y.mBureu, 251. 
Whig, Winfield Scott, 4.791. 
Democratic, Franklin Pierce, 5.767. 
Free Dem., John I'. Hale, 160. 
Republican, John C. Fremont, 2,845. 
Democratic, James Buchanan, 7,134 
American, Millard Fillmore, 2,265. 
Republican, Abraham Lincoln, 5,826. 
Democratic, John C. Breckinridge, 5,590. 
Cons't Union, John Bell, 690. 
Ind. Dem., Stephen A. Douglas, 509. 
Republican, Abraham Lincoln, 6,872. 
Democratic, George B. McClellan, 7,943 
Republican, Ulysses S. Grant, 8,083. 
Democratic, Horatio Seymour, 8 803. 
Republican, Ulysses S. Grant, 8,080. 
Dem. and Lib., Horace Greeley, 5, 113. 
Democratic, Charles O'Connor, o. 
Temperance, James Black, o. 
Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes. 9,386. 
Democratic, Samuel J. Tilden, 9,654. 
Greenback, Peter Cooper, 58. 
Prohibition, Green C. Smith, 40. 
Republican, James A. Garfield, 1 1,026. 
Democratic, Winfield S. Hancock, 11,025. 
Greenback, James B. Weaver, 75. 
Prohibition, Neal Dow, o. 
Republican, James G. Blaine, 11,617. 
Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 11,088. 
Greenback, Benjamin F. Butler. 66. 
Prohibition, John P. St. John, ^15. 
Republican, Benjamin Harrison, 13,445. 
Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 12,582. 
Greenback, Alson J. Streeter, it. 
Prohibition, Clinton B. Fisk, 379. 
Democratic, Grover Cleveland, 13,611. 
Republican, Benjamin Harrison, 13,591. 
Prohibition, John Bidwell, 447. 
Socialistic Labor, Simon Wing, 11. 
Peoples', James B. Weaver, 22. 
Indust. Rcf., Alfred E. Redstone, o. 
American, James L- Curtis, o. 
United Labor, Robert H. Cowdrev, o. 



STATE SENATORS. 

1796, Zebulon Potts. 

1796-97, William Chapman, of Bucks county. 

1797-98, Joseph McClellan. 

179S-99, Dennis Wheeler. 



1 799- 1 801, Zebulon Potts. 

1801-7, John Richards. 

1807-I t, Jonathan Roberts. Jr. 

[811-15, Samuel Gross. 

[815-19, George Weaver. 

1 Si .,-24, Philip S. Markley. 

1824-29, Joel K. Mann. 

1829-31, Benjamin Reiflf. 

[832-35, John Matthews. 

1836-40, Henry Myers, of Chester county. 

1840-41, John B. Sterigere. 

[841-43, Abraham Bower. 

1843-46, John B. Sterigere. 

[846-49, George Richards. 

1S49-52, Joshua Y. Jones. 

1S52-55, Benjamin Frick. 

1S55-5S, Thomas P. Knox. 

1S5S-61, John Thompsou. 

1861-64. John C. Smith. 

1S64 67, Horace Rover and Wilmer Worthington, 

of Delaware county. 
1868-70, Charles Stinson. 
1871-73, Henry S. Evans, of Chester county. 
1873-76, William A. Yeakle. 
1S76-7S, Jones Detwiler. 
1879-S1, Lewis Rover. 
1882, William Henry Sutton. 
1886, Henry R. Brown. 
1890, A. D. Markley. 



MEHBERS OF ASSEMBLY. 

1784, Peter Richards, Robert Loller, George Smith, 
Benjamin Rittenhouse. 

17S5, Benjamin Rittenhouse, Robert Loller, Peter 
Richards, Thomas Rees. 

1786, Charles Moore, Samuel Wheeler, James Hock- 
ley, Jacob Reiff. 

17S7, Jacob Reiff, Robert Loller, Benjamin Ritleu- 
house, Peter Richards. 

1788, Robert Loller, Jacob Reiff, Peter Richards, 
John Roberts. 

1789, Jacob Reiff, John Roberts, Benjamin Markley, 
James Yaux. 

1790, Benjamin Markley, John Roberts, James Yaux, 
Cadwatder Evans. 

1791, Cadwalder Evans, Joseph Tyson, James Yaux, 
Isaiah Davis. 

1792, Isaiah Davis, Joseph Tyson, Cadwalder Evans, 
John Shoemaker. 

1793-95, Cadwalder Evans, Joseph Tyson, John Shoe- 
maker, Isaiah Davis. 

1796, Cadwalder Evans, Abram Schultz, Joseph Ty- 
son, John Shoemaker. 



34 



Historical Sketch. 



t 797, Cadwalder Evans, Benjamin Brooke, Peter 
Muhlenberg, Nathaniel Boileau. 

1798, Benjamin Brooke, Nathaniel Boileau, Fred- 
erick Conrad, Cadwalder Evans. 

1799, Frederick Conrad, Nathaniel Boileau, Jona- 
than Roberts, Isaiah Davis. 

1800-1, Nathaniel Boileau, Isaiah Davis, Frederick 
Conrad, Jonathan Roberts, Jr. 

1802, Samuel Henderson, William Hagy, Cadwal- 
der Evans, Isaiah Davis. 

1803-4. Nathaniel Boileau, Henry Scheetz, Samuel 
Gross, John Mann. 

1805, Cadwalder Evans, Samuel Miles, Samuel Rtes, 
William Hallman. 

1807-S, Nathaniel Boileau, Samuel Groflf, Isaiah 
Davis, John Weber. 

1809-10, Richard Leech, John Weber, Matthew 
Brooke, George Weaver. 

181 1, Jesse Bean, Benjamin Reiff, George Weaver, 
Matthew Brooke. 

1S12, Jesse Bean, Benjamin Reiff, George Weaver, 
Philip Reed. 

1813, Jesse Bean, Benjamin Reiff, Philip Reed, 
William Powell. 

1814, William Powell, Benjamin Reiff, Samuel Baird, 
John Hughes. 

1815-16, William Powell, William M. White, Dr. 
Tobias Sellers, Dr. James Anderson. 

1S17, Joel K. Maun, William M. White, Jacob 
Drinkhouse, Tobias Sellers. 

iSiS, Joel K. Mann, William M. White, Jacob 
Drinkhouse, Isaiah Wells. 

1819-20, Joel K. Mann, Peter Miller, Jacob Drink- 
house, Isaiah Wells. 

1821-23, Joseph Royer, Peter Miller, John B. Steri- 
gere. William Powell. 

1824, Jonathan Roberts, Robert Hobart, John B. 
Sterigere, Michael Cope. 

1825, Jonathan Roberts, Michael Cope, Robert Ho- 
bart, John Stevens. 

1826, John Matheys, Michael Cope, James Evans, 
John Stevens. 

1S27-28. John Matheys, James Evans, Adam Slem- 
mer, John Stevens. 

1829, John Matheys, James Evans, Adam Sleminer. 

1S30, John Shearer, Philip Hoover, Adam Sleminer. 

1831-32, John Shearer, Philip Hoover, John E. 
Gross. 

1S33-34, Joseph Fornance, Johu M. Jones, Henry 
Schneider. 

1S35, William Schall, Wright A. Bringhurst, Robert 
Stiuson. 

1S36-3S, Jacob S. Yost, Henry Longaker, Samuel 
Leech. 



iS39, Jacob S. Yost, Henry Longaker, Charles D. 
Jones. 

1840, Charles D. Jones, Enos Benner, George Sny- 
der. 

1841, Ephraim Fenton, William B. Hahn, William 
Beau. 

1S42-43, Charles Kugler, William B. Hahn, William 
Bean. 

1S44, Charles Kugler, Henry Dotts, Jesse Weber. 

1S45-46, Henry Dotts, Benjamin Hills, Benjamin F. 
Hallowell. 

1847, John S. Weiler, George Wertsner, John 
Thompson. 

[848, Benjamin Hill, Benjamin Hallowell, David 
Evans. 

1849-50, David Evans, William T. Morrison, Wil- 
liam Henry. 

1851, William Henry, Curtis W. Gabe, Oliver P. 
Fretz. 

1852-53, Curtis W. Gabe, Oliver P. Fretz, Henry 
Beyer. 

1854, Henry Beyer, Charles H. Palmer, Jacob Fry, Jr. 

'855, Jacob Fry, Jr., Henry N. Wickersham, James 
Rittenhonse. 

1856-58, Josiah Hillegas, Goorge Hamel, A. Brower 
Longaker. 

1859-61, David Stoneback, Johu Dismant, Charles 
Hill. 

1862-64, Joseph Rex, Hiram C. Hoover, George W. 
Wimley. 

1865-67, A. D. Markle, Edwin Satterthwait. 

1S68-69, James Esbach, Henry McMiller. 

1S70, John J. C. Harvey, James Esbach. 

1871-72, Oliver G. Morris, John J. C. Harvey. 

1873, Oliver G. Morris, Samuel Nyce. 

1S74, Thomas G. Rutter, Joseph B. Yerkes. 

lS 75-76, Thomas G. Rutter, Joseph B Yerkes, Fran- 
cis M. Knipe, John C. Richardson, James B. Law. 

1S77-78, John C. Richardson, James B. Law, Fran- 
cis M. Knipe, Edwin Hallowell, Montgomery Long- 
aker. 

1879, PMwin Hallowell, John C. Dannehower, Mah- 
lon Sellers, William B. Roberts, Isaac Hoyer. 

1881, William B. Roberts, Isaac Hoyer, Josiah S. 
Pearce, D. H. Gehman, Harry R. Brown. 

1883, Theodore Harrar, Lewis H. Davis, Johu Luu- 
derman, John C. Dannehower, Stephen Yerkes. 

1885, John M. Cunningham, Samuel Faust, William 
D. Heebner, William A. Redding, Thomas J. Stewart. 

1S87, John M. Cunningham, William D. Heebner, 
Joseph A. Shoemaker, Austin L. Taggart, Samuel 
Faust. 

1889, Theodore W. Bean, Joseph Shoemaker, Austin 
L. Taggart, Charles Moore, Samuel Fausi. 



Historical .Sketch. 



35 



1891, Charles I. Baker, John Burton, Austin L Tag- 
gart, Milton H. VVatters, Frank A. Wile. 

1893, J. Beans Grentner, Franklin A. Conilv, George 
C. Hollenbach, B. Witman Dambly, Austin L. Taggart. 



COUNTY OFFICIALS. 
RECORDERS. 

1784, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg. 

1789, Robert Loller. 

1790, Robert Loller. 

1791, James Morris. 
1795, Thomas Craig. 

1799, William R. Atlee. 

1800, Thomas Potts. 
1809, Archibald Darrah. 
1 818, George Wack, 

1821, Jesse Roberts. 

1822, Jacob Hubley. 
1824, John Markley. 
1826, John Markley. 
1830, William Powell. 

1833, S. D. Patterson. 

1834, James Wells. 
1836, Robert Iredell. 
1839, Tobias Sellers. 
1842, Daniel Fry. 
1845, Henry Drake. 
1848, H. G. Hart. 
1851, R. B. Longaker. 
1854, George Lower. 
1857, William H. Hill. 
i860, Thomas G. Rutter. 
1863, Henry Unger. 

1866, Christopher Wycoff. 
1869, Henry Bernard Nase. 
1872, George W. Neiman. 
1S75, John W. Schall. 
1878, John W. Schall. 
1881, Henry W. Kratz. 
1884, Aaron Weikel. 
1887, Benjamin Thomas. 
1890, George W. Pawling. 
1893, George W. Keys. 



REGISTERS. 

17S4, Thomas Ewing. 
1789, Robert Loller. 
1791, James Morris. 

1799, William Richardson Atlee. 

1800, Thomas Potts. 
1809, Archibald Darrah. 
1818, George Wack. 

1 82 1, Jesse Roberts. 



1822, 
1824, 
1830, 
1836, 

1839. 
1842, 
1845, 
1848, 

185'. 
■854. 
1857, 
i860, 
1863, 
1866, 
1869, 
1872, 

1875, 
1S78, 
1SS1, 
1887, 
1890, 
1893. 



Jacob Hubley. 
John Markley. 
William Powell. 
Nathaniel B. Boileau. 
John Shearer. 
William Earnest. 
B. F. Yost. 
William Front-field. 
John M. Jones. 
Isaac Schneider. 
PhilipS. Gerhard. 
Charles Hurst. 
Isaiah B. Houpt. 
Christopher Lower. 
John J. Nocton. 
Septimus Roberts. 
Solomon Snyder. 
Warren B. Barnes. 
J. Roberts Rambo. 
Joseph W. Hunter. 
Albert Helffenstein. 
Joseph C. Crawford. 



PROTHONOTARIES. 

1784, Thomas Craig. 

1799, William R. Atlee. 

1800, Francis Swain. 
1809, Philip Hahu. 
1S1S, William Powell. 
1S21, Frederick Conrad. 
1826, Thomas Lowry. 
1830, Jacob Fry. 

1833, Adam Slemmer. 
1836, John Bean. 
'839, Josiah W. Evans. 
1842, Jones Davis. 
1845, Mehelm McGlathcrv. 
1848, J. B. Evans. 
1851, N. Jacoby. 
1854, Bowyer Brooke. 
1857, Florence Sullivan. 
i860, Jared Evans. 
1S63, John R. Griggs. 
1 866, Jesse H. Gery. 
1S69, John B. Yerkes. 
1S72, William F. Reed. 
1875, Philip Ouillman. 
1878, A. Franklin Hart. 
1SS1, John McLean. 
1884, William 1!. Woodward. 
1887, George Scheetz. 
1893, Samuel E. Nyce. 
The present deputy prothonotary and clerk are 
Abram D. Hallmau and W. II. H. McCrea. 



Historical Sketch. 



SHERIFFS. 

1784, Zebulon Potts. 
1 787, Francis Swain. 
1790, Henry Kooken. 
1793. Nathan Pawling. 
] 795, Isaiah Wells. 
1795. John Pugh. 
1798, John Markley. 
ism, Isaiah Wells. 
1804, William Henderson. 
1807, David Pewees. 
[810, Isaiah Wells. 
1813, Thomas Lowrv. 
1S16, Justice Sheetz. 
1 S 1 9, Philip Sellers. 
1S22, Philip Boyer. 
1825, Christian Snyder. 
1828, Jones Davis. 
1831, Henry Longaker. 
1834, John Todd. 
1837, Ardemus Stewart. 
1840, Jacob Spong. 
1843, James Wells. 
1846, John Boyer. 
1849, Philip Harm. 
1852, M. C. Boyer. 
1855, Samuel D. Rudy. 

1858, John M. Stauffer. 
1S61, Francis Kile. 
1864, E. N. Beysher. 
1867, Philip Gerhart. 
1S6S, William J. Bolton, 
1S6S, John W. Hunsicket. 
1S71, Jeremiah B. Lazelere. 
1S74, John Lindertnan. 
1877, Jacob Tyson. 

[880, Joseph Frankenfield. 
1883, Edwin S. Stahlnecker. 
1S86, Henry C. Kline. 

1859, Clinton Rorer. 
1892, Albert D. Simpson. 

The present deputy sheriffs are Win. W. Owen and 
Charles Johnson. 



COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

1790, Christian Scheid. 
1790, Nathan Potts. 

1790, John Maun. 

1791, Conrad Boyer. 

1792, John Wentz. 

1793, John Jarrett. 

1794, Morris Hobson. 
'795. Frederick Conrad. 



1796, Samuel Maulsby. 

1797, Conrad Boyer. 

1798, James Bean. — 

1799, Henry Sheetz. 

1800, Philip Boyer. 
ryoi, Christian Weber. 
1S02, Richard T. Leach. 

1803, Philip Hahn, Jr. 

1804, Thomas Humphries. 

1805, John Markley. 
1806 George Bucher. 
1S07, John Lower}'. 

1808, Mahlon N. Bo skirk. 

1809, Isaac Markley. 
1S10, George Heist. 

181 1, Samuel Mann. 

1812, Owen Evans; Samuel Patterson, ap- 

pointed. 

181 3, Jacob Yost. 

1814, Samuel Patterson; Scblater. 

1S15, J. McFatland; Cope. 

1816, Dr. Hough. 

1817, Andrew Gilkeson. 

1818, Henry Kerr. 

1810, Christian Mattis. 

1820, William Ayers. 

1821, George Kline. 

1522, Wm. McGlathery. 

1523, Henry Doub. 

1824, Peter Bastras. Jr. 

1825, David C. Kulp. 

1826, George Piper. 
1S27, Henry Schneider. 

1828, John Todd. 

1829, Christian Keisel. 

1830, John Geyer. 

1831, William Hamill. 

1832, Amos Addis. 

1833, Samuel E. Leach: Benjamin B. Yost. 

1834, F. C. Burnside. 

1835, Jacob Fritz. 

1836, John Scheffer. 

1837, Abel Thomas. 
[838, William Stevens. 

1839, John Bichtel; Silas Y'erkes. 

1840, Mehelm McGlathery. 

1841, Joseph Nettles. 
1S42, Isaac Burk. 
[843, Daniel Yost. 

1844, Samuel Shoemaker. 

1845, Samuel H. Graff; John Smith. 

1846, Charles Greger. 

1847, Johu Katz. 

1848, Daniel Quillmau. 



1 1 istoricai. Sketch. 



37 



iS49, Daniel Harp. 
1S50, William \V. Dunn. 

1851, Michael Hartzell. 

1852, Archibald Bains. 

1853, John Cowden. 
1S54, Isaac F. Yost. 

1855, John Hoffman. 

1856, Benjamin Fleck. 
'^57, Jacob Brandt. 
1858, John B. Adams. 

1559, Daniel Carr. 

1560, Isaac Huber. 

1 86 1. George Pen nick. 
1S62, Jacob Slifer. 

1863, Abraham C. Cole. 

1864, Tobias G. Hauge. 
1S65. William G. Smith. 
1S6), Henry H. Hartman. 
1867, Benjamin Tyson. 
1828, Francis Kehr. 

1869, John Y. Fritz. 

1870, Dennis Dunne. 
1IS71, John Stever. 

1872, John T. Comly. 

1873, Edward Johnson. 

1874, Charles M. Soliday. 

iS;i, George B. Erb; Amos D. Moser; Charles 
M. Soliday. 

1S7.S, Jesse B. Davis; Noah D. Frank; Amos 

D. Moser. 
1881, James Burnett; Hiram Burdan; William 

L. Rittenhonsc. 
1884, James Burnett; Hiram Burdan; Thomas 

McCully. 
1887, Samuel K. Anders; Daniel Yeakel; 

John S. Rahn. 
1890, Samuel K. Anders; Daniel Yeakel; 

Charles D. Loch. 
1893, Samuel K Anders; Charles M. Reed; 

Milton G. Erbe. 

The present efficient and courteous clerk of the 
board is Edward Elsenhans. 



1813, 
1814. 
1815, 
1 S 1 6, 
1817. 

IS |N, 
iSly, 
l820, 
1822, 
I823, 
1824, 
I825, 
1826, 



TREASURERS. 

Isaac Markley. 
George Heist. 
Samuel Mann. 
Owen Evans. 
John McFarland. 
Casper Schlater. 
Michael Cope. 
Samuel Went/.. 
Henry Kerr. 
Chris" Maltis. 
William Avers. 
( George Kline. 
William McGlathey. 



lS27, Henry Doub. 

1829, David C. Kulp. 

1830, George Piper. 

1831, Henry Schneider. 
1S32, Johu Todd. 

1833, Christian Keisel. 

1834, John Geiger. 

1835, Ardemus Stewart. 
1S36, Jacob Heighley. 

1 8^7. Fred. Dallecker. 
1S38, William Hanull. 
iSj9, Samuel K. Leech. 

1840, Benjamin B. Yost. 

1841, F. C. Burnside; Jones Smith. 

1842, Jones Smith. 
1*43, David Beard. 
1845, Moore Stevens. 
18+7, J. H. Steiuer. 
1849, John Hines. 
1851, Jesse Gable. 
1S53, P. M. Hunter. 
1855, John M. Fenten. 
1857, Fred. Brendlinger. 
1859, Aaron Drake. 
186), George Sechler. 
1863, R. B. Longaker. 
1865, Joseph Beerer, 
1867, G. W. Jacoby. 
1869, Nath Wagonhurst. 

1871, George C. Reiff. 

1872, Samuel F. Jarrett. 
1877, Evan G. Jones. 
1880, J. R. Yost. 

[P83, Henry A. Cole. 

1887, William H. Young and Isaac Fegeley. 

1S90, Edwin S. Stahluecker. 

1S93. Samuel Effrig. 

William H. Voting died and his term was filled out 
by Isaac Fegeley. The present deputy treasurer is 
Benjamin F. Leister. 



CLERK OF COURTS. 

1784=1895. 

1830, John H. Scheetz. 

1S39, Benjamin Johnson. 

1839, George H. Pawling. 

1842, William Rossiter. 

1845, John McNair. 

1848, Andrew H. Tippiu. 

1S51, Washington Richards. 

1854, Jesse B. Davis. 

1857, E. B. Moore. 

i860, James Burusides. 

1863, Daniel Fisher. 

1866, Jacob F. Quillman. 

1869, Samuel B. Helffenstein. 

1872, Merrit M. Missimer. 

1875, Krankliu T. Beerer. 

1S78, Henry S. Smith. 

1878, O. N. Truer, appointed. 

iNNi, Edward Schall. 

i!>84, Edward Schall and Alex. Maulsberger. 

1887, Alex Maulsberger. 

1890, Abner II. Gehman. 

1S93, Daniel A. Shiffert. 



CHAPTER IX. 



.MILITARY HISTORY. INTER-COLONIAL WARS — REVOLUTIONARY WAR — WAR OF l8l2- 

PHILADKLPHIA RIOTS — MILITIA — THE CIVIL WAR — REGIMENTAL 

ORGANIZATIONS — NATIONAL GUARD. 




Several times during the 

four inter-colonial wars the 
citizens of what is now Mont- 
gomery count}- were alarmed 
bv threatened Indian inva- 
sions, yet no raid was eYer 
made in any section of the 
county, and no record is 
available of those who served 
in the Colonial troops in the frontier strug- 
gles from Queen Ann's war in 1702 to the 
close of the French and Indian war of 1763. 
Revolutionary War — The peace spirit 
and religious principles of most of the 
inhabitants of the county, prevented them 
from taking up arms in the Revolution- 
ary war, yet there were many others 
who went forth to battle in the cause 
of the Colonies. In 1777 Philadelphia 
county was divided into seven militia bat- 
talion districts, but we have no account 
of those who served from the territory of 
Montgomery, except the following officers : 
Colonels, Daniel Heister, Jr., Benjamin Mc- 
Veigh, William Dean, Robert Curry, and 
Frederick Antis; Lieutenant-colonels, Jacob 
Reid, David Schneider, Robert Loller, Ar- 
chibald Thompson, Frederick Weis, and 
Isaac Warner ; Majors, Jacob Markley, John 
Holmes, George Right, John Edwards, 
Jacob Bush, and Matthew Jones. In 1782, 
under the legislative act calling for an ap- 
praisement of damages inflicted by the 
British forces in 1777, but fourteen town- 
ships reported their losses, which amounted 



to over seventeen thousand pounds or eigh- 
ty-five thousand dollars. 

Speaking of the Revolutionary war in 
Montgomery county, William J. Buck says, 
" The Scotch-Irish and Irish materially 
contributed to the strength of the army 
during the Revolution. Andrew Porter's 
company of artillery was largely made up 
of the former, and Colonel Stephen Moy- 
lan's cavalry regiment of the latter. Con- 
cerned from the very beginning, we had 
such men as General Peter Muhlenberg, 
Colonel Samuel Miles, Colonel Robert 
Loller, Colonel John Bull, Colonel Andrew 
Porter, Colonel Christopher Stuart, Colonel 
Archibald Thompson, Charles Thompson, 
David Rittenhouse, Frederick Antes, and 
the patriotic Heister family of Upper Sal- 
ford, as well as many more, who did much 
to aid the cause. The events of White- 
marsh, Barren Hill, Valley Forge, and the 
Crooked Billet transpired on our soil, and 
all that precedes and follows the battle of 
Germantown. Within these limits, during 
the memorable struggle, Washington and 
his army remained nine months, lacking 
five days, very probably a longer time than 
was spent in any other county during this 
period. The several houses used as his 
headquarters are still standing, and the re- 
mains of entrenchments, thrown up on our 
hillsides, can be traced to this day." 

War of 1S12. — The second great war 
in which the citizens of Montgomery 
county were called to take a part was 



Historical .Sketch. 



39 



that of the War of 1812. During the 
early part of the struggle there was no 
call made upon the militia of the county, 
but in 1814, when Philadelphia was 
threatened, the entire militia of south- 
eastern Pennsylvania was summoned to be 
in readiness for marching orders. A large 
camp was established at Marcus Hook, on 
the Delaware river, and in Delaware county. 
To this camp the following Montgomery 
county militia companies were ordered : 
Captain Jacob Fryer, John Grosscup, Wil- 
liam Holgate, John Hurst, William Mc- 
Glathery, Joseph Sands, William McGill, 

McLean, James Robinson, George 

Sensenderfer, and Jacob Wentz. Major- 
General Henry Scheetz, of Montgomery 
county, commanded the Second division ol 
the Pennsylvania militia, and Brigadier- 
General Isaiah Wells commanded the First 
brigade of the Second division while it was 
encamped at Macus Hook. 

Philadelphia Riots.— When the Phila- 
delphia riots broke out in 1844, about four 
hundred Montgomery county militia were 
ordered out and helped materially in quell, 
ing the rioters and restoring quiet. The 
following companies from this county 
served in quelling those riots : First 
and Second troops of cavalry, Union 
Grey, New Hanover, Washington Gray, 
and Sumneytown artillerists, First National 
Dragoons, Union Rifle company, Pennsyl- 
vania Defenders, Lafayette Blues, Mont- 
gomery Guards, and Goshenhoppen Grays. 

Mexican War.— While no company from 
Montgomery county enlisted for the Mexi- 
can war, yet there were several of her citi- 
zens who were soldiers in Pennsylvania 
regiments that served in Mexico under 
Scott. Lieutenant (afterwards colonel) An- 
drew H. Tippen and Benjamin Ehler were 
in the Eleventh United States infantry. 



Albert Arthur and George and Henry Low- 
ther were in another regiment, and the last 
named died in Mexico, of brain fever. Jo- 
seph Cleaver and Michael Dougherty were 
members of the Mountain Howitzer bat- 
tery, and Louis Monsert served in the Sec- 
ond Pennsylvania. 

Militia. — There seems to be no battalion 
or regimental rosters or history preserved 
of the militia of Montgomery county which 
was included in one of the militia districts 
of the state. The militia system was quite 
prominent from 181 2 to 1S61, and after the 
close of the late Civil war was succeeded 
by the National Guard, whose services were 
so effective in the Homestead riots and coke 
strikes. 

The Civil War.— On that dark day in 
April, 1861, when the storm of civil war 
burst upon the nation and the Union was 
apparently rent in twain, there was no 
county in Pennsylvania whose devotion to 
the government was more pronounced than 
Montgomery county. Throughout the 
mighty struggle it gave a generous sup- 
port to the Federal government and sent 
forth its sons by hundreds to battle for a re- 
united country and the preservation of the 
government founded by the Revolutionary 
forefathers. 

Regimental Organizations. — The 
Fourth Pennsylvania infantry originated in 
the First Pennsylvania militia. Companies 
A, B, C, D, E, I and K were recruited in 
Montgomery county, and the regiment 
commanded by Colonel John F. Hartranft 
left Harrisburg, for the seat of the war, on 
April 21, 1865. It served in Maryland and 
under General McDowell until July 20th, 
and the most of its members shortly after- 
ward joined other regiments. 

Company B, of the Forty-fourth regiment 
or First Pennsylvania cavalry, was recruited 



4° 



Historical Sketch. 



in Montgomery count}- by Captain (after- 
wards Colonel) Owen Jones. This com- 
pany served with bravery from Gaines- 
ville to Appomattox court-house. Of its 
members, Lieutenant William Buzby, Rob- 
ert Maxwell, and Theodore Shaffer, died of 
disease ; Philip A. Mower, died of wounds; 
and Sergeant George L. Lytle, Corporal 
John B. Styer, Samuel A. Haws, Howard 
McAfee, John Smith and John Yocum, 
killed in battle. 

The Fifty-first Pennsylvania infantry was 
recruited by Col. John P. Hartranft, in 
November, 1861, and served gallantly in 
North Carolina, under Pope and McClellan, 
at Vicksburg and Knoxville, and under 
Grant from the Rapidan to Appomattox 
court-house. Of this regiment Companies 
A, C, D, F, and I were recruited in this 
county. Those of these companies who 
died and were killed were as follows : Lieu- 
tenant John S. Moore, Sergeant Jacob H. 
Mover, Sergeant Robert Supplee, Corporal 
Frank H. Mills, Corporal George Yebele, 
Corporal Joseph White, Corporal John 
C. Brannon, George Bodey, Henry Boyer, 
John Bare, George W. Berks, William 
Backer, George Bond, Gotlieb Bellman, 
William Carney, James Coulston, Jacob H. 
Derr, Simon Dobson, Jesse Frease, Charles 
Fix, Jeremiah Gray, William Horf, William 
Heard, Charles Keyser, William Kilpatrick, 
Lewis Mattis, Nelson Y. Mattis, Lewis 
Myers, James McGuire, Henry McLane, 
Washington McDade, Harvey Pinch, Ed- 
ward Ouinlan, George Smith, Henry Smith, 
David Shrack, William Somerlot, Adam 
W. Yeager. Lieutenant Davis Hunsicker, 
Lieutenant Thomas J. Lynch, Sergeant 
Patrick Kevin, Corporal Andrew J. Grim, 
Corporal William Hooker, Corporal Joseph 
Cornog, Corporal David Kane, Jacob Brun- 
ner, Samuel Dean, Michael Dougherty, 



Reuben DeHaven, Henry Erhard, Simon 
P. Emery, Henry H. Fry, Henry Gunter, 
Eli Garner, Franklin Hendricks, John Hal- 
lowell, Yal Hartenstein, J. A. Kevin, James 
Murphy, John McFaul, Michael McMullin. 
Morris Robinson, Hilary Sloop, Philip Stof- 
let, George Sweeney, John Upright, Lieu- 
tenants Samuel Fair and Isaac Fizone, Ser- 
geant William Diguan, Corporal George W. 
Bowman, W T illiam H. Bodey, Charles Blak- 
eney, Jere. Cassedy, James Conway, Walter 
Easton, John B. Godley, George Hayberry, 
Samuel Kay, Richard Lewis, John W. Lons- 
dale, W. S. Laubaeh, John Magee, James 
McKenna, James McQuerness, Barnard 
O'Donnel, George Olewine, John Roshon, 
John Richards, P. L. Sounvine, W. H. 
Showalter, George Shaffer, W. H. Weidner, 
Josiah Weidner, David H. Yerkis, Lieu- 
tenant Allan H. Fileman, Corporals Robert 
B. Lindsay, Edwin R. Worth, Josiah Wood, 
and William L. Jones, H. H. Addleman, 
Thomas G. Ashton, Charles Elwood, John 
Camden, William Coiner, Jere Dunlap, S. 
H. Daub, William Dresher, Samuel Gilles- 
pie, J. M. Holmes, Henry S. Leutz, Reuben 
McKeever, William Mclntire, Henry 
Shaeffer, Henry Shultz, Henry White, 
Charles Wagoner, William Wise and John 
M. Young. 

The Fifty-third Pennsylvania Infantry 
was raised and commanded by Col. John R. 
Brooke, of Pottstown. This regiment was 
recruited in 1861 and served with distinc- 
tion in most of the hard-fought battles of the 
Potomac. Company A. was recruited at 
Pottstown and Company B. was raised in 
Montgomery and Chester counties. Those 
who lost their lives in these companies were: 
Sergeants George W. Shingle and William 
H. Graham, Corporals, John H. Fryer, 
James McFarland and Josiah Godshall, G. 
W. Bechtel, George W. Beard, Franklin 



Historical Sketch. 



4i 



Bell, Milton Brant, Samuel II. Campbell, 
George Comfort, Meyers Dailey, Gotlieb 
Deagle, H. F. Fryer, John H. Fryer, Eli 
Graham, G. O. Hendricks, George W. Holt, 
W. P. Johnson, E. I). Longaker, Price 
Maurice, Sergeant Jacob Bower, Corporals 
C. M. Supple, G. W. Mills, Augustus Wert, 
Jacob Boyer, A. Bowerman, William Car- 
well, John Dressier, John Fogle, Samuel 
Freed, W. H. Hutton, George Heasteley, 
Daniel Heller, G. B. Kupp, Daniel Kesliug- 
er, Peter Lohr, J. F. Logue, I. M. Millard, 
I. X. Milliard, Andrew Swineheart, J. \Y. 
Sonnett, Jesse Tyson, Amos Walters and 
Henry Yeagle. 

The Sixty-eight Pennsylvania infantry 
that fought so gallently at Chancellorsville 
and Gettysburg, under command of Colonel 
A. H. Tippin, contained one company (H,) 
that was recruited in Montgomery county. 
Of Company H, those who were killed and 
died were : Corporals J. B. Herbst, Thomas 
Derolf, George W. Geiger, Henry F. Guss, 
Edward Kocher, David G. Leffet, Solomon 
Miller, Benjamin Reifsnyder and Abraham 
Souder. 

Company G, of the Ninety-third, and 
Company E, of the Ninety-fifth Pennsyl- 
vania infantry contained both officers and 
men who were from this county. 

Company G, of the One Hundred-sixth 
Pennsylvania infantry was recruited in 
Montgomery county, and participated in 
all the battles of the regiment from Fair 
Oaks to Cold Harbor. The mortuary list 
of Company G, was as follows : William 
Allen, John Bobb, Thomas Bitler, William 
Caruthers, Thomas Fagan, John Flick, 
George Krupp, John O'Kearney, Walter 
Leggett, Wilson Ritter, George W. Rob- 
bins, Henry Smith, John Schwenk, Abra- 
ham Stoltz, Anthony .Starr, W. S. Town- 
send and Torrence Tobin. 



The One hundred twenty-ninth Pennsyl- 
vania infantry was recruited in 1862, took 
a prominent part in the battles of Fred- 
ricksburg and Chancellorsville and was 
discharged in 1863. Company I, of this 
regiment was recruited in Montgomery 
county, and its mortuary list was as follows : 
Corporal M. S. Kelly, James W. Essig, 
Benjamin Fudge, Jesse K. Gordon and Jos. 
D. Keyser. 

The One hundred thirty-eighth Pennsyl- 
vania infantry was raised in 1862, served 
with the army of the Potomac and under 
Sheridan until the close of the war, and 
bore itself handsomely in some of the 
hardest battles of the war. Companies A, 
C, I and K, of this regiment came from 
Montgomery county, and their mortuary 
list was as follows : Lieutenant John E. 
Essick, Sergeant D. W. Roberts, Corporals 
John H. SlinglufF, P. A. Smith and M. E. 
Hinkle, Henry Colter, P. S. Eddleman, 
Abraham Gotwaltz, Samuel Grubb, J. S. 
Hollowell, J. D. Jackson, Edward H. Linck, 
William Magee, George W. Ross, William 
Rodenbaugh, Archibald Stewart, Sylvesk-r 
Stahley, Lieutenant Samuel W. Cloward, 
Leidy Cook, I. P. Freese, Jesse A. Myers, 
Joseph R. Skean, A. VauFossen, Jr., Lieu- 
tenant John H. Fisher, Corporals George 
H. Klopp and Christian Kasler, William 
Batman, William Eppright, S. R. Ireton, 
Joseph Michener, J. J. Roberts, Joseph 
Rohr, Christian Stogner, Henry Swartley, 
Eli Thomas, James Wilson, Sergeants, C. 
B. Thompson and S. C. Bodder, Corporal 
W. P. Iredell, George H. Burke, Benjamin 
Brayman, Peter L. Fluck, David Kling- 
kiner, Amos Mullen, Patrick Monaghan, J. 
F. Miller, R. P. March, Aaron Mattis, 
Sylvester Merrick and Stephen McCul- 
lough. 

Several men from this county were in the 



42 



Historical Sketch. 



One hundred sixtieth regiment or Fifteenth 
Pennsylvania cavalry. 

Company L of the One hundred sixty- 
second regiment or Seventeenth cavalry, 
was recruited in Montgomery and Chester 
counties, and participated in five campaigns 
and over sixty engagements. The mor- 
tuary list of Company L was as follows : 
Corporal John G. Tyson, Ellis B. Davis, 
Beneville Eck and Henry March. 

The One Hundred seventy-fifth Pennsyl- 
vania infantry that served for nine months 
in North Carolina and the Virginias, con- 
tained two compnaies (A and H) that were 
recruited in Montgomery county. Corporal 
Nathan Comley, of Company A, died in 
North Carolina. 

In the One hundred seventy-ninth Penn- 
sylvania infantry that served for nine months 
were three companies (A, B and G) from 
this county. This regiment, when its time 
was about expiring in 1863, patriotically 
offered its services to Governor Curtin to 
aid in repelling Lee. Of the three com- 
panies (A, B and G) one soldier, Joseph Hol- 
bert, died at Yorktown, Virginia. 

During Lee's first invasion in 1862, the 
following companies from this county served 
in the Pennsylvania militia : 

Eleventh regiment, Companies C, D, G 
and H. Seventeenth regiment, Compan- 
ies B and G. Nineteenth regiment, Com- 
pany E. Captain S. W. Comly's cavalry 
company. Captain D. H. Mulvany's 
cavalry company. 

Company A, First New Jersey cavalry, 
was recruited in the county in 1863, and in 
that year to meet Lee's second invasion, 
the following; companies from Montgomery 
served in the Pennsylvania militia : 

Twenty-sixth regiment, Company F. 



Thirty-fourth regiment, Companies B, C, E, 
H, I. Forty-first regiment, Company B. 
Forty-third regiment, Company I. One 
hundred ninety-seventh regiment, ( one 
hundred day's men) Companies F and G. 
Independent cavalry batallion, Company 
B. Captain S. W. Comly's cavalry 
company. 

The names of those marked missing in 
the company rosters were not inserted in 
the mortuary lists given in this chapter. 
A large number of soldiers from Montgom- 
ery county served in companies recruited 
in other counties in this and adjoining 
states. 

National Guard of Pennsylvania. — 
The Sixth regiment of the National Guard 
of Pennsylvania was organized, and has its 
headquarters located at Norristown. The 
following companies of this regiment were 
recruited in the county : 

Company A, Pottstown. Company C, 
Conshohocken. Company F, Norristown. 

In speaking of the soldiers of Moutgomery 
county, Dr. C. Z. Weizer in his centennial 
address said : " General Peter Muhlenberg, 
of Independence days, whose statue now 
graces the rotunda at Washington, was 
born within our borders. General Andrew 
Porter, who fought in the Revolutionary 
army so gallantly at Trenton, at Princeton, 
at Brandywine, and wherever courage was 
needed, was a native of this county. Nor 
dare we forget our grand citizen soldiers, 
whose records shine so brilliantly since the 
late period of contention and strife — 
Major Generals John Frederic Hartranft and 
Winfield Scott Hancock. These are real 
genuine Montgomery-couutians. And do 
not the names of Brooke and Zook stand in 
red letters? " 



CHAPTER X. 



MISCELLANEOUS. AGRICULTURE — COUNTY BUILDINGS — EARLY BANKS — POPULATION — 
SLAVER? — UNDERGROUND RAILROAD — INSURANCE — BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIA- 
TE >NS — CEM ETERY — TAYLOR C< »LLE( '.E — SECRET SOCIETIES — STATE H( (SPITAL 
FOS THE INSANE — COUNTY CENTENNIAL — EARLY TELEGRAPHS AND 
TELEPHONES — AUTHORS — HISTORIANS — COUNTY PROGRESS. 




OOD FARMING has been de- 
fined as the process of taking 
large crops from the soil and 
leaving it at the same time- 
better than it was found. 
Agriculture, the most essen- 
tial of productive industries, 
as an art antedates history, 
but as a science is of modern 
birth. A rude beginning, fort}' centuries 
of lethargic existence and then a high de- 
velopment and rapid progress, such is the 
history of agriculture. American agricul- 
ture in regard to grain productions has 
been divided into four eras or epochs : the 
first or experiment period, embracing col- 
onial days ; the second or awakening period, 
from the Declaration of Independence to 
the introduction into general use of the 
iron plow ; the third or development pe- 
riod, from the introduction of the threshing- 
machine to the time of the Centennial ex- 
hibition in 1876 ; and the fourth or pro- 
gressive period, now characterized by labor- 
saving machinery, elevator improvement, 
perfected systems of land and ocean trans- 
portation of grain by steam power, and 
specialization of productions. 

The farmers of Montgomery county since 
its early settlement have kept abreast of 
the agricultural advance of the country in 
each of its agricultural periods. In 1880 
the county contained six thousand, one 



hundred and fourteen farms averaging forty- 
nine acres each, of which nearly five thou- 
sand were cultivated by their owners. Of 
these farms, whose estimated value was over 
six million dollars ($6,000,000,) three hun- 
dred thousand, three hundred and eighty- 
one acres were improved and thirty thou- 
sand, three hundred and twenty seven acres 
were unimproved. 

The acreage and cereal production of 
Montgomery county in 1879 were as fol- 
lows : 

Cereals. Acres. Bushels. 
Buckwheat, 153 2,234 

Indian Corn, 38,175 1,521,097 

Oats, 25,671 840,085 

Rve, i3> 8 54 I94, 6 3 6 

Wheat, 25,875 486,763 

In 1879 the county produced five hun- 
dred and sixty-four thousand six hundred 
and forty-three bushels of Irish potatoes 
from five thousand two hundred and sev- 
enty acres, and one thousand six hundred 
and eighty-four bushels sweet potatoes from 
twenty-two acres. The spring clip of wool, 
in 1880, was fifteen thousand four hundred 
and twenty-eight pounds, while sixteen 
acres of tobacco yielded a crop of twenty 
thousand nine hundred and thirty pounds. 
In dairy products Montgomery counts- 
ranks as the second county in the state. In 
1880 the county contained thirty-four thou- 
sand nine hundred and eighteen cows, 



44 



Historical Sketch. 



whose dairy products were: Five million 
five hundred and thirty-four thousand and 
thirty-two gallons of milk, four million one 
hundred and sixty-six thousand four 
hundred and seventy-nine pounds of butter, 
and three hundred and forty-two thousand 
and four pounds of cheese. In 1880 there 
were also in the count}- fourteen thousand 
eight hundred and five horses, and twenty- 
one thousand one hundred and sixty swine. 

At this writing the United States cen- 
sus statistics of 1890 cannot be obtained in 
full of agricultural productions, and often 
some parts of one census are not published 
much before the taking of the next census. 

The first agricultural society in the 
county was the Jefferson Agricultural asso- 
ciation, which was organized February 23, 
1846. This association held its first annual 
exhibition at Jeffersonville, October 19-20, 
1848, and on February 4, 1850, changed 
its name to that of the Montgomery County 
Agricultural society. The society's grounds 
were located at Springtown, and some dis- 
satisfaction with the location led a part of 
the members to organize the East Pennsyl- 
vania Agricultural and Mechanical society, 
which purchased twenty acres of ground at 
Norristown and held annual exhibitions 
from 1 86 1 to 1867. 

Comity Building. — The original court 
house stood near the site of the present 
one, was a two-story stone building and in 
connection with the first jail was finished 
in 1787, at a cost of twenty-one thousand 
dollars. Four years later a small stone 
building was erected for those having the 
county records in charge. The present 
stone jail was built in i85i,ata cost of six- 
ty-eight thousand dollars, and the next year 
the erection of the present court house was 
commenced. The present court house, built 
of brick and faced with Monttromerv countv 



marble, was completed at a cost of one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, is a fine 
structure and was the finest building of its 
kind in the State at the time of its erection. 
The present court house officials, without 
a single exception, are courteous and effi- 
cient and their various records are kept in 
the best of order, while the janitor, Daniel 
H. Charles, looks well to the care and ap- 
pearance of the building and grounds. 

The count\ r home establishment con- 
sisted originally of several buildings which 
in 1878 were remodeled and enlarged. 
The county home was secured in 1806 by 
H011. N. B. Boileau, and the farm, which 
consists of two hundred and sixty-five 
acres, is situated on the Schuylkill river 
and in Upper Providence township. 

Early Banks.— The first bank in the 
countv was the " Bank of Monteomerv 
County," chartered March 21, 1814, and in 
1865 changed to a national bank under its 
present title of Montgomery National bank. 
The second bank at Norristown, was Al- 
bertson's Banking house, established in 
1857, and it, in order of age at Norristown, 
was succeeded by the First National, or- 
ganized in 1864, and the People's National 
established in 1881. The third bank in the 
county was the Bank of Pottstown, organ- 
ized in 1857, at Pottstown, where Cassle- 
berry & Co.'s private banking house was 
established in 1868. The First National 
bank of Lansdale was organized in 1864, 
and seventh in order of age came in 1873, 
the First National bank of Conshohocken, 
where the Tradesmen's National bank was 
organized in 1882. In 1874 the National 
bank of Schwenksville was organized, and 
in the succeeding year the Jenkintown 
National and the Perkiomen National (East 
Greenville) banks were established, while 
the Centennial vear ushered into existence 



Historical Sketch. 



45 



the Farmer's National and the Union Na- 
tional banks, the former at Pennsburg and 
the latter at Sonderton. 

Population — The population of Mont- 
gomery county has increased at every cen- 
sus taken by the Federal government and 
has been as follows : 

1790—22,929. 1850—58,291. 

1800 — 24,150. i860 — 70,500. 

1810 — 29,703. 1870 — 81,612. 

1820—35,793. 1X80—96,494. 

1.S30 — -39,406. 1890 

1840—47,241. 
Shivery. — When Montgomery county 
was organized in 1788, it had one hundred 
and eight slaves. In 1790 there were one 
Inn lied and fourteen slaves and four hun- 
dred and forty free negroes, but in ten years 
those in servitude had decreased to thirty- 
three in number, and in 1830, not a single 
slave was in the county. 

Vnderground Railroad. — That branch 
of the Underground railroad or route by 
which slaves escaped from the south to 
Canada, that passed through Montgomery 
county, was known by the name of the 
Northern route. Phoenixville, Norristown 
and (juakertown were stations on the line, 
and escaping slaves were constantly passed 
over it from 1787 until the commencement 
of the late Civil war. Rev. Samuel Aaron, 
Dr. William Corson and quite a number of 
others were prominent and active in for- 
warding fugitive slaves on their way to 
Canada. 

Insurance. — The leading life and acci- 
dent Insurance Companies of the United 
.Suites and England do a large business in 
the county, while home mutual fire and 
storm insurance companies have insured 
over seventy millions dollars worth of prop- 
erty. The Mutual Fire Insurance of Mont- 
gomery county, chartered in 1841, and the 



Union Mutual Fire and Storm insurance 
organized in 1866, are the oldest of the 
home insurance companies. 

Building and Loan Associations. — 
The first building and loan association was 
organized at Conshohocken in 1851, and 
since then they have came into existence 
in every important place and center of pop- 
ulation in the county and have been the 
means of securing hundreds of homes to 
the laboring class. 

Cemeteries. — The West Laurel Hill 
Cemetery company was incorporated in 
1869, and purchased one hundred and ten 
acres in Lower Merion Township and but 
a short distance from the Philadelphia city 
line. The cemetery is beautifully situated 
and tastefully laid out with winding walks. 
Riverside Cemetery near Norristown is 
another tasteful cemetery of Montgomery 
county, and has been modeled partly after 
one of the great and most beautiful ceme- 
teries of the United States. 

Taylor College. — This institution for 
the education of women was planned by 
Dr. Joseph W. Taylor, who died in 1880. 
Taylor and Merion Halls were built by 1885, 
and the tract of land on which they were 
erected at Bryn Mawr contains thirty seven 
acres. Dr. Taylor gave eight hundred 
thousand dollars to found the college. 
But the name has since been changed to 
that of Bryn Mawr College. It is now one 
of the leading colleges for the higher edu- 
cation of women in this country. 

Secret Societies. — The oldest secret or- 
ganization in the county is the Masonic 
Fraternity. Tradition says a military lodge 
of Free Masons was organized at Valley 
Forge and that Washington presided over 
its meeting. Charity Lodge No 190, Free 
and Accepted Masons, was instituted at Nor- 
ristown in 1823 ; Norristown Royal Arch 



4 6 



Historical Sketch. 



Chapter No 190, in 1858 ; and Hutchinson 
Commandery No. 32, Knights Templar, in 
1868. 

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
was introduced into the comity in 1837, by 
the organization of Montgomery Lodge, 
No. 57. Norristown Encampment No. 37, 
was organized in 1846, and Lanah Degree 
Lodge No. 133, of the Daughters of Rebec- 
ca was instituted in 1883 

The Improved Order of Red Men was 
introduced into Pennsylvania by the or- 
ganization of Tecumseh Tribe, No. 1, at 
Norristown in 1846. 

The following secret organizations have 
been introduced into Montgomery county in 
the year placed opposite their names : 

Organization. Year. 

Patriotic Order Sons of America, 1847 

Order of United American Mechanics, 1847 

American Protestant Association, 1853 

Grand Army of the Republic, ]S68 

Knights of Pythias, 186S 

Knights of Friendship, 186S 

Ancient Order of Good Fellows, 1S69 

Patrons of Husbandry, 1873 

Knights of the Golden Eagle, 1S73 

Temple of Honor and Temperance, 1S73 

Brotherhood of the Union, 1874 

Ancient Order of United Workmen, 1879 

Junior American Protestant Association, 1SS2 

Ancient Order Knights of the Mystic Chain, 1882 

American Legion of Honor, 1S82 

Sons of Veterans, 18S2 

Knights of the Revolution, 1SS4 

Black Knights of Malta, 1S84 

We have no information at this writing 
to give the years in which the Good Tem- 
plars, Sons of Temperance, Royal Arcanum, 
Mystic Druids and Junior Order of Amer- 
ican Mechanics were introduced into the 
county. 

The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows 
was introduced into the county in 1851, by 
five colored men at Norristown, and in 
1868 the Independent Order of Good Sa- 



maritans and Daughters of Samaria, com- 
posed of colored men and women, were 
established. 

In addition to the Daughters of Rebecca, 
women are members of the following or- 
ders in the county : Lady Masons, Pythian 
Temple, Dames of the Knights of Pythias 
and Daughters of the Forest. 

State Hospital for the Insane. — The 
state hospital for the insane of the south- 
eastern district of Pennsylvania was located 
in 1878 at Norristown, where a farm of two 
hundred acres was purchased and the erec- 
tion of hospital building commenced. 
There are twelve separate buildings on the 
cottage plan and the women's department 
was placed under charge of Dr. Alice Ben- 
net. The methods of treatment are ad- 
vanced and progressive and have been since 
adopted in many other asylums for the in- 
sane. 

County Centennial. — The centennial 
celebration of Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania, which took place at Norristown 
and lasted from the 9th to the 12th of Sep- 
tember, 1884, was brought about through 
the efforts of the Montgomery County His- 
torical society. Over six thousand dollars 
were raised in the county to defray the ex- 
penses of the occasion and great numbers 
of people assembled to witness the exercises 
of the three days. Dr. Bomberger opened 
the first day's exercises by prayer, and J. P. 
Hale Jenkins made the address of welcome, 
after which the Rittenhouse meridian stone 
was dedicated and an address delivered by 
Judge B. Markley Boyer. During the sec- 
ond clay the historical oration was delivered 
by William J. Buck, the poem read by- 
George N. Corson, and an oration delivered 
by Dr. C. Z. Weizer. On the third day the 
grand parade occurred and Theodore W. 
Bean delivered a short address to the In- 



Historical Sketch. 



47 



dian children present from the Lincoln in- 
stitute of Philadelphia. The antiquarian 
exposition was the only feature of the fourth 
and last day, and about fifteen thousand 
people viewed the hundreds of articles on 
exhibition in the twenty-nine classes or de- 
partments into which they were arranged. 
Joseph Fornance was president of the Cen- 
tennial association, and F. G. Hobson and 
M. M. Gibson were the secretaries. 

Early Telegraphs and Telephones. 
The introduction of the telegraph into the 
county was some time prior to 1855, when 
the Philadelphia and Norristown Telegraph 
company was organized and purchased the 
House line of printing telegraph between 
those places. 

The Norristown Telephone exchange 
was established in 1883, and within a year 
had one hundred and seventy-two stations 
in the county. 

Authors. — William J. Buck in his bib- 
liography of Montgomery county, describes 
the following authors : J. M. Anders, Wil- 
mer Atkinson, John James Audubon, Moses 
Auge, Elijah W. Bean, Theodore W. Bean, 
Enos Benner, E. M. Benner, John Philip 
Boehm, J. H. A. Bomberger, J. H. Borne- 
man, W. L. Breton, W. L. Boyd, William 
J. Buck, Belle Bush, Abraham H. Cassel, 
J. C. Clay, Charles Collins, William Collum, 
George N. Corson, L. H. Davis, P. S. Davis, 
W. P. Dewees, Christopher Dock, H. S. 
Dotterer, Rowland Ellis, David Evans, 
Elizabeth Ferguson, J. F. Fisher, Edward 
Foulke, Joseph Foulke, E. T. Freedley, 
Andreas Frey, Christian Funk, Henry Funk, 
C. H. Garber, F. W. Geisenhainer, Abra- 
ham Grater, J. C. Guldin, John Gummere, 
S. R. Gummere, Benjamin Hallowell, B. 
F. Hancock, J. K. Harley, J. V. Heckler, 
Samuel Helfenstein, Mrs. Lydia W. Hilles, 
Frank G. Hobson, Balthasar Hoffman, John 



Holme, Mrs. Anna M. Holstein, Geo. W. 
Holstein, S. M. K. Huber, Nimrod Haghs, 
Abraham Hunsicker, Howard M. Jenkins, 
D. K. Kassel, Sir William Kieth, C. P. 
Krauth, Reuben Kreibel, Abraham Krupp, 
Benjamin Lay, Peter LeGaux, David Lloyd, 
Joseph Lloyd, Mrs. Susan Lukens, Edward 
Matthews, Jacob Medtart, Lucretia Mott, 
Henry Earnest Muhlenberg, Henry Mel- 
chior Muhlenberg, Francis Murphy, Sam'l 
Mussleman, David Newport, Samuel E. 
\ T yce, John Parke, Ellis Pugh, Jas. G. Ral- 
ston, Francis Rawle, Jas. Rees, J. W. Rich- 
ards, David Rittenhouse, Jacob Ritter, Job 
Roberts, Christopher Shultz, Joshua Shultz, 
B. M. Schmucker, Mrs. Anna Young Smith, 
W. M. Smith, W. R. Smith, David Sower, 
Senior ; David Sower, Jr.; Jacob Taylor, 
A. K. Thomas, Charles Thompson, George 
Wack, Albigence Waldo, M. H. Walters, 
Daniel Weiser, C. Z. Weiser, Joseph Wert- 
ner, William Whitehead, Bird Wilson, 
James Winnard, Henry Woodman, W. A. 
Yeakel and John Young. 

Historians — William J. Buck made 
many valuable contributions to the history 
of Montgomery county and southeastern 
Pennsylvania, and was a painstaking writer 
in every field of knowledge in which he 
labored. We quote the opening sentences of 
his historical oration at the county Centen- 
nial, to show his style of writing and breadth 
of thought. "It is well in the flight of 
time to have occasion to pause and review 
the events that have transpired around us ; 
to know whether, on the whole, we have 
advanced or retrograded, as concerns the 
general welfare ; in what respect, if any, 
we have really progressed ; and that the 
changes going on be pointed out, that com- 
parisons may be instituted and deductions 
drawn as to the results. This is the philo- 
sophical aim of history, and, if justly car- 



4 8 



Historical Sketch. 



ried out, when made known to a thinking 
people, cannot fail to exert a beneficial 
influence." 

Theodore W. Bean, the editor of " The 
History of Montgomery County," issued in 
1SS4, by Everts and Peck, was a man 
of ability, education and culture, and 
like William J. Buck, was a careful 
writer. He preserved much of the his- 
tory of the comity from oblivion. In the 
history of the county that he edited is con- 
tained a vast amount of information that 
only could have been obtained by diligent 
and painstaking research. His style was 
clear and exact, but in his historical work 
a multitude of facts and limited time and 
space allowed no opportunity for finished 
writing or beautiful language. From his 
address to the Indian children at the county 
Centennial, we take the following extract 
as illustrative alike of his style, thought 
and language " Two hundred years and 
more have elapsed since Christian civili- 
zation confronted your forefathers in the 
Schuvlkill vallev. Your hunting grounds 
have been turned into wide areas of agri- 
cultural wealth and commercial splendor, 
and the rude implements of their simple 
mode of living are now here on exhibition 
as antique curiosities. Back to the Alle- 
ghenies, across the " Father of Waters," 
over and beyond the Rocky mountains 
your race has receded, and from the plains 
and forests of the Pacific slope, you have 
been gathered as the children of lost tribes, 
in the hope of saving the remnant of a peo- 
ple whose origin is still an ethnological 
mystery, and whose honor is vouched for 
by Acrelius, Penn, Logan, Heckwelder, | 
Gordon and Weiser." 

As a writer of biographical history, 
Moses Auge was exceedingly successful, 
and his biographical volume relating to , 



Montgomery county is a valuable and well 
written work. 

Howard M. Jenkins' history of Philadel- 
phia is recognized as a standard work, and 
his earlier historical efforts were made in 
this county. 

Morgan R. Wills wrote the historical 
sketch of Montgomery county that is given 
in Dr. Egle's history of Pennsylvania, and 
of those who assisted Theodore W. Bean 
on the history of Montgomery county, 
Frank G. Hobson was one who did valuable 
work. 

County Progress. — Montgomery county, 
while characterized by neither wonderful 
growth nor phenomenal development, yet 
has always been in the front rank of the 
progressive counties of the state. With 
good soil and considerable water power, 
traversed by two important railways, and al- 
most included within the suburbs of one of 
the greatest cities of the North American 
continent, the county should be noted for 
the prosperity of its present industries and 
most excellent facilities for future enter- 
prises. 

Montgomery county, rich within her own 
agricultural resources, her manufacturing 
interests and her commercial facilities, need 
never occupy any but a prominent and 
useful position in the wealth and develop- 
ment of the mighty and populous State 
which is the keystone of the arch of the 
Union. 

Such is the spirit of change, and such is 
the march of progress, that prophecy sel- 
dom becomes history ; yet if material de- 
velopment has meaning, if mental culture 
and moral growth stand for life and prog- 
ress, then will the future career of Montgom- 
ery county be as worthy as her past record 
is honorable. 

Samuel T. Wiley. 



BIOGRAPHICAL 
SKETCHES 



BIOGRAPHIES 



HON. HENRY K. WEAND, additional 
law judge of the thirty-eighth judicial 
district of Pennsylvania, is a son of Barned 
and Sarah (Krepps) Weand, and a native of 
Pottstown, this county, where he was born 
March 29, 1838. The Weands are of Ger- 
man extraction, and the family takes rank 
with the early settlers of the Keystone 
State. Wendell Weand, paternal grand- 
father of Judge Weand, was a prosperous 
farmer of Montgomery county, an old 
line Whig in politics and a Lutheran in re- 
ligious faith. He died in New Hanover 
township, this county, and his remains 
sleep in the Swamp church cemetery, in 
that township. He married Catharine Dot- 
terer and had a family of eleven children, 
one of his sons being Barned Weand (father), 
who was born at the old homestead in New 
Hanover township, December 10, 1805. He 
was reared on the farm, educated in the 
common schools, and afterward engaged suc- 
cessively in butchering, shoemaking and 
hotel keeping. His death occurred at Potts- 
town, September 15, 1S62, at the age of 
fifty-seven. He was a Whig and Republi- 
can in politics, took an active part in public 
affairs, served as a member of the town 
council of Pottstown, and was at one time 
a prominent candidate for county treasurer. 
In 1832 he married Sarah Krepps, a native 
of this county, and a daughter of Henry 
Krepps, also descended from an old Penn- 
sylvania family of German ancestry. By 
this marriage he had a family of six chil- 
dren, four of whom still survive : Hiram 
B., now a resident of Harrisburg, Pennsyl- 
vania ; Sarah, married F. H. Auchy, of 



Pottstown ; James, residing at Pottstown, 
this county ; and Hon. Henry K. 

The boyhood of Judge Weand was spent 
in Pottstown and Philadelphia, and his edu- 
cation was obtained at institutions of learn- 
ing located in those places and at Norris- 
town. He studied law in 1S59 with Hon. 
B. M. Boyer, afterward president judge of 
this district, and was admitted to the bar in 
April, i860. Immediately after this he 
opened an office in Norristown and began 
practice, but when Fort Sumter was fired 
on and the whole North electrified by the 
opening thunders of the Civil war, the 
young attorney locked his office and sought 
the tented field, enlisting in April, 1861, as 
a member of Company K, 4th Pennsylvania 
infantry. Upon the organization of the 
company, Mr. Weand was commissioned 
first lieutenant, and served as such until 
the muster out of the regiment. In August, 
1862, he re-enlisted in the 15th Pennsylva- 
nia cavalry, commanded by Colonel W. J. 
Palmer, as a private, and was promoted 
through all the grades to captain. He- 
served with the army of the Potomac and 
Cumberland, taking part in the battles of 
Antietam, Stone River, Chickamauga, Moss 
Creek, Dandridge, and many other less 
noted engagements and skirmishes, and 
only returned to civil life when the Federal 
authority was everywhere acknowledged. 
For some weeks he was in the hospital at 
Knoxville, Tennessee, but during nearly all 
his long term of enlistment was able for 
official duty and always at his post. He was 
honorably discharged in June, 1865, and at 
once returned to Norristown and resumed 



52 



Biographical Sketches. 



the practice of law, which he continued 
until his elevation to the bench in 18S7. In 
that \ear lie was appointed additional law 
judge by Governor James A. Beaver, to fill 
a vacancy, and took his seat as such on the 
first Monday in December. The appoint- 
ment expiring in 1889, Judge Weaud was, 
in November, 1888, elected to the position 
for a full term of ten years, and is now dis- 
charging the delicate duties of that high 
office with ability and satisfaction alike to 
bar and public. 

In his political affiliations Judge Weand 
has always been a Republican, and previous 
to ascending the bench took an active in- 
terest in politics. He has frequently repre- 
sented this countv in State conventions of 
his party, and was twice a candidate for 
district attorney, but the district being 
largely Democratic at the time, he was de- 
feated with the rest of his ticket. Judge 
Weand has also been twice a candidate for 
congress from the Seventh Pennsylvania 
district, being defeated for nomination in 
1876 by I. N. Evans by only two votes. He 
was a notary public for twenty-two years, 
served as solicitor for the board of commis- 
sioners, sheriff, clerk of the courts and town 
council, and was president of the Norris- 
town school board for six or eight years, 
and a director of the Norristown Gas com- 
pany. In 1S73 Judge Weand was appointed 
judge advocate general on the staff of Gov- 
ernor Hartranft, with the rank of brigadier 
general, and served as such until the close 
of General Hartranft's administration. He 
is a member of the Masonic order ; of Zook 
Post No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic ; 
and of the Loyal Legion of Pennsylvania. 

On April 23, 1868, Judge Weand was 
married to Mary Lydia Boyer, a daughter 
of John and Harriet Boyer, of Norristown. 
To the judge and Mrs. Weand have been 



born three children, one son and two daugl 
ters: Harriet B., now the wife of Hug 
Jones Brooke, of Media, Pennsylvania 
Sarah E., and Ralph H., the last tw 
named living at home with their parents i 
their handsome residence at Norristown. 

As a lawyer Judge Weaud was able, fail 
industrious, always calm in the consider; 
tion of a case and extremely energetic in it 
prosecution. With a profound knowled" 
of the law, and familiar with the rules c 
practice, he was very successful in buildin 
up and maintaining a large legal busines: 
and was distinguished for his interest in th 
vounger members of the bar. As a judge 
he is upright, able and erudite in his dec 
sions, and has a quick perception of th 
equities and law points involved in a case 
He is a logical reasoner, an eloquent speake: 
and a man of esthetic tastes. Generous i 
disposition, he has seldom or never refuse 
an appeal for assistance, and although quic 
of temper, has perfect control of himsel 
and is of a forgiving nature which is hm 
rather than angered by injury done bin 
He is affable and pleasant in manner, but i 
fullv known bv onlv a few intimate friend; 



GENERAL JOHN W. SCHALL, wh 
served with distinction in the Civ 
war, and now holds the rank of brig; 
dier general in the National Guard of Pent 
sylvania, is a son of Hon. David and Catlu 
rine (Andy) Schall, and a native of Berk 
county, Pennsylvania, where he was bor 
June 22, 1834. The Schalls are descende 
from a prominent French Hugunot famih 
which was driven from France by the re 
ligious persecutions following the revoc; 
tion of the edict of Nantes. Members c 
this family finally made their way to th 




M,~y-tv^4 c l^t (_ 



Biographical Sketches. 



53 



new world and settled in Pennsylvania about 
1848, where their descendants have become 
somewhat numerous. Hon. George Schall, 
paternal grandfather of General Schall, was 
a resident of Berks county, this State, dur- 
ing the greater part of his life, where he 
was largely engaged in the manufacture of 
iron. He was a Jacksonian Democrat, be- 
came prominent in politics, served in vari- 
ous official positions, and was a member of 
the State senate at the time of his death in 
1831. 

He married Miss Catharine Oyster and 
reared a family of eight children, one of 
whom was Hon. David Schall (father), who 
was born at Oley, Berks county, this State, 
May 25, 1801. The latter received a supe- 
rior education, and succeeding to his father's 
interests, became a wealthy iron manufac- 
turer, and maintained his connection with 
that important industry all his life. Like 
his father, he espoused the cause of Demo- 
cracy, being a firm friend of popular gov- 
ernment, and was honored by his party with 
election to the office of associate judge of 
Berks county, which position he held for 
full two terms. He also served as a Demo- 
cratic elector in the National campaign of 
i860, and occupied main- other places of 
honor and trust. 

He was connected with the local militia, 
serving as major of his battalion. In reli- 
gion he was a member of the Reformed 
church, with which he was officially con- 
nected for many years. He died at Dale, 
Berks county, January 22, 1877, at the age 
of seventy-six years, and his remains rest in 
the cemetery connected with his church at 
that place. He married Catharine Andy, a 
native of Berks county, and a daughter of 
Jacob Andy. To that union was born a 
family of nine children, five sons and four 
daughters, all of whom grew to maturity 



and became active and useful citizens of 
the Keystone State. 

General John W. Schall was reared prin- 
cipally in Berks county, and educated in 
private schools at Trappe and Norristown, 
after which he pursued an extended course 
of advanced study in the Military academy 
at Norwich, Vermont. After graduating 
from the latter institution, he was connected 
for several years with an engineering corps 
under John C. Trautwiue, and later em- 
barked in the dry goods business at York, 
Pennsylvania, where he subsequentlv be- 
came a member and first lieutenant of the 
York rifles, a local military organization. 
Immediately upon the opening of the Civil 
war and the call of President Lincoln for 
volunteers, the York rifles proffered their 
services in a body, and was one of the first 
companies to enter the service fully armed 
and equipped. For this promptness in time 
of danger they were afterward awarded 
medals by the State. They were com- 
manded by Captain George Hay, and were 
duly mustered into service April 19, 1861, 
as Company K, 2nd Pennsylvania infantry, 
only four days after the President's procla- 
mation had been signed, and just one week 
after the first gun had thundered against 
Fort Sumter, and precipitated the greatest 
armed conflict of modern times. 

At the expiration of their term of enlist- 
ment — three months — Lieutenant Schall re- 
turned and organized a company for three 
years' service, but just then received au- 
thority from the secretary of war, Simon 
Cameron, to organize a regiment at York, 
Pennsylvania. Upon the formation of this 
regiment, the 87th Pennsylvania infantry, 
he was appointed colonel, but declining to 
accept that rank, was made lieutenant colo- 
nel, and served as such until May 9, 1862, 
when a vacancy occurring, he was promoted 



54 



Biographical Sketches. 



to the colonelcy of his regiment. The early 
service of Colonel Schall was mostly in the 
mountains of West Virginia, and during 
Lee's advance on Gettysburg he was en- 
eraered in a hotly contested fight at Win- 
Chester, under General Milroy, where he 
lost nearly his entire command in killed, 
wounded and prisoners, and got into Har- 
per's Ferry, after four days of fighting, with 
only sixtv men and riding another colonel's 
horse, his own having been shot from under 
him while leading a charge. Colonel Schall 
was subsequently transferred to the army of 
the Potomac — 3rd brigade, 3rd division, 6th 
army corps, and served in that command 
until the expiration of his term of enlist- 
ment. At the battle of Cold Harbor, Vir- 
ginia, he was shot through the right arm 
while commanding the brigade, but re- 
mained on the field until the fight termi- 
nated, and only then sought medical atten- 
tion for his injury. Colonel Schall was 
honorably discharged from military service 
October 14, 1S64, and upon that occasion 
was the recipient of the following letter of 
commendation from his superior officer, 
General James B. Ricketts, commandant of 
his division : 

Headquarters 3RD Division, 6th Corps, *> 
Office Assistant Adjutant General. / 

Colonel John W. Schall, 

87TH Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. 

Colonel : — Your time of service having expired with 
that of your gallant regiment, I cannot part with you 
without some expression of my high appreciation of 
your faithful services. 

Always zealous and reliable, you have shown the 
best quality of a soldier, which would bring certain 
promotion, had you determined to remain in the 
corps, which you have ornamented by your distin- 
guished conduct throughout the arduous summer 
campaign, since crossing the Rapidau in May last. 

I particularly recall your gallautry at Cold Harbor, 
where commanding a brigade, and wounded, you 
nobly refused to leave the field, and in the Valley 



where you shared in our glorious victories at Opequou 
and Fisher's Hill. 

I part with regret from so good a soldier, and wish 
you every success in your future life. 

Very sincerely your friend, 

JAMES B. RICKETTS, 
Brigadier General Volunteers and Major 1st United 
Slates Artillery, commanding 3rd Division, 6th 
Army Corps. 

Soon after returning to civil life, Colonel 
Schall located at Norristown, Montgomery 
county, and embarked in the iron trade. In 
April, 1875, he was appointed recorder of 
deeds for this county, to fill a vacancy, and 
was subsequently elected twice to that posi- 
tion, serving in all for a period of seven 
years. In 1890 he was appointed postmas- 
ter at Norristown by President Harrison, 
and served as such until 1894. 

General Schall's connection with the Na- 
tional guard of Pennsylvania began shortly 
after the war. He served as inspector of 
the National guard under General John F. 
Hartranft, and after the latter's election to 
the governorship, was appointed an aid on 
the Governor's staff, with the rank of lieu- 
tenant colonel. While General Hartranft 
was still in command of the division, in 
September, 1879, General Schall was elected 
colonel of the 6th regiment, and was re- 
elected several times. In July, 1894, he 
was appointed brigadier general of the first 
brigade by Governor Pattison, and is the 
present commandant of that brigade. 

On September 3, 1873, General Schall 
was united in marriage with Mary A. 
Hooven, a daughter of James Hooven (now 
deceased), of Norristown. Politically the 
General is an ardent Republican, and has 
always taken an active and intelligent in- 
terest in civic and governmental affairs, at 
the same time keeping himself thoroughly 
posted on everything pertaining to military 
matters. His life has been active and many- 



Biographical Sketches. 



55 



sided, its history comprising high records as 

a soldier, official, business man and citizen. 
General Schall is connected with the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and is also a 
member of the Masonic fraternity and the 
Loyal Legion. 



REV. THOMAS R. BEEBER, D. D., an 
able divine and the present pastor of 
the First Presbyterian church of Norris- 
town, is a son of Peter D. and Mary J. 
(Artley) Beeber, and was born at Mnncy, 
Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, June 18, 
1848. The Beeber (originally written Bie- 
ber) family trace their ancestry back to the 
Palatinate, Germany, and were residents of 
Berks county from 1764 to 1790, when sev- 
eral of its members removed to Lycoming 
county. Several of the Beebers served 
under Washington in the Revolutionary 

war. Beeber or Bieber, came from 

Germany in the ship Jencffer, commanded 
by Captain George Kerr, and lauded at 
Philadelphia November 6, 1764. His son, 
John Beeber, born near Wurtemberg, Ger- 
many, in 1762, was reared in Berks county, 
and served as a non-commissioned officer 
in the Revolutionary war. He enlisted in 
the 3rd Pennsylvania battalion, commanded 
by Colonel John Shee, was captured by the 
British, at Harlem Heights, November 16, 
1776, but escaped six days later. He served 
under Colonel Daniel Undree, and in the 
2nd battalion of Berks county militia at 
the battle of Brandywine, and was in active 
service until the close of the war. He was 
a fanner by occupation and wedded Julia 
Dimner, a daughter of George and Julia 
Dimner, of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania. 
John Beeber's sou, Colonel Jacob Beeber, 
was born in Muncy valley, Lycoming 



county, September 10, 1786, and became a 
prominent and useful man. He served in 
the Pennsylvania militia, commanding a 
regiment, and was a devoted member of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church. He was a 
farmer and a strong Democrat, and married 
Mary and Elizabeth Dimner, by whom he 
had several children. His eldest son, Petri 
D. Beeber, was the father of Dr. Beeber. 
Peter D. Beeber was first engaged in farm- 
ing, and afterwards became a mechanic and 
a retail coal dealer. He was an early oppo- 
nent of slavery and often declared that " If 
slavery were not wrong,nothing was wrong." 
He became a Republican against the oppo- 
sition of his family, and at the time when it 
required courage to do so. He took his 
three brothers with him into the Republi- 
can party, and in 1861 was elected as com- 
missioner of Lycoming county, being the 
only Republican candidate that year in the 
county who was successful. Mr. Beeber 
was one of the founders of the Muncy Luth- 
eran church, which was organized Novem- 
ber 7, 1852, and with three others was its 
chief financial support for many years. He 
filled every office of his church but that of 
pastor. He also took interest in the muni- 
cipal affairs of his borough, serving for 
many years as a councilman and school 
director. He was a man of integrity and great 
kindness of heart, and died May 6, 1876, 
in the sixty-first year of his age. On 
March 25, 1841, Mr. Beeber wedded Mary 
J. Artley, and to their union were born three 
sons: J. A., a lawyer, of Williamsport, this 
State; Dimner, an attornev-at-law, in Phila- 
delphia ; and Rev. Thomas R. Mrs. Bee- 
ber, who died December 2, 1869, aged fifty- 
two years, was of Holland descent, and a 
daughter of John and Christina (Duck) 
Artley. The Artley family was resident in 
Berks county until 1785, and Solomon Art- 



56 



Biographical Sketches. 



ley enlisted in a military company during 
the war of 1S12, but was never called into 
the field. 

Thomas R. Beeber was reared at Muncy, 
and prepared for college at Selinsgrove, 
this State. He entered Pennsylvania col- 
lege, at Gettysburg, Adams county, in 1865, 
and was graduated from that institution of 
learning in 1869, with the second honors of 
his class. In the autumn of 1869, he en- 
tered the Andover theological seminary, at 
Andover, Massachusetts, and was graduated 
in the class of 1872, after which he took the 
post graduate course of that institution. In 
January, 1873, he became associate pastor 
with Rev. Charles Beecher, a brother of 
Henry Ward Beecher, of the First Congre- 
gational church, of Georgetown, Massachu- 
setts. He remained there for two years and 
then resigned to accept a call made June 8, 
1875, from the Mahoning Presbyterian 
church, of Danville, Pennsylvania, which 
he served until March 8, 1880, when he ac- 
cepted a call from the Second Presbyterian 
church, of Scranton. He remained there 
seven years, and during his pastorate a 
handsome stone church structure was 
erected at a cost of eighty thousand 
dollars by his congregation. On March 21, 
1881, he received a call from the First 
Presbyterian church of Norristown, which 
he has served ever since. 

On August 17, 1874, Reverend Beeber was 
united in marriage by Rev. Charles Beecher, 
to Mrs. Mary F. Haley, of Georgetown, 
Massachusetts, a daughter of J. K. 
Harriman. To Rev. and Mrs. Beeber have 
been born two children : John Artley, born 
August 22, 1875, and died January 11, 1889; 
and Whitman Boynton, born May 26, 1877, 
and died June 27, 1885. Rev. Beeber 
has one adopted son, K. H. Beeber, who is 
a child bv Mrs. Beeber's first marriage. 



Rev. Thomas R. Beeber spent three 
months in 1878 on a European tour and 
visited many noted and sacred places of the 
world. He received the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from Lafayette college in 1891. 
He is a logical reasoner and an able speaker. 
Dr. Beeber has always taken an interest in 
church and general history. He is a mem- 
ber of the Montgomery county and the 
Philadelphia Presbyterian historical socie- 
ties. While at Scranton he was elected as 
a director of the oral school for the deaf, and 
was one of the most energetic workers in 
its behalf. Dr. Beeber is the author of 
several historical works of value and in- 
terest. He wrote and published histories of 
the First Congregational church of George- 
town, Massachusetts, and the Second Pres- 
byterian church of Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
He also wrote a pamphlet on the " History 
of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States," that has been highly commended. 
Dr. Beeber is conservative, but progressive 
in his religious views, has always been ap- 
preciated by his different charges, and is 
deeply interested in the home and foreign 
missions of the church. 



HON. IRVING PRICE WANGER, 
present member of the United States 
congress from the Seventh Pennsylvania 
district, is descended from early settlers of 
Montgomery county, of the religious sects 
known as Mennonites and Brethren or 
Dunkers. He was born March 5, 1852, in 
North Coventry township, Chester county, 
Pennsylvania, and is a son of George and 
Rebecca (Price) Wanger. All his ancestors 
in America — and the line extends over a 
period of nearly two centuries — were 
farmers. His father, the late George 





f, iUIUUSiT CO., tHVLA. 



Biographical Sketches. 



57 



Wanger, was a prominent citizen of the 
northern end of Chester county, and was 
known throughout that and Montgomery 
counties as a man of force of character, and 
an advocate of the improvement of the 
public school system. He became identi- 
fied with the movement for the abolition of 
slavery while yet a young man, and was 
active in the formation of the Republican 
party in Pennsylvania and in its early 
triumphs in this State. In 1850 he married 
Rebecca, a daughter of Rev. John Price, 
and reared a family of four sons. His 
death occured December 30th, 1876, in the 
fifty-seventh year of his age. 

Irving P. Wanger was reared on the old 
Wanger homestead in Chester county, and 
educated in the Public schools of his dis- 
trict and at the Pottstown high and Hill 
schools. He then taught for one year, and 
in 1870, became a clerk in the prothono- 
tary's office in Chester county. In 1871 he 
was appointed deputy prothonotary of that 
county, and resigned the position at tbe end 
of the year to engage in the study of law at 
Norristown. 

In January, 1872, he began his legal 
studies with Franklin March, a disting- 
uished member of the Montgomery county 
bar, and on December 1st of that year was 
appointed deputy under Win. F. Reed, the 
first Republican prothonotary ever elected 
in Montgomery county. Meanwhile he 
continued the stud}- of law, and having 
completed his preparation, was admitted to 
the bar in December, 1875. He soon rose 
in his profession, and secured and has main- 
tained a large practice, being regarded as 
an eloquent and logical pleader. In 1889 
he formed a partnership with Irvin P. 
Knipe, under the firm name of Wanger and 
Knipe, which is now among the most pros- 
perous legal firms in the countrv. 



From his earliest manhood Mr. Wanger 
has battled for Republican supremacy. He 
was elected burgess of Norristown at the 
age of twenty-six, and was solicitor of 
the school board for several years. In 1 88< >, 
he was elected district attorney for Mont- 
gomery county, being the first Republican 
ever chosen to that office in this county. 
As district attorney he instituted a reform 
in the practice of subpoenaing witnesses 
who had heretofore been required to attend 
court on the first day of the session. Mr. 
Wanger divided the cases among several 
days, requiring attendance only when the 
cases were set for trial, thereby effecting 
considerable saving in fees of witnesses, and 
greatly lessening the inconvenience of their 
attendance. The practice inaugurated by 
him has been uniformly followed by his 
successors. 

In 1880 Mr. Wanger was a delegate to 
the National convention, and voted con- 
tinuously against the unit rule, supporting 
Mr. Blaine in the convention until re- 
quested by friends of the latter to vote for 
General Garfield. In 1886 Mr. Wanger 
was again nominated for district attorney 
and was elected by a majority of one thous- 
and one hundred and seventy-eight votes, 
running several hundred ahead of his ticket, 
notwithstanding the fact that his opponent 
was one of the most popular candidates the 
Democracy ever nominated. In 1889 Mr. 
Wanger was made chairman of the Repub- 
lican county committee, and held that 
position until the end of the year, when he 
declined re-election. In the campaign of 
1890 he was unamimously nominated for 
congress by the Republicans of the Seventh 
district and made a vigorous canvass, be- 
ing defeated by only one hundred and 
eighty-seven votes, although so popular a 
candidate as Colonel Thomas J. Stewart 



58 



Biographical Sketches. 



lost the district by nine hundred and two, 
and Mr. Delarnater by two thousand two 
hundred and fourteen. In 1892 Mr. Wang- 
er was again nominated for congress by his 
party, and was elected by a majority of 
one hundred and eighty votes. After 
serving with distinction in the Fifty-third 
congress, where he held positions on the 
committees on public lands and on rail- 
ways and canals, he was re-nominated in 
1894 and re-elected by a majority of four 
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, as 
a member of the Fifty-fourth congress. In 
congress he has taken an active part in all 
important National legislation, particularly 
interesting himself in the silver bill, the 
tariff acts and the Indian appropriation 
bill. On every question he has ably and 
carefully represented the interests of his 
constituency, and for his re-election to the 
next congress has already received the 
most emphatic testimonial of regard and 
confidence which it is in the power of his 
fellow citizens of the Seventh congressional 
district to bestow. 

On June 25th, 1884, Mr. Wanger was 
united in marriage to Emma C. Titlow, 
daughter of the late John Titlow, of North 
Coventry, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
To them have been born five children, three 
of whom survive : George, Ruth and Mar- 
ion. The other two, Lincoln and Rebecca, 
died in infancy. Mr. Wanger lives at the 
old Chain homestead, No. 723 Main street, 
Norristown, which he has modernized, mak- 
ing it a very unique type of architecture. 
His mother from whom he inherits many 
of his characteristics, also makes her home 
with him. She is a sister of the late Rev. 
Isaac Price, a noted and eloquent preacher 
of the Brethren (Dunker's) church, and the 
descendant of a long line of preachers of 
that faith. In his own religious affiliations, 



Mr. Wanger is an Episcopalian, being a 
member of St. John's Episcopal church of 
Norristown. He is also a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Im- 
proved Order of Red Men, and of nearly 
all of the Masonic bodies of this State, lately 
being grand commander of the Knights 
Templar of Pennsylvania. 



JOHN SLINGLUFF, a leading business 
<J man of Montgomery county, and presi- 
dent of the Montgomery National bank, at 
Norristown, is a son of William H. and 
Mary (Knorr) Slingluff, and was born at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 3, 1839. The European an- 
cestor of the American Slingluff was Heiu- 
rich Schlengeluff, who went from Waldich 
to England and thence to America, landing 
in Philadelphia August 19, 1729, with his 
wife, whose maiden name was Anna Chris- 
tianna, which indicates her Swedish de- 
scent. He purchased a tract of land in Sal- 
ford township. Their son, John Slingluff, 
(1st in America), was the father of John 
Slingluff (2nd), who married Mary Hall- 
man, a very beautiful woman, and a daugh- 
ter of Anthony and Mary (Streeper) Hall- 
man, and a great-granddaughter of William 
Strieper, who once owned five thousand 
acres of land in the northern part of Phila- 
delphia county. John Slingluff (2nd) had 
eight children by this marriage, and his 
youngest child was William H. Slingluff, 
the father of the subject of this sketch. 
William H. Slingluff was born in Whitpain 
township March 19, 1805, and became 
prominently identified with the banking in- 
terests of the county. He entered the old 
Montgomery county bank (chartered in 
1814, and until 1856 the only bank in the 



Biographical Sketches. 



59 



county) in 1825, as junior clerk and watch- 
man, was made cashier four years later, and 
in 1868 was elected president, which latter 
office he resigned November 20, 1875, in 
favor of his son. The same day he accepted 
the office of vice-president and served as 
such until his death, which occurred April 
14, 1880. In 1861 he was instrumental in 
having the bank loan Governor Curtin 
(the war Governor of Pennsylvania) fifty 
thousand dollars in gold for the purpose of 
paying the volunteers in the field. He also 
designed and built the present fine bank 
building in 1854. He was one of the origi- 
nators and the first treasurer of the Norris- 
town water company and a director of the 
gas company, was connected with the three 
first building and loan associations of this 
borough, and in various wavs aided different 
worthy enterprises and commendable indus- 
tries. He was a Whig up to i860, and after 
that year joined the Democratic party. He 
was the candidate for congress on the Whig 
ticket in 1844, but was defeated. He 
served for many years as a member of the 
town council and the school board, of which 
he was treasurer. He was a public spirited 
man, and besides his business affairs, was a 
warm supporter of every movement looking 
to the public good. Thus when the Phila- 
delphia, Germantown and Norristown rail- 
road, the first in the State and county, was 
projected, he took stock and became a direc- 
tor of the company in 1844, continuing as 
such until his death in 1880. This project 
was looked upon by many business men as 
an unpaying enterprise, whose stock once 
fell in price from $50 to $1 per share, but 
later advanced to $240, and is now rated at 
$126. Mr. Slingluff was quick in perception, 
accurate in judgment and firm in carrying 
out his convictions. One well acquainted 
with him wrote of him " In business life he 



was an example of the highest integrity of 
character, and demanded the same qualities 
in others." He was generous, charitable 
and kind hearted, and assisted all in distress 
who came to him. William H. Slingluff, 
in 1833, wedded Mary Knorr, and to their 
union were burn five children : Sarah S., 
wife of Jacob L. Rex ; Clara S., married 
Dr. Henry Pawling, and after his death 
wedded Hiram H. Fisher, who is now dead ; 
Mary M., wife of Hon. A. B. Longaker ; 
John, (4th) (subject) ; and William F., a 
steam pipe manufacturer of Norristown. 
Mrs. W. H. Slingluff, who died November 
17, 1891, was a daughter of Mathias Knorr, 
and a great-granddaughter of John Genge 
and Hannah Knorr, who came from Ger- 
main- prior to 1698. Mathias Knorr wedded 
Man - Keyser, a direct descendant of Dirck 
or Derick Keyser, who came from Amster- 
dam, Holland, in 16S8, and was one of the 
original settlers of Germantown, a suburb 
of Philadelphia. 

John Slingluff was reared at Norristown, 
received his education in the public schools 
and Elmwood institute, at that time under 
charge of Rev. George Dering Wolf. Leav- 
ing school at the age of sixteen, in 1855, 
he commenced surveying and conveyanc- 
ing under J. Morton Albertson. Eighteen 
months later, in December, 1856, he quit 
sun-eying and became note clerk in the old 
Bank of Montgomery count}-, where he was 
promoted to cashier November 7, 1868, and 
elected president November 20, 1875. He 
has sen-ed continuously as president since 
1875. Mr. Slingluff inherited his father's 
remarkable business ability, and is promi- 
nently connected with nearly every leading 
business enterprise of the county. He is 
president of the Norristown Water compar- 
and treasurer of the Norristown ('.as and 
Cemetery companies. He is also treasurer 



6o 



Biographical Sketches. 



of the Montgomery Lead and Zinc Mining 
company and the Second Savings Fund and 
Loan association. He is president of the 
Norristown Junction Railroad company, 
and until January, 1895, of the Citizen's 
Passenger Railroad company, and a direc- 
tor of the Plymouth, Perkiomen, Stony 
Creek, Philadelphia Germantown and Nor- 
ristown, and the Philadelphia, Newtown 
and New York Railroad companies. He 
was a trustee for three years of the Norris- 
town asylum for the insane, succeeding 
General Hartranft in that position in 1889; 
has been for eighteen years an inspector of 
the Montgomery county prison and for fif- 
teen years president of the board. Mr. 
Slingluff was a Democrat in politics up to 
1884, since which year he has supported 
the Republican party. He was nominated 
in 1880 for congress but was defeated, 
although running ahead of his ticket. He 
is a director of the Norristown Woolen 
company, the Times printing company and 
president of the Economy Insurance com- 
pany. He has served as president of the 
Montgomery Fire company, and is now chief 
engineer. He is also treasurer of the Firemen's 
Association of Pennsylvania, and is an ex- 
president of the school board of Norristown. 
During the late Civil war in 1863, when 
Lee invaded Pennsylvania, he dropped all 
his business affairs and enlisted in Company 
E, 34th regiment, " Emergency Men," and 
served until the regiment was mustered out 
in August, 1863, after the Gettysburg battle. 
Mr. Slingluff is a prominent and active 
Mason, being a member and past officer of 
Charity Lodge No. 190, Free and Accepted 
Masons, Norristown ; Chapter 190, Royal 
Arch Masons ; Hutchinson Commandery 
No. 32, Knights Templar, is a life mem- 
ber of Gourgas Consistory, 33d Degree 
A. & A. Rite, of Pittsburg, this State, and 



Palestine Council No. 8, Royal and Select 
Masters. Besides being a member of the 
Grand Lodge, Chapter, Council and Com- 
mandery of the State, he served for several 
years as district deputy grand high priest, 
and is the oldest consecutive member of 
the nuance committee of the Grand Lodge. 
He is treasurer and a trustee of his lodge, 
has been the representative of the Grand 
Lodges of Georgia and West Virginia, in 
addition to his own lodge in the Grand 
Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

John Slingluff is a man of positive and 
practical business ability, and has won his 
way to position side by side with the fore- 
most business men of his section of the State. 
In religious opinion he is a supporter of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, of which Mrs. 
Slingluff is an active and useful member. 

On September 3, 1862, Mr. Slingluff 
married Wilhelmina Gilbert, a daughter of 
Frederick and Mary Gilbert, of Norristown. 
Mr. and Mrs. Slingluff have three children : 
Mary S., wife of Howard Boyd, of Norris- 
town ; William Hermann, cashier of the 
Montgomery National bank ; and Helen 
Gilbert Slingluff. They have but one grand 
child, James S. Boyd. 



GENERAL WILLIAM M. MINTZER 
is a veteran of the Civil war whose 
record is unique in several particulars. He 
enlisted as a private and won his way step 
by step to the rank of brevet brigadier gen- 
eral. General Mintzer is a native of Ches- 
ter county Pennsylvania, where he was 
born June 7, 1837. He is the oldest son of 
Henry and Rebecca (Bechtel) Mintzer, and 
his education was obtained principally in 
the public schools of Pottstown, to which 




fi^J/J& 




Biographical Sketches. 



61 



place his father had removed from Chester 
county, and where General Mintzer has re- 
sided ever since the war. When twenty 
years v of age he began learning the trade of 
machinist. As his apprenticeship of four 
years was expiring, the opening thunders 
of the Civil war electrified the land, and 
young Mintzer dropped his tools, like Put- 
nam left his plow, and hastened to enlist 
in defense of his country. It is said he was 
the first man from Pottstown to respond to 
the call for volunteers. He first enlisted 
for three months as a private in Company 
C, 4th Pennsylvania infantry, and was short- 
ly afterward made quartermaster sergeant 
of his regiment. In August, 1861, he re- 
enlisted as first lieutenant of Company A, 
53rd Pennsylvania infantry, and from that 
position was promoted in regular order 
through all the grades until he reached the 
rank of brevet-brigadier general. With his 
various commands, General Mintzer par- 
ticipated in the following engagements: 
Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Gaines' Mills, Peach 
Orchard, Savage Station, White Oak 
Swamp, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fred- 
ericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, 
Bristo Station, Mine Run, the Wilderness, 
Spottsylvauia, North Anna, Tatopotomy, 
Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Strawberry 
Plains, Deep Bottom, Ream's Station, 
Hatcher's Run (south side railroad,) Farm- 
ville and Appomattox. This record shows 
that General Mintzer was something of a 
fighter when fighting was to be done. Dur- 
ing all this time he was never captured by 
the enemy, and was wounded only twice — 
first at Fair Oaks and again at Fredericks- 
burg. Neither injury proved serious, and 
soon after the battle of Fredericksburg he 
was detailed as provost marshal of the 
First Division, Second Army Corps, then 
Commanded by General Hancock. When 



( reiieral Hancock took command of the Sec- 
ond Corps, Captain Mintzer with Com- 
panies A, B and K of his regiment, accom- 
panied him, and remained on duty at head- 
cpiarters of Second Army Corps until April, 
[864, when at his own request, he rejoined 
his regiment and served with it until mus- 
tered out June 30th, 1S65, by reason of the 
close of the war, having commanded the 
regiment from July, 1864. His war rec- 
ord covers the entire period from the first 
call for troops to the close of that gigantic 
struggle which has taken its place in his- 
tory as the greatest armed conflict of mod- 
ern times. 

After the war closed General Mintzer re- 
turned to Pottstown and engaged in the 
confectionery business. In 1869 he was 
appointed postmaster of this city, by Pres- 
ident Grant, and served as such during 
both administrations of Grant. He was 
appointed for the third term, but declined 
the office in order to engage in the coal 
business here, which he has ever since suc- 
cessfully conducted. 

On the 5th of February, 1863, General 
Mintzer was united in marriage to Amelia 
Weand, eldest daughter of David and Ma- 
tilda Weand, of Pottstown. To General 
and Mrs. Mintzer were born four children 
— three sons and a daughter — George M, 
Helen, deceased, August 21st, 1894, at the 
age of twenty-six, John H. and Charles F. 
General Mintzer is a member of the Luth- 
eran church, and is also connected with the 
Masonic fraternity, the Grand Army of the 
Republic, the Union Veteran Legion and 
Military order of the Loyal Legion. 

The family of which General Mintzer is 
descended is among the oldest in Pennsyl- 
vania. His paternal grandfather, William 
Mintzer,.was a stage line owner prior to the 
construction of the Reading railroad, and 



62 



Biographical Sketches. 



afterward engaged in merchandising at 
Pottstown. Henry Mintzer, father of Gen- 
eral William Mintzer, was a farmer and 
merchant, and a Republican. For several 
years he resided in Chester county, but 
subseqnently removed to Pottstown, this 
county. He was a very ardent Union man, 
and in 1861 was appointed postmaster of 
Pottstown by President Lincoln. He held 
that office until removed by Andrew John- 
son. 



JACOB FEGELY, president of the Na- 
tional Iron bank, and a prominent 
business man of Pottstown, is a son of 
Jacob Sr. and Susan (Miller) Fegely and 
was born in Washington township, Berks 
county, Pennsylvania, September 23rd, 
1831. 

Jacob Fegely, Sr., was born in Douglas 
township, Montgomery county, January 5, 
1795, and died January 17, 1878, aged 83 
years. He was a farmer by occupation, and 
a member of the Evangelical Lutheran 
church in which he was an officer and 
zealous worker. He was a Democrat politi- 
cally, and wedded Susan Miller, who was a 
daughter of Peter Miller, of Douglass town- 
ship, and passed away February 14, 1876, 
aged 79 years. Their children were : 
Maria, who married Reuben Fryer, and is 
deceased ; Solomon, now dead ; William, is 
living; Isaac, now dead ; Jacob ; Catherine, 
who married William Swineheart and is 
now dead ; Lucinda, wife of Milton Slon- 
aker, and one son who died in infancy. 

Jacob Fegely was brought at twelve 
vears of age by his parents to Pottsgrove 
township, where he grew to manhood on 
his father's farm. He attended the schools 
of his neighborhood and then learned the 



trade of millwright which he followed steadi- 
ly for five and one half years. At the end 
of that time, on February 1, 1853, he em- 
barked in the retail coal and iron business, 
and in 1856 he added the lumber busi- 
ness. 

Five years later he helped to organize the 
railroad car building firm of Evans, Fegely 
and Co. In 1862 Mr. Evans withdrew and 
the firm became Fegely and Co., which 
continued up to 1864, when they disposed 
of their car works, and Mr. Fegely, who 
was still in the retail coal and lumber busi- 
ness, engaged in the manufacture of lumber 
upon an extended scale. He purchased in 
Columbia county, large tracts of timber 
land which he cut, sawed and worked up 
into lumber for the eastern markets. After 
being actively engaged in the lumbering 
business for twelve years, he turned his at- 
tention to the mining of iron-ore, and in 
July, 1872, became a partner in the firm of 
Gable, Fegely and Jones, of which he was 
elected treasurer. Their mines were in 
Berks county, and in 1873 they sold to the 
Warwick Iron company, in which Mr. 
Fegely became interested and was elected 
to his present position of treasurer. Dur- 
ing all this time he still dealt in coal, lum- 
ber and iron, and continued on in that line 
until 1866, when he disposed of his mills 
and lumber yard. He then more directly 
interested himself in business operations at 
Pottstown which he has continued up to 
the present time. In 1886 he associated 
with him his son, Calvin, under the firm 
name of J. Fegely & Son, and opened a 
large wholesale and retail hardware and 
mill supply establishment and extensive 
coal yard. In 1886 he was elected to his 
present position as president of the National 
Iron bank of Pottstown, and in the succeed- 
ing year, 1887, became president of the 



Biographical Sketches. 



63 



Pottstown Security company, while two 

years later, in 1SS9, he was elected president 
of the South Bethlehem National bank. 
He helped to organize these three financial 
institutions of which he is president, and 
the immense amount of work which their 
management placed upon him did not take 
up all his time. 

He then became interested in other en- 
terprises. He is president of the Bramcote 
Land company and the Pottstown Ceme- 
tery company ; a director in the Potts- 
town Market, and the Pottstown Light, 
Heat and Power companies ; also treasurer 
of the Bannockburn mills and a large stock- 
h^lder in the Warwick Iron, and the Potts- 
town Water companies, and on January 1, 
1893, was appointed receiver in connection 
with William M. Gordon, of the Pottstown 
Iron company. He is one of the largest 
real estate owners at Pottstown, and has a 
valuable farm in Chester county, which he 
personally supervises. 

Jacob Fegely is an independent Demo- 
crat in politics. He is a member of Em- 
manuel's Lutheran church, of which he 
has been treasurer for twenty-five years. He 
is a member of the board of trustees of 
Muhlenberg college, and Mt. Airy Theo- 
logical seminary, and a director of the 
Pottstown hospital. Mr. Fegely is one of 
that class of practical, energetic and meth- 
odical business men, who give life and 
prosperity to all financial and industrial en- 
terprises with which they are engaged, and 
whose success in every field is the assured 
result of good management and careful fore- 
sight. 

On Christmas, 1853, Mr. Fegely married 
Alary A. Hunsberger, a daughter of John 
Hunsberger, of Chester county. To their 
union have been born seven children, of 
whom four are dead : Jacob Edgar, George 



B. McC, Annie and Clara. The three that 
are living are : Calvin, a partner in business 
with his father; Mary R., wife of George 
W. Gilbert ; and Susan B., wife of Dr. 
Charles Vanderslice, of Phoenixville, Ches- 
ter eountv. 



HON. HIRAM CONRAD HOOVER, 
ex-member of the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature and the last associate judge of the 
courts of Montgomery county, is a son of 
Hon. Philip and May Mary (Conrad) Hoo- 
ver, and was born in Gwynedd township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, October 
23, 1822. Between 1727 and 1776, several 
immigrants by the name of Huber came 
from the Palatine, Switzerland, and landed at 
Philadelphia. Of this number were four 
brothers, Christian, John, Martin and Jacob, 
who came in the ship Pink Plesance, com- 
manded by John Paret. These brothers 
landed on September 21, 1732, and at that 
time Jacob was under sixteen years of age. 
These four brothers were the only ones of 
all immigrant Hubers that changed their 
name from Huber to Hoover. One brother 
went to western Pennsylvania, another to 
Lancaster county, the third to one of the 
southern states, and Jacob, the youngest, 
seems to have been the Jacob Hoover, who 
bought a farm in Plumstead township, 
Bucks county, in 1748. While family 
records cannot be found, yet there is suffi- 
cient evidence to establish the fact that 
Jacob Hoover was the father of Henry 
Hoover and the great grandfather of Judge 
Hoover. Henry Hoover was born in 1751, 
in Bucks county, wdiere he married Mar- 
garet Kern. He moved in 1797 from Hill- 
town township, Bucks county, to Gwynedd 
township, Montgomery county, wdiere he 



6 4 



Biographical Sketches. 



purchased a farm of two hundred acres. He 
was a Jeffersonian Democrat and a member 
of the Reformed church, and a man of 
great will power. When troops were or- 
dered out to suppress the Fries Rebellion in 
eastern Pennsylvania, one regiment of in- 
fantry sought to take his buildings as tem- 
porary quarters, but he refused with such de- 
termination that the}- went to an adjoining 
farm. Henry Hoover died April 9, 1809, 
aged fifty-seven years, and his widow passed 
away November 27, 1813, at sixty-two years 
of age. They had five children : Christian, 
Jacob, Hon. Philip, Elizabeth, who married 
John Rile, and Mary, wife of William 
Kneedler. Hon. Philip Hoover became 
the owner of one-half of the home farm, 
and his life is well described by his son, 
Judge Hiram C. Hoover, in a paper read at 
a reunion of the children of Frederick W. 
Hoover, on New Year's day, 1S95, at Hoo- 
verton, and from it we quote : " While I do 
not propose to write my father's biography 
at this time, I will note some things in his 
life that may not be known to many of his 
descendants. First I will mention the fact 
that what education he received in his 
youth was in the German language, and 
after his marriage, was taught to read and 
write English by my mother, who had re- 
ceived a good education in both languages. 
He became a member of a volunteer organi- 
zation when but eighteen years old, thus 
manifesting a military spirit, and rose from 
the ranks to be captain, and during the War 
of 1812-14, he served as lieutenant of an- 
other company for three months (as the or- 
ganization to which he formerly belonged 
disbanded). He really had command of 
this company, for the captain returned 
home soon after being mustered into ser- 
vice. He also furnished a team to convey 
military stores and ammunition from Phila- 



delphia to Marcus Hook. He was after- 
wards elected colonel of a regiment of 
militia. He filled many offices in the 
township, such as assessor, collector of 
taxes, etc., and in i83i-'32-'33 was elected 
a member of the State legislature, where he 
served on several important committees, 
and discharged his duty with credit and 
satisfaction to his constituents — all the po- 
sitions having sought him, as he did not 
aspire to them. He also settled many es- 
tates as executor, administrator and guar- 
dian, in all of which he rendered satisfac- 
tory accounts. He was regularly cate- 
chised and received into Boehm's Reformed 
church by the Rev. George Wack, pastor, 
and in the year 1810 was elected a deacon, 
and served in that office until 1823, when 
he was elected an elder, and continued in 
that office (except three years) until his 
death in the year 1865 — a period of over 
forty years. He held the office of president 
and treasurer of the consistory during sev- 
eral years ; was also frequently a delegate 
of the classis and the synod. He was born 
July 20th, 1782, and was married to Mary 
Conrad November 13th, 1804. They were 
the parents of thirteen children, but only 
six reached the age of maturity. Mary 
Conrad Hoover, daughter of Hon. Freder- 
ick Conrad (who was a member of congress 
for four years) was born August 23rd, 1785 ; 
died October 17th, 1868, aged eighty-three 
years, one month and twenty-four days." 

Their children were : Frederick W., Ju- 
lian, Susanna, Maria, Henry C, Ann Cath- 
arine, Judge Hiram C, Albert C, Ann 
Elizabeth, Andrew J., and two sons and 
one daughter that died in infancy. 

Judge Hiram C. Hoover received his edu- 
cation in common and select schools, and 
then studied surveying. Possessing fine 
musical talent, he began to teach music and 



] ! k m i raphical Sketches. 



65 



organize church choirs at an early age. 
After leaving school and while teaching 
music, he engaged in fanning, which he 
followed until 1S72. In 1849 he bought a 
part of the St. Clair estate in Norriton 
township, and when the Stony Creek rail- 
road, in 1872, was built through a part of 
his land, his neighbors insisted upon his 
building grain and mercantile stores where 
the railroad crossed Germantown turnpike. 
He did so and then founded Hooverton, 
which has absorbed Penn Square and gives 
promise of future importance. He soon re- 
tired from these lines of business, and the 
feed, coal and lumber business is now in 
the hands of his sou William A., where the 
general mercantile establishment is con- 
ducted by his son-in-law, Albertus Hallmau. 
Judge Hoover now lives a retired life, ex- 
cept what time he gives to his interests as a 
stockholder in several industrial enter- 
prises. He has served as guardian for the 
heirs of eighteen estates, and not a single 
exception has ever been filed to any estate 
account he ever presented. He is now serv- 
ing his twentieth year as treasurer of the 
Philadelphia classis, whose financial matters 
include seven different accounts, which have 
been found correct by the finance committee 
each year. In early life Judge Hoover took 
interest in military affairs. He was a mem- 
ber of the First Troop of Montgomery 
cavalry sixteen years, and in 1861 sought to 
reorganize the troop for active service in the 
war, but was prevented by circumstances 
beyond his control. He has been active 
and useful in civil, educational and religious 
affairs, and has done much toward the de- 
velopment and upbuilding of his section of 
the county. He is a Democrat in politics 
and has filled many of the most impor- 
tant political offices of his county. He- 
served as a member of the Pennsylvania 

5 



house of representatives in 1861, 1862 and 
in 1863, and during his three consecutive 
terms served on many leading committees, 
having been chairman of the committee on 
agriculture in 1863. In 1865 he was elected 
associate judge of Montgomery county, and 
in 1870 was elected for a second term which 
ended in 187 s. when the office was abol- 
ished by the state constitution of 1874. In 
his township he served as a justice of 
the peace for fifteen years and as a school 
director for seventeen years, while in his 
party he was made chairman of the county 
committee for three successive years. Judge 
Hoover has served as a trustee of Ursinus, 
and Franklin and Marshall colleges, and 
has been president of the Norristown and 
Central Square Turnpike company from its 
organization in 1868. In 1844, when the 
Philadelphia riots occurred, he served as 
an officer in the First Troop of Montgomery 
count}', one of the companies that sup- 
pressed them. He is an old and prominent 
Mason, being a member of Charity Lodge 
No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons ; a life 
member of Chapter No. 190, Royal Arch 
Masons ; also a charter member of No. 32, 
Knights Templar. Judge Hoover has been 
an elder in Boehm's Reformed church 
since 1856, has been president of the con- 
sistory during all the time except two 
years, and frequently served as a delegate 
to various church bodies. But among his 
most important religious work must be 
named the instruction of different Bible 
classes and the efficient supervision of sev- 
eral Sunday-schools in which noble labors 
he has spent many arduous but happy 
hours, during a period of forty-five years of 
continuous service. 

( >n March 4, 1847, Judge Hoover wedded 
Margaret Dull, youngest daughter of Fred- 
erick and Sarah Dull, of YYhiteniarsh town- 



66 



Bn (Graphical Sketches. 



ship. To Judge and Mrs. Hoover were born 
four children : Win. A., Irvin W., now dead ; 
Sarah D., married Jas. W. Hercus, of Wash- 
ington city, and died March 18, 1894 ; and 
Mary M., who married Alebrtus Hallman, 
a leading business man of Hooverton. 

He is also a member of the Historical 
Society of Montgomery county and has 
been president for the last six years, was 
president of the Agricultural society of 
Montgomery county for three years and an 
active member during its existence, and 
has taken active part in various literary 
societies that have been organized in the 
neighborhood. 



HARRY H. WHITCOMB, M. D., Ph. D., 
of Norristown, was born in the city 
of Philadelphia on the third of October, 
1855, and is a son of John and Harriet 
H. (Huston) Whitcomb. His paternal 
ancestors have been resident of Eastern 
Pennsylvania for four generations, com- 
ing originally from Swampscott, near Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts, at which place the 
American branch of the family was found- 
ed by emigrants from England. John Whit- 
comb, sr., (grandfather) was born in Mont- 
gomery county. He was a farmer, blacksmith 
and tradesman, and wedded Elizabeth Jen- 
kins, a daughter of John Jenkins, from whom 
Jenkintown derives its name. He was retired 
during the latter years of his life and died 
at Centre Square in 1870. 

John Whitcomb, junior, was born at 
Dresherstown, Pennsylvania, in 18 17. He 
followed farming for a few years and then 
became a veterinary surgeon, being among 
the oldest of that class of professional men in 
Montgomery county. He is a Democrat 
and has resided for manv vears at Centre 



Square. He wedded Harriet H. Huston, 
and of the seven children born to them, 
Albanus S., Dr. Harry H., Laura V., Anna 
D. and H. Belle grew to maturity and are 
still living. Mrs. John Whitcomb is of 
Scotch-Welsh ancestry and her father, Cap- 
tain John Huston, served as a commissioned 
officer in the war of 181 2. The Hustons 
have been resident in the county for nearly 
two centuries and are of the same stock as 
General Samuel Houston of Texas. 

Dr. Harry Huston Whitcomb, although 
born in Philadelphia, was reared at Blue Bell 
and Centre Square and received his educa- 
tion in the public schools and the Millers- 
ville State Normal School. At the age of 
fifteen years he began his career and leav- 
ing school taught for three years ; he then 
followed merchandising for a year but 
neither of these pursuits being congenial, 
he resolved upon the profession of Medicine 
as a life vocation. He read under Dr. Win. 
Pepper, ex-Provost of the University of Pa., 
and in 1877 entered the medical department 
of that university, from which he was grad- 
uated in the year 1880, with the degrees of 
M. D. and Ph. D. In September of his 
graduating year he located at Norristown 
where he has since continued to practice. 
He was Health Officer from 1888 to 1893 
and then became President of the Board of 
Health. He has been a member of the 
Committee of County Visitors for the State 
Board of Charities for thirteen years and 
visiting physician to the St. Joseph's Pro- 
tectory for six years. He is an ex-officer 
of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, 
having served as second vice president in 
1892. He was president for one year of the 
Montgomery County Medical Society and 
secretary for six years, which latter office 
he still retains. He is a member of the 
New Jersey State Medical Society and of 



Biographical Skktciies. 



67 



the American Medical Association. He 
has been a member of the United States 
Board of Pension Examiners for Montgom- 
ery county for ten years, during three of 
which he has served as its president. In 
all of these various and responsible offices 
Dr. Whitcomb has served efficiently. 

Dr. Whitcomb, who is popular as a phy- 
sycian, has a large and lucrative practice. 
Politically he is a Democrat, but on local 
matters he has been Independent, support- 
ing men and measures for borough progress 
without reference to party. He is a mem- 
ber of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Norristown, and holds membership in the 
American Legion of Honor. 



JAMES B. HOLLAND, district attorney 
of the Thirty-eighth judicial district of 
Pennsylvania, and senior member of the 
well know law firm of Holland and Dettra, 
of Norristown, is a native of Montgomery 
county, and was born in Gwynedd township, 
November 14, 1858. His parents were 
James and Sarah (Miller) Holland, the for- 
mer a native of England and the latter 
born in Marlboro township, this county, of 
Dutch ancestry. The subject of this sketch 
was reared in Gwynedd township and at 
Spring Hill. His preliminary education 
was obtained in the public schools of his 
native township, and in 1874 he entered 
the High school at Conshohocken, from 
which institution he was graduated in the 
spring of 1877, under R. F. Hoffecker, then 
principal of that school but now superin- 
tendent of instruction for Montgomery 
county. Immediately after graduating, Mr. 
Holland began teaching, and was thus em- 
ployed for a period of three years in the 
State of Virginia and afterward for a time 



at Lafayette, this county. In 1SS1 the 
Republicans carried Montgomery county, 
and on February 1, 1882, Mr. Holland was 
appointed clerk of the board of commission- 
ers by James Burnett, which position he 
filled acceptably until May 1, 1887. While 
in the commissioner's office he applied his 
spare time to the study of law, under the 
direction of Hon. Aaron S. Swartz, and 
having passed the usual examination, was 
duly admitted to the bar of Montgomery 
county in December, 1886. In May fol- 
lowing, he resigned his clerkship in the 
commissioner's office and was appointed so- 
licitor for the county commissioners, which 
position he held until January, 1893. At 
the former time, 1887, he opened a law 
office at Conshohocken, and has been con- 
tinuously engaged ever since in the active 
practice of his profession. As a lawyer he 
has been connected with a number of im- 
portant civil and criminal cases, and his 
management and pleading have given him 
recognition as one of the rising young 
lawyers of the bar of this county. In 1891 
he formed a law partnership with Mr. John 
M. Dettra, under the firm name of Holland 
and Dettra, and they have a large general 
and lucrative practice. 

Mr. Holland is a Republican in politics. 
He has always taken an active interest in 
political matters, and served as chairman 
of the Republican county committee in 
1890. For several years previous he had 
been one of its secretaries, and has frequent- 
ly borne a prominent part in the conven- 
tions of his party and has advocated its 
principles as a public speaker since [886. 
In 1892 Mr. Holland was nominated and 
elected district attorney of Montgomery 
county — the Thirty-eight judicial district 
of the State — and is now discharging the 
duties of that important office. He served 



6S 



Biographical Sketches. 



for three years as a school director of Con- 
shohocken, and is a director of the Norris- 
town Title Trust and Safe Deposit company, 
and of the Conshohocken Tube works. In 
religious belief he is an Episcopalian, and 
is a regular attendant of the Calvary Epis- 
copal church of Conshohocken, of which 
his wife is a member. He is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity — lodge, chapter and 
commandery — and is also connected with a 
number of political and social organizations, 
in all of which he is popular. 

On November 14, 1883, Mr. Holland was 
united in marriage to Lydia Sheard, a 
daughter of Luke Sheard, of Norristown, 
Pennsylvania. To Mr. and Mrs. Holland 
have been born two children, both sons : 
Winfield S. and J. Burnett. 

James Holland, the father of the subject 
of the foregoing sketch, was born in Eng- 
land about 1820, the son of a Lincolnshire 
farmer, who lived and died in that country. 
When about four years of age he was 
brought bv relatives to the United States, 
and was reared and educated in Pennsyl- 
vania. He was connected as an employee 
with the iron works of eastern Pennsyl- 
vania during most of his life, though his 
first employment was farming. Originally 
a Democrat, he became a Republican at the 
time of the Civil war, and ever afterward 
supported that party. He was an indus- 
trious man of good habits, though not a 
member of any church, and died at Cons- 
hohocken, this county, in 1884. In 18 — 
he married Sarah Miller, a daughter of 
Henry Miller, of Marlboro township, and 
by that union had a family of fourteen 
children, of whom James B. Holland was 
the eighth. Mrs. Holland was a mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church, and died 
in 1880, aged fifty-nine years. Of their 
fourteen children, only eight now survive. 



WILLIAM McDERMOTT, for twenty, 
one years the cashier of the First 
National bank of Conshohocken, is the 
second son and only surviving child of 
William and Mary (McCorkell) McDermott, 
and was born September 1, 1825, in Upper 
Merion township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania. The family is of direct 
Irish descent, both parties having been 
born and reared on the Emerald Isle. 
They emigrated to America early in the 
present century and settled in this country. 
The father was a weaver by occupation, an 
old school Presbyterian in religious faith, 
and took an active interest in church and 
temperance work. He died May 4, 1838, 
and his wife passed from earth February, 
1852. They reared a family of six children, 
of whom only the subject of this sketch 
now survives. Mary, married Samuel Grif- 
fith, of Norristown ; James, married Nannie 
Irwin, of New Lisbon, Ohio ; Martha, Mar- 
garet, Alexander and William. 

William McDermott was reared at Nor- 
ristown, this county, where he obtained a 
good common school education, and in 
1839, at the age of fourteen, entered the 
employ of James Hagan, -a merchant of 
Norristown, as clerk and salesman. He 
remained with Mr. Hagan until the latter 
quit business in 1841, and in September of 
the following year became an apprentice in 
the office of the Norristown Herald, where 
he worked at the case beside Judge Butler, 
late of the United States District court, 
who was then one of the editors of the 
paper, the other being Robert Iredell. 
After a service of six years on the Herald, 
as a compositor and local reporter, Mr. 
McDermott became an employee on the 
Montgomery Watchman, and remained two 
years with the latter journal. In May, 
1850, he entered the bank of Montgomery 



Bi< (Graphical Sketches. 



69 



counts- as book-keeper, but was soon pro- 
moted to the position of teller, which post 
he held uninterruptedly until 1873, when he 
resigned to accept the office of cashier in 
the First National bank of Conshohocken, 
then just organized. Mr. McDermott was 
largely instrumental in the organization of 
this bank, which began business March 13, 
1S73, and its success has been due in no 
small degree to his ability, energy and 
sound financial management. He continued 
to discharge the duties of cashier until Oc- 
tober, 1894, when failing health compelled 
his resignation, and he has since practically 
retired from active business. His career 
has been one of unusual activity, and in ad- 
dition to its main features as outlined 
above, he has been connected with man)' 
other business enterprises, and has em- 
ployed his talents in literary, religious and 
temperance work. While residing in Nor- 
ristown he was treasurer of several build- 
ing associations, secretary of the Norris- 
town Water company, and secretary of the 
Norristown Library company, which posi- 
tion he has held continuously since 1859. 
At Conshohocken he was treasurer of the 
Conshohocken Gas company, a member of 
the town council and a member of the 
school board for a number of years. 

In religion Mr. McDermott adheres to 
the faith of his father, and is a strict Pres- 
byterian. He connected himself with that 
church in 1843, was made a ruling elder of 
the Central Presbyterian church of Norris- 
town in 1855, and served as superintendent 
of the Sunday-school connected with the 
Central Presbyterian church here for a 
period of twenty years. For three years 
he was treasurer of the State Sunday-school 
association of Pennsylvania, and became 
widely known as an earnest and successful 
Sunday-school worker. To him belongs 



the honor of having been the first news 
reporter in the count}'. He began writing 
for the press when eighteen years of age, 
and has continued to do more or less jour- 
nalistic work all his lite. During the Civil 
war he edited the National Defender of 
Norristown, while its owner was serving in 
the army, and later was editor of the Inde- 
pendent for a number of years. He has 
been a correspondent of the Herald, over 
the nom de plume of " Vidi," since 1848, 
and for seventeen years contributed regu- 
larly to the Montgomery Ledger, besides 
many contributions to other local and na- 
tional journals. In addition to his news- 
paper work he wrote an historical sketch on 
the subject of banking for the Montgomery 
Historical society, and prepared a paper on 
" Currency " for the National Bankers' as- 
sociation, in which he proposed a system 
of " low rate bonds as a basis for circula- 
tion," which system was afterward recom- 
mended by the comptroller of the cur- 
rency. 

On November 23, 1854, Mr. McDermott 
was married to Elizabeth Campbell, a 
daughter of Alexander and Martha Camp- 
bell, a descendant of the famous Campbells 
of Scotland. By this union he had two 
daughters : Ida and Bertha, both now de- 
ceased. Mrs. Elizabeth McDermott died 
October 7, 1874, from the effects of injuries 
received by her dress catching fire, and six 
years later, June 23, 1880, Mr. McDermott 
was again married, wedding for his second 
wife Ellen Davis, a daughter of Benjamin 
and Hannah Davis, of Chester county. 

In politics Mr. McDermott was an old 
line Whig until the formation of the Re- 
publican party in Pennsylvania, since which 
time he has been a staunch adherent of that 
political organization. He was secretary 
of a Henry Clay club in Norristown before 



Biographical Sketches. 



he had reached his majority, and has always 
taken an active and intelligent interest in 
political affairs. For half a century he has 
discussed party questions in the public prints 
and been recognized as one of the best 
posted men in Montgomery county. At 
one time his name was mentioned as a can- 
didate for the State senate from this dis- 
trict. 



FRANK M. HOBSON, president of the 
Perkiomen and Reading Turnpike 
company, is a son of Francis and Mary M. 
(Bringhurst) Hobsou, and was born near 
Royer's Ford, in Limerick township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, January 22, 
1830. His first American ancestor was 
Francis Hobson, Sr. , who was an English 
Quaker or member of the Society of 
Friends, and came from England either 
with Penn or shortly afterwards. Francis 
Hobson, Sr., first settled in Chester county, 
and, in 1743, came to Limerick township, 
where he purchased the valuable farm of 
two hundred and sixty-eight acres of land 
that has been in the possession of his de- 
scendants until 1852. Francis Hobson died 
in 1748, and the farm came in possession of 
his son, Francis Hobson, Jr., who died in 
1 791, and left to his sons, Moses and John 
Hobson, the latter being the father of 
Francis Hobson, who died in 1831. Fran- 
cis Hobson, who inherited the farm, was 
born October 10th, 1803, and like his father, 
grandfather and great-grandfather before 
him, followed farming. He served as a 
Union soldier in the late civil war, and died 
August 24, 1874, when in the seventy-first 
year of his age. He married Mary A. 
Bringhurst, a daughter of Israel Bring- 
hurst, and to their union were born two 
children : Frank M. (sketch) ; and Sarah 



H., who married D. D. Detwiler, M. D., 
and after his death married Rev. Henry W. 
Super, D. D., LL. D. 

Frank M. Hobson was reared on the old 
homestead, received his education at Wash- 
ington Hall school, Trappe, and at eighteen 
years of age removed to the Trappe, where 
he taught school and followed farming for 
eight years. He then, in 1856, came to 
Collegeville, where he was engaged in the 
mercantile business until 1880, since which 
time he has lived partly a retired life. 
During his active business life at College- 
ville, he did a large amount of surveying 
and conveyancing, besides settling sixteen 
estates, one of which was that of his uncle, 
Wright A. Bringhurst, who left one hun- 
dred and ten thousand dollars for the bene- 
fit of the worthy poor of Norristown and 
Pottstown boroughs and the township of 
Upper Providence. Mr. Hobson also served 
during that time as postmaster and treas- 
urer of the Building and Loan association 
of Collegeville ; as auditor and school 
director of his township ; and as director 
of the First National bank of Norristown, 
and the Iron bank of Phoenixville, Chester 
county. With retirement from steady busi- 
ness, Mr. Hobson has not sought withdrawal 
from business entirely, and is still depended 
upon by his fellow citizens to fill several 
positions of trust and responsibility. He 
has been a tnistee of the Bringhurst trust 
since its establishment ; secretary and treas- 
urer of Ursinus college, and a director of 
the Perkiomen and Reading Turnpike com- 
pany, and the First National bank of Nor- 
ristown for nearly twenty years. 

On October 8, 1856, Mr. Hobson was 
united in marriage with Lizzie Got- 
waltz, a daughter of Jacob and Hester 
(Vanderslice) Gotwaltz, of this county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hobson have two children, a son 



Biographical Sketches. 



and a daughter : Freeland G. and Mary M. 
Freeland G. Hobson, a graduate of Ursinus 
college, and a lawyer of Norristown, mar- 
ried Ella M. Hendricks, and has three 
children: Frank H., Anna M. and Catha- 
rine. Mary M. Hobson married Rev. O. P. 
Smith, D. D. , who is now pastor of the 
Lutheran church of the Transfiguration of 
Pottstown, and was pastor of the old his- 
toric Trappe Lutheran church for fifteen 
years. 

In politics Frank M. Hobson is an Inde- 
pendent Republican. He was originally a 
Democrat, but left the Democratic party in 
1855, on account of its seeking to force 
slavery into the free territories. Since 
1855 he has been an Independent Republi- 
can, and was opposed to the Republican 
party granting the right of suffrage to the 
negro until he was qualified by nature and 
education to exercise it. To-day Mr. Hob- 
son thinks that past developments show 
that his position on negro suffrage was the 
correct one. Mr. Hobson is a deacon of 
Trinity Reformed church of Collegeville, 
of which Mrs. Hobson is a member. He 
has been secretary of the consistory for 
over thirty-two years, and has served as a 
Sunday-school teacher for nearly half a 
century. 



REV. JAMES D. HUNTER, pastor 
of the Central Presbyterian church of 
Norrristown, is a son of George and Ros- 
anna (Harkless) Hunter, and is a native of 
Ohio, the sons of which State are found 
among the prominent citizens of every 
State in the Union. His parents were 
natives of Western Pennsylvania, and his 
grandparents emigrated to this country 
from the historic north of Ireland, whose 
sturdy and intellectual people have been 



such an important factor in the settlement 
of the United States. 

Rev. James D. Hunter was reared in 
eastern Indiana and central Ohio, attended 
Savannah Academy, in Ashland county, 
Ohio, and in 1874, entered Lafayette col- 
lege, Easton, Pa., from which well known 
educational institution he was graduated in 
the class of 1878. Immediately after 
graduation he entered Union Theological 
seminary, of New York city, and after 
spending two years in that institution he 
received a call from the Presbyterian 
church of Dearfield, New Jersey, and was 
ordained to the ministry and installed as 
its pastor on November 30, 1880. With 
that church he labored until the fall of 
1883, when he accepted a call from the 
Presbyterian church at Greencastle, Frank- 
lin county, Pennsylvania. In his second 
field of pastoral labor he worked for nearly 
nine years, and then came to Norristown, 
where he had been called to take charge of 
the Central Presbyterian church of that 
place. He entered upon his pastoral labors 
at Norristown on May 15, 1892, and has 
broken the bread of life for his people there 
ever since. 

On December 25, 1879, Rev. James D. 
Hunter was united in marriage with Anna 
M. Hess, a daughter of Mrs. Jane and the 
late Jacob Hess, of Phillipsburg, New 
Jersey. 

Rev. Hunter is clear and logical in his 
discourses, and always commands close 
and respectful attention. While at Green- 
castle he delivered an address, at the cen- 
tennial celebration of the formation of 
Franklin county, that was so highly appre- 
ciated that it was published in pamphlet 
form. The address was entitled the " Re- 
ligious Denominations of Franklin County." 
A number of his sermons have also been 






72 



Biographical Sketches. 



published by request. The Philadelphia 
Ledger recently publishing one on the 
Trinity, accompanied by an excellent por- 
trait. Mr. Hunter takes quite an interest 
in civil and municipal affairs, and believes 
that the social condition of the people can 
be elevated by an intelligent use of the 
right of citizenship. In church matters he 
has been especially interested in the 
Christian Endeavor society, and as chair- 
man of the Standing committee on Young 
people's societies in the Presbytery of Phila- 
delphia North has labored zealously and 
effectively for the Endeavor cause and the 
promotion of its worthy aims. In 1889 
he served as commissioner from the Presby- 
tery of Carlisle to the General Assembly 
that met that year in Dr. Howard Crosby's 
church in New York city. In his religious 
views Rev. Hunter is conservative, with 
liberal and progressive tendencies. He is 
an interested student of the theological 
and social questions of the day, and is a 
firm believer in the largest liberty to 
scholarly investigation. His present pas- 
toral relations with his people are pleasant 
and helpful, and his congregation is one of 
strength and intelligence. 



WILLIAM H. ECK, M. D., chief bur- 
gess of Pottstown, was born in 1854, 
in the eastern part of Berks county, Penn- 
sylvania. He is descended in a direct 
line from that historic John Eck, who took 
a prominent part in the wars attending the 
great Reformation started by Martin Luth- 
er in 1517. John Eck, paternal great- 
grandfather of Dr. Eck, and a lineal de- 
scendant of the John Eck above referred 
to, was born and reared in Manheim, Ger- 
many, from whence he came to America 



and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania. 
The grandfather and father of Dr. Eck 
were both natives of Berks county, and 
both were extensive farmers. The grand- 
father, John Eck, lived to a ripe old age, 
but the father, Benneville Eck, enlisted in 
the Federal army early in 1863, and was 
soon afterward taken prisoner by the Con- 
federates. It is presumed that he died in 
prison and was buried with the unknown, 
as he never returned and no record of him 
could be found. 

William H. Eck attended Mount Pleas- 
ant seminary at Boyertown, and subse- 
quently entered Jefferson Medical college, 
Philadelphia, from which institution he 
was graduated in 1875. He then entered 
the medical department of the university 
of New York, and after being graduated 
from that department in 1879, sailed for 
Germany and spent one year in the medical 
department of the university of Berlin, 
where he completed the regular course in 
1881. Returning to America, Dr. Eck 
began practice the same year at Pottstown. 
Being an extremely hard worker, and con- 
scientious in the discharge of his profes- 
sional duties, he soon won the confidence 
of the public, and rapidly built up a gen- 
eral practice which for several years has 
been second to none in Montgomery county. 
It is said that in the thirteen years of his 
practice Dr. Eck has taken but six weeks 
rest from active work. 

In 1 891 Dr. Eck was elected a member of 
the town council of Pottstown, on the 
Democratic ticket, from the west ward, and 
served as such until 1894. During this time 
he was honored with the chairmanship of 
several of the most responsible and im- 
portant committees. In the spring of 1894 
Dr. Eck was elected chief burgess of the 
borough, a position for which his active 




u^/j^c^e^ &t^j&i 



Bi< icrapiiicai. Sketches. 



73 



work in the councils had eminently fitted 
him. 

Ever since he became a citizen of Potts- 
town, Dr. Eck has taken an active part in 
public affairs, and has been eminently iden- 
tified with every movement for the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of the town. By his 
energy and judicious business methods he 
has placed himself in the front rank of the 
substantial citizens of Pottstown. By his 
course as chief burgess he has shown signal 
executive ability, and demonstrated by his 
vetoes that he has the nerve to stand by his 
convictions of right, even when opposed 
by powerful corporations and men of great 
political influence. 

To the foresight and good business judg- 
ment of Dr. Eck, Pottstown is indebted 
for one of her finest and most popular resi- 
dence sections, known as the East End. 
He first conceived the idea of buying land 
and laying it out into town lots, and subse- 
quently interested others with himself in 
the enterprise. The scheme was pushed 
forward to complete success, and the East 
End stands now and will stand as a monu- 
ment to the practical wisdom and business 
sagacity of Dr. Eck. It has become one of 
the most popular residence portions of the 
city. 

Dr. Eck served as a member of the board 
of managers for the Bringhurst trust fund, 
has served as president of the Pottstown 
Medical society, and is a director in the 
Reading Coal Storage company. He is 
also identified with several business insti- 
tutions of Pottstown. 

In 1876 the Doctor was married to Annie 
R. Fox, a daughter of John and Rachel 
Fox, of Royersford, this county. Mrs. 
Eck died in 1877, aged twenty years, and 
since that time Dr. Eck has remained a 
widower. 



HON. WILLIAM D. HEEBNER, an 
ex-member of the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature, and the leading manufacturer of 
Lansdale. is a son of David S. and Anna 
(Derstein) Heebner, and was born at Norri- 
touville, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, September 27, 1848. The Heebner 
family is of German descent, and was one 
among the number of families that were 
driven from Germany on account of being 
Schwenkfelders, in religious belief. David 
Huebner or Heebner and his wife Maria, 
came to Pennsylvania in 1734. Their son, 
George Heebner, born in 1744, married 
Susanna Heydrick, and their only child, 
Rev. Baltzer, was born June 12, 1770. Rev. 
Baltzer Heebner was a farmer in Worcester 
township, and a minister in the Schwenk- 
felder Society. He died April 29, 1848, 
having lived a peaceable and useful life. 
He married Susanna Schultz, who was a 
daughter of Christopher Schultz, and passed 
away March 22, 1848, when in the seventy- 
third year of her age. Their children were : 
George, Anthony S., Anna, Maria, Catha- 
rine, David S., and Lydia. David S. Heeb- 
ner (father), was born in Worcester town- 
ship, June 25, 1810, and followed farming 
until 1840, when he commenced the manu- 
facture of agricultural machines at Norri- 
tonville. He became successful in this line 
of business, and in 1872 became a partner 
with his sons Isaac and William D., who 
were then agricultural machine manufac- 
turers at Lansdale. He continued in this 
partnership of Heebner & Sons until Octo- 
ber, 18S7, when William D. purchased the 
extensive plant that had grown from a 
small shop. David S. Heebner is a mem- 
ber of the Schwenkfelder Society, and in 
politics has been an old line Whig and Re- 
publican. He was postmaster at Lansdale 
for four years, having been commissioned 



74 



Biographical Sketches. 



by President Harrison in 1891. For his 
first wife he married Anna Derstein, who 
was a daughter of Henry Derstein, and died 

June 8, 1853, aged years. By his first 

marriage he had eight children : Joseph, 
James, Mary Ann, Isaac D., Addison, 
Josiah, Jacob, and Hon. William D. Those 
living of the children are : Isaac D., of 
Lansdale ; Josiah and Jacob, in Worcester 
township; and Hon. William D., of Lans- 
dale. 

William D. Heebner spent his early days 
on the farm and attended the public school 
up to his fourteenth year, when he went in 
his father's machine shop and learned the 
trade of machinist in all its branches, which 
required seven years. Upon the completion 
of his trade in 1870, he came to Lansdale 
and became a partner with his brother, 
Isaac D., under the firm name of Heebner 
Brothers, and Isaac's small shop was suc- 
ceeded by a large and well arranged factory, 
to which the railroad company laid a side 
track. Two years later the firm became 
Heebner & Sons, and continued as such 
until October, 1887, when Mr. Heebner 
purchased the entire extensive plant, which 
he has operated actively ever since. He 
manufactures horse powers, threshing ma- 
chines, feed cutters, wood sawing machines, 
steam heaters, and all kinds of farm and 
agricultural machinery and implements, 
which he sells all through the United 
States and Canada, and sends to ever}- quar- 
ter of the civilized globe. The value of 
the plant business is estimated at one hun- 
dred thousand dollars. The main buildings 
are the brick ware-house, three stories in 
height, with a front of one hundred and 
fifty-six feet, and two wings eighty and 
one hundred feet in length ; and the fac- 
tory. 

In addition to owning and operating this 



immense plant, Mr. Heebner has a half in- 
terest in the Babcock Shoe Company, Lim- 
ited, of which he is secretary and treasurer ; 
is a stockholder in the Lansdale Water and 
Electric Light companies, of which he is 
president ; and owns a large amount of 
valuable real estate. He also has valuable 
interests in the South, where he has a 
winter home in the State of Florida, and 
owns orange groves and pineapple planta- 
tions. 

On November 7, 1872, Mr. Heebner mar- 
ried Emma Frantz, a daughter of Jesse 
Frantz, of Center Square. Mrs. Heebner 
died August 22, 1881, and on November 29, 
1883, Mr. Heebner wedded Lizzie Shearer, 
a daughter of John Shearer, of Lansdale. 
By his first marriage he has three children : 
Clarella, Blanche, and Estelle. To his 
second union have been born two sons and 
one daughter: Robert S., J. Donald, and 
Grace W. 

William D. Heebner is a member of the 
Lansdale Methodist Episcopal church, of 
which he is a trustee and the treasurer. He 
is an enthusiastic church worker, and for 
the last seventeen years has served as leader 
of the choir. Mr. Heebner is a member of 
Lansdale Castle No. 244, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle ; and Lamthe Lodge No. 977, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which 
he helped to -organize at Lansdale. He 
is a Knight Templar Mason, being a mem- 
ber of Norristown Lodge, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons ; Norristown Chapter No. 
190, Royal Arch Masons ; and Hutchinson 
Commandery No. 32, Knights Templar, 
and Washington Camp No. 120, P. O. S. 
of A. 

William D. Heebner is a staunch Repub- 
lican in politics, and has always been an 
active worker for the success of his party. 
He was chief burgess of Lansdale for four 



Biographical Sketches. 



75 



terms, and was a member of the Pennsyl- 
vania house of representatives in 1885 and 
in 1889. He was a candidate for the State 
senate in 1890, but was defeated, and since 
his party has hopes of carrying the district 
in the future, his name has been again men- 
tioned in connection with the State senator- 
ship. 



NEVILLE D. TYSON, a prominent 
and leading member of the Montgom- 
ery county bar, is a son of Dr. James L. 
and Caroline (Drinker) Tyson, and was 
born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, 
October 11, 1846. The Tyson family is 
one of the old and honorable families of 
Pennsylvania. Of the founding of the 
Tyson family in America, we quote the 
following interesting and reliable account : 

" The emigrating ancestor of the Tyson 
family to this country was Renier Tyson, 
an Englishman of ancient and honorable 
descent. He met Penn and Barclay in 
Holland, whither he had fled for the pur- 
pose of enjoying his religious faith un- 
molested. As a convert to the faith of Fox, 
by the writings of Barclay and the preach- 
ing of Penn, he ultimately sought religious 
freedom in America. On the recommend- 
ation of the latter who had there founded 
a colony, he arrived in Pennsylvania from 
Bristol, England, in 1683, the year after the 
landing of Penn, and settled in German- 
town, near Philadelphia. During his 
residence there, he was twice chosen chief 
burgess of the Village of Germantown. 
Some years after he removed to the vicinity 
of Abington, which he helped to found. 

" Renier Tyson was a man of great vigor 
of mind, possessed considerable property, 
and he filled the most prominent appoint- 



ment in the meeting at Abington at a time 
when superior intelligence no less than 
rigid principle was sought as a qualification 
in the Society of Friends. He acted upon 
the most important committees, was suc- 
cessively promoted from the station of 
overseer to that of elder, and filled with 
great satisfaction to his colleagues the 
various responsible duties which the estab- 
lishment of a religious sect in a new and 
flourishing colony necessarily imposed. 
The spiritual and philanthropic labors of 
this excellent and respected Friend in 
common with those of his compeers are re- 
corded in an ancient manuscript volume in 
possession of the Abington Meeting. 

" We find among the first ancestors of 
Renier Tyson, Dr. Edward Tyson, of 
London, whose works in Latin were pub- 
lished by the Royal Society of England, 
and whose fame as a nationalist and learned 
writer are well attested by the highest ap- 
preciation of scholars. 

" The books of heraldry assign him an 
escutcheon which is appreciated by some 
of his lineal descendants in this country 
and used as a device upon their seals. 
The descending line of Renier Tyson con- 
stitutes the American branch of the Tyson 
family." 

A son of Renier Tyson was Henry Tyson, 
who was born March 4, 1702, at German- 
town, and who was the father of James 
Tyson, born April 4, 1738 and wedded a 
Miss Harper. James Tyson was born at 
Springfield, Montgomery county, and was 
a fanner by occupation. His son Joseph 
Tyson, was born in Philadelphia, June 29, 
1775, and married Ann Van Trump, by 
whom he had nine children. He was a 
Friend or Quaker in religion and a Whig 
in politics. His son, Dr. James L. Tyson, 
the father of the subject of this sketch, was 



76 



Biographical Sketches. 



born in Philadelphia, November 19, 1813. 
He received his education in Philadelphia, 
and was graduated in medicine from the 
University of Pennsylvania, after which he 
practiced for some years in that city. He 
was one of the originators of the Wills Eye 
hospital, and served as Professor of materia 
medica in the Philadelphia college of 
medicine. During the California gold ex- 
citement he had a general hospital in the 
mountains of that State, and about 1859 
came to Penllyn, Montgomery county, 
where he has resided ever since. Dr. 
Tyson retired from active practice a few 
years ago, and ranks to-day as one of the 
most skillful and successful physicians that 
eastern Pennsylvania has ever produced. 
He is a Democrat, and was a warm personal 
friend of James Buchanan. He was a 
member of the Society of Friends, which 
dropped him from membership upon his 
marriage with a lady who did not belong 
to and declined to unite with that religious 
organization. He was an able and fluent 
medical and political lecturer, and at the 
present time still contributes to medical 
and scientific journals, in whose columns 
in the past he wielded an intelligent and 
trenchant pen. He wedded Caroline Drink- 
er, a daughter of Drinker, of 

. To their union were born six child- 



ren of whom five are living : Carroll S., 
a member of the Philadelphia city bar; Her- 
bert B., a retired naval officer; Neville D. 
(subject); Eleanor C, wife of Professor 
Henry Drisler, Dean of the school of arts, 
of Columbia college, New York, and J. 
Roberts, who is employed in the bank of 
North America, at Philadelphia. The 
child who died was Mary Louise, who 
passed away at two years of age. Lieuten- 
ant, Herbert B., entered the United States 
navy at the age of fourteen years, at the 



Annapolis naval academy, and at the out- 
break of the late Civil war — he then a mid- 
shipman — was ordered to the sloop of war 
Jamestown, then returning with a prize to 
Philadelphia. He was next ordered to the 
war-ship Hartford, on which he served as 
acting master under Farragut in the battle 
of New Orleans. He was then passed over the 
grades of ensign and master, and commis- 
sioned as lieutenant, which rank he held on 
board the Hartford throughout the war. He 
and lieutenant (now captain) J. Critendon 
Watson were the only two line officers who 
sailed with Farragut from Philadelphia, 
and served with him on his flag-ship 
throughout his brilliant and trying cam- 
paigns. He went through many naval en- 
gagements and battles, receiving only a 
slight scratch at the battle of New Orleans, 
and at the close of the war was executive 
officer of the Connecticut. He afterwards 
took charge of the old Constitution, and 
when ordered to the Dacotah, sent in his 
resignation, but it was not accepted until 
the Dacotah arrived at Valparaiso, Chili. 
Returning to the United States, he was 
variously employed for several years and 
is now engaged in banking and is connected 
with the custom house in Philadelphia. 

Neville D. Tyson was reared in Phila- 
delphia, and after receiving his education 
under private tutors and in select schools, 
entered the naval service in the spring of 
1863, as captain's clerk, on the steam fri- 
gate, Minnesota, commanded by Captain 
N. B. Harrison, then the flag-ship of Rear 
Admiral S. P. Lee, in command of the 
North Atlantic blockading squadron. He 
was soon detailed as a member of Admiral 
Lee's staff, and served thereon for several 
months, and in the autumn of 1864, was 
ordered to the sloop of war Canandaigua, 
in the South Atlantic blockading squadron. 



Biographical Skktciiks. 



77 



He took part in all the battles in which 
the two vessels named were engaged whilst 
he served on board of them, and in various 
expeditions in boats. He served until 
May 1X65, when the term of his second 
appointment expired, after which he did 
not again enter the service of the govern- 
ment. Returning home he was variously 
engaged for two years, and then in 1867, 
came to Norristown where he became a law 
student in the office of his brother, Carroll 
S. Tyson. After completing the required 
course of reading he was admitted to the 
Montgomery county bar, August 17, 1869. 
After admission he en'ered upon the prac- 
tice and has remained ever since at Norris- 
town. He is a leading attorney; has a 
large bank and corporation practice, and 
handles cases with ability in the different 
departments of civil and criminal law. He 
is a Democrat in politic-; but no politician, 
although he allowed his name to be used 
in early life in connection with the office of 
district attorney, and some years ago by so- 
licitation of friends, was placed in uomina- 
tian for president judge on the Democratic 
ticket, which was then greatly in the 
minority in the district. 

Mr. Tyson has always taken an active 
part in the local arrangements about the 
court-house in use for the facilitation of the 
public business. He suggested and after- 
wards by solicitation of the judge and the 
other members of the bar, designed the 
present arrangement of the court-room. 
As chairman of the committee to arrange 
and index the court records of Montgomery 
county, he was instrumental in securing 
the present admirable system which is used 
throughout the court-house. Mr. Tyson is 
a member of the Montgomery county law 
association, and the Philadelphia Lawyer's 
club. 



REV. WILLIAM S. ANDERS, pastor of 
the Worcester Schwenk feller church, 
is a son of Abraham and Rebecca (Schultz) 
Anders, and was born in Worcester town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
August 30, 1840. Abraham Anders was of 
German ancestry, and a farmer by occupa- 
tion ; he served as a school director, was a 
director of the Montgomery count)' bank ; 
and held other important offices in several 
industrial companies. He was aettve in 
business affairs, and never aspired to any 
public office, although he was frequently 
offered political positions, which he always 
declined. He was a Republican in politics, 
and in religious belief was a Schwenkfelter, 
having been a member of that church for 
over fifty years prior to his death. Abraham 
Anders was a useful man and a good citizen, 
and died December 28, 1887, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-one years. He mar- 
ried Rebecca Schultz, who was a daughter 
of George Schultz, and passed away Octo- 
ber 29th, 1 85 1, aged seventy years. To 
their union were born seven children, five 
sons and two daughters : Rev. William S., 
(subject) ; Joseph S., Susan, wife of Josiah 
D. Heebner, of this county ; Charles S., 
Abraham S., now deceased ; Mary S., who 
wedded Jeremiah K. Anders ; and Amos S. 
Rev. William S. Anders received his edu- 
cation in the common schools, and two 
years at the Mount Kirk seminary, and 
engaged in teaching, which he followed 
for one year in Towamencin, and three 
years in Worcester and four years in Norri- 
ton township. At the end of this time he 
removed to his farm in Worcester township 
and was steidily employed in farming up to 
1X71. On June 3rd of that year he was 
called as a probationer to the ministry of 
the Schwenkfelter church, and in October, 
1873, was installed as one of the pastors of 



78 



Biographical Sketches. 



Worcester, Towamenein and Lower Sal ford 
churches, which he has served ably and 
zealously ever since. His church has a 
membership of three hundred souls and is 
in a flourishing condition. 

On February i, 1868, Rev. Anders was 
united in marriage with Susan H. Krause, 
who is a daughter of Aaron and Lydia 
(Heebner) Krause, of Worcester township. 

In political opinion, Rev. William S. An- 
ders is a Republican. He served for several 
years as a school director of his township, 
and since 1889 has been a director of Ur- 
sinus college. He is also a director of the 
Montgomery County National bank and of 
several industrial companies. From 1871 
to 1893 he farmed extensively, but since 
the latter year has given his time entirely 
to his pastoral labors, and although serving 
in an official capacity in several business 
enterprises, yet allows nothing in connection 
with them to interfere with his church 
work. Rev. William S. Anders is a devoted 
worker in his Divine Master's vineyard. He 
is an able and fluent speaker, and has the 
reputation of being a sound theologian. 



OTHNIEL S. SPANG, a well-known 
painter of Norristown, is a native of 
the Oley valley, Berks county, Pennsylva- 
nia, where he was born April 14, 182 1. His 
parents were Jacob and Mary (Sands) Spang, 
both natives of Philadelphia. Henry Spang 
(paternal grandfather) was also a resident 
of that city, and owned large iron furnaces 
in the Oley valley of Berks county, where 
he was engaged in the manufacture of iron 
for many years. One of his brothers served 
as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. 
Henry Spang was a member of the Re- 
formed church, and married Hannah Hill. 



One of their sons was Jacob Spang (father), 
who was born in Philadelphia in 1787. He 
was reared and educated in his native city, 
and after attaining manhood became super- 
intendent and general manager of his father's 
iron works in Berks county. In 1831 he re- 
moved to Norristown, Montgomery county, 
where he embarked in the hotel business, 
being proprietor of the Farmer's hotel until 
1834. In the latter year he entered politics 
and was elected sheriff of this county, which 
position he acceptably filled for three years. 
He was a man of public spirit and continued 
active in local politics until his death at 
Norristown in 1864, when in the seventy- 
seventh year of his age. In the closing 
year of the last century he married Mary 
Sands, a daughter of Othniel Sands, of 
Amity township, Berks county, and by that 
marriage had a family of ten children : 
Catharine, Hannah, Sarah, Othniel S., the 
subject of this sketch ; Amos, James, Mary, 
Emma, Frederick, William, and one who 
died in infancy. Mrs. Mary Spang died at 
Norristown in 1854, aged sixty-one years. 

Othniel S. Spang came to Norristown 
with his parents when less than ten years of 
age, and was principally reared in this bor- 
ough. His education was obtained in pri- 
vate schools, under the instruction of George 
Lewis and others. When seventeen he be- 
gan learning the trade of stone cutter, at 
which he worked until attaining his majority 
in 1842. In the latter year he went into the 
foundry business with his brother-in-law, 
Thomas M. Saurman, at Norristown. From 
his earliest years, young Spang had evinced 
an unusual fondness for drawing and paint- 
ing, and his work in stone and iron was not 
congenial to his tastes. He began the regu- 
lar study of art without the assistance of 
teachers, and his genius was such that he 
soon succeeded in attaining a remarkable 



Biographical Sketches. 



79 



degree of proficiency in that line. Encour- 
aged by his success, and enthusiastic on the 
subject of art, he abandoned all other work 
in 1854, opened a studio at Norristown, and 
devoted himself to the profession. The only 
instruction he ever received was a course of 
instruction under Professor Mason, of the 
Franklin institute, Philadelphia, and some 
technical instruction from his friend Paul 
Weber, the celebrated painter. In 1855 lie 
began teaching his art in the public schools 
of Norristown, and with the exception of 
the war period, has taught drawing and 
painting in these schools nearly ever since, 
having devoted more than thirty-three years 
to that duty, during all of which time he 
has not missed a dozen lessons. He also 
was an instructor for a number of years in 
Oakland Female institute and Treemount 
seminary (for boys), both prosperous insti- 
tutions of learning before the war of the 
Rebellion. Mr. Spang has also painted a 
number of pictures which have won praise 
from connoisseurs and lovers of art, and has 
made his name familiar in the art circles. 

When the opening thunders of the Civil 
war electrified the North, Mr. Spang laid 
down his palette and brush, and enlisting in 
Company E, 15th Pennsylvania cavalry, 
marched forth to the defense of his country. 
He participated in the hard fought battles 
of Antietam and Chickamauga, and took 
part in a number of minor engagements 
and skirmishes. In 1862 he was attacked 
with typhoid fever and sent to the hospital. 
After recovering he again joined his regi- 
ment at Nashville, Tennessee, and marched 
from there to Murfreesboro, and later fol- 
lowed General Bragg through Tennessee to 
Chattanooga, where he was engaged with 
his regiment in the memorable battle of 
November 23-25, 1863. At the end of his 
three years' service, Mr. Spang returned to 



Norristown and resumed his profession, to 
which he has ever since devoted his atten- 
tion. 

On March 28th, 1871, Mr. Spang was 
united in marriage to Sarah B. Sutton, a 
daughter of William Sutton, of the city of 
Philadelphia. She died December iSth, 
1891, at the age of sixty-six years, without 
issue. In his political affiliations, the sub- 
ject of this sketch is a Republican, and has 
always taken an interest in local politics. 
He is a member of Cavalry Post No. 35, 
Grand Army of the Republic, of Philadel- 
phia. 



DR. CHARLES MOORE, a retired den- 
tal surgeon of Pottstown, was born in 
the city of Philadelphia, September 26, 
1817. He is a son of Asher and Mary 
(Hill) Moore, both natives of Trenton, New 
Jersey, who removed to Philadelphia while 
young. Asher Moore died from the effects 
of an accident, April 28, 1822, at the age of 
thirty-one years, leaving a wife and four 
children — William, James, Charles and 
Mary Ann — of whom Dr. Charles Moore is 
the only survivor. In 1838 the widow mar- 
ried Joel Finch, who died in 1846. She de- 
parted this life April 19, 1887, in her ninety- 
fourth year. Her parents both died of yel- 
low fever in 1793, while she was an infant. 
At the age of fourteen Charles Moore was 
apprenticed to Henry Schively, of Philadel- 
phia, to learn the art of making surgical in- 
struments. He served with him seven years 
and afterward worked at the business four 
years. He then studied dental surgery with 
Dr. J. DeHaven White, one of the most 
eminent practitioners of his da}', who is 
still living in Philadelphia. As there were 
then no dental college in Pennsylvania, Dr. 
Moore entered the Jefferson Medical college 



8o 



Biographical Sketches. 



of Philadelphia, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1844. He then practiced dental 
surgery in his native city until 1846, when 
he removed to Pottstown and established an 
office on High street. In September of 
that year he purchased from W. H. Smith 
his present property on Hanover street, 
where he has ever since resided. He re- 
mained in active practice until 1894, a 
period of more than half a century, and 
during that time extracted fifty thousand 
teeth without a single accident. 

On November 30, 1838, Dr. Moore was 
married in Philadelphia to Mary Berrill, a 
daughter of Major Henry Berrill, and a de- 
scendant of an old Montgomery county 
family. Mrs. Moore died August 3, 1842, 
aged twenty-six. She left two sons, Henry 
B., who for many years has been engaged in 
business in the city of Philadelphia, and 
Charles Clifford, who died soon after his 
mother. On January 28, 1845, Dr. Moore 
was again married, wedding Mary F. Evans, 
a daughter of Mark and Susanna Evans, of 
East Coventry, Chester county. She had 
received a liberal education, and was one of 
the first two teachers of the Pottstown 
schools after the adoption of the " free " or 
public school system in this borough in 
1838. To the Doctor and Mary Evans 
Moore was born a family of three children : 
Wallace Clifton, Rebecca, who married 
Francis H. Savior ; and Charles E., all now 
residents of Pottstown. They also have five 
grandchildren living. On January 28, 1895, 
the Doctor and Mrs. Moore celebrated their 
golden wedding, on which occasion a large 
concourse of friends were assembled from 
Pottstown, Philadelphia, Xorristown, West 
Chester, and other points, to offer congratu- 
lations and participate in the festivities. 

Dr. Moore has been a most industrious 
and useful citizen. In addition to his busv 



practice, he has taken an active part in 
social and public affairs. He was a member 
of the borough council for two terms, dur- 
ing which he was always active for the 
public welfare and in behalf of the best in- 
terests of the town. He served six years 
as school director and was secretarv of the 
school board for five years. At the election 
in 1888 his Republican friends in Mont- 
gomery county elected him a member of the 
State assembly, where he served on a num- 
ber of leading committees and assisted in 
formulating some important legislation. He 
was a useful and popular member, and com- 
manded the respect of even his political op- 
ponents. 

The subject of this sketch has also been 
prominent in secret society circles for many 
years. He became an Odd Fellow in 1843, 
and a Free Mason in 1S52. On January 5, 
1847, he aided in instituting Manatawny 
Lodge No. 214, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows of Pottstown, and is now the only 
surviving charter member. He passed all 
the chairs, becoming secretary in 1850, and 
held that position for forty-three years 
without missing a meeting night, but re- 
signed in 1893. He served as representative 
to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for 
nearly half a century, and to the Grand 
Lodge of the United States in 1856 and 
1857. He was a charter member of Ex- 
celsior Encampment No. 85, and served 
as scribe from 1850 until his resignation a 
few months ago. Dr. Moore has kept a 
meteorological register or weather record 
since 1850, reporting to the signal office at 
Washington, and the State signal service 
office in Philadelphia. He recalls many in- 
teresting incidents of the olden times, and 
distinctively remembers seeing General La- 
fayette as he rode through the streets of 
Philadelphia in 1824. ^ n z ^33 he saw the 



Biographical Sketches. 



81 



distinguished Indian war chief Black Hawk, 
as he passed along Chestnut street, in that 
city, seated in a carriage by the side of " ( )ld 
Hickory " Jackson, then president of the 
United .States. 



ALBERT D. SIMPSON, the present effi- 
cient sheriff of Montgomery county, is 
a son of Edward and Catharine (Winder- 
slice) Simpson, and was born in East Vin- 
cent township, Chester county, Pennsylva- 
nia, March 2, 1829. His paternal grand- 
father, Captain Edward Simpson, was a 
native of Wales, and settled in Philadelphia. 
He was a sea captain and was drowned in 
the shipwreck of his vessel when on a voy- 
age to a distant port. His son, Edward 
Simpson, was born, reared and educated in 
Philadelphia. He was a tobacconist, gen- 
eral merchant and farmer during the early 
part of his life, but in later years retired 
from active business and lived rather a re- 
tired life at Phoenixville, Chester county, 
where he died May 24th, 1870, when in the 
seventy-sixth year of his age. He was a 
Democrat in politics, and served for several 
years as a school director in Chester county. 
He was a member for many years of the 
Lutheran church, but finally withdrew from 
that body and united with the Reformed 
church, in which he worshipped until his 
death. Mr. Simpson married Catharine 
Yanderslice, who is a daughter of John and 
Deborah Yanderslice, and whose family has 
been resident of Chester county for over one 
hundred years. To Mr. and Mrs. Simpson 
were born five children : Genevieve C, 
who died in her sixth year ; William E., 
deceased at forty-five years of age ; Francis 
H., who died in his fifty-eighth year; Em- 
ma C, wife of Harry Miller, of Cartersville, 

6 



Georgia; and Albert D., whose name ap- 
pears at the head of this sketch. 

Albert D. Simpson grew to manhood in 
his native township, where he attended the 
common schools. He also attended a select 
school at New London Crossroads, in Ches- 
ter county, and then learned the trade of 
carpenter, which he followed from 1S4S to 
1853. In the latter year he engaged in 
farming, which he quit eleven years later, 
to remove to New Bloomfield, Perry county, 
where he conducted a steam tannery for two 
years. At the end of that time, in 1S66, 
Mr. Simpson went to Shiloh, Ohio, and 
purchased a steam flouring and saw mill, 
which he operated up to 1S71. In that year 
he purchased a farm in Limerick township 
and resided there until 1888, when he pur- 
chased his present property at Trappe, of 
which place he has been a resident ever 
since. Mr. Simpson has always been a 
staunch and active Republican, and has 
held various local offices. In 1892 he was 
elected sheriff of Montgomery county for a 
term of three years, and has been serving 
efficiently as such from January 1, 1S93. 
He is a member and an elder of St. Luke's 
Reformed church, Trappe, and at the pres- 
ent time is a delegate to the Philadelphia 
classis, the Eastern synod, and the General 
synod of the Reformed church of the United 
States. He is also a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, holding membership in Warren 
Lodge No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons, 
of Trappe, Norristown Chapter No. 190, 
and Hutchinson Commandery No. 32. 

On December 28, 1852, Mr. Simpson was 
united in marriage with Lavina R. Bucher, 
and to their union were born eight children : 
Genevieve C, wife of George C. W. Shenkle, 
of Millersville, this State; Sal lie K., mar- 
ried Michael R. Shenkle, of Phoenixville, 
Chester county ; Edward D., who wedded 



82 



Biographical Sketches. 



Emma C. Gamble ; Francis H., deceased ; 
Harry M., married Irene Booz ; Howard A.; 
Lettie M., of Norristown ; and Ada L., de- 
ceased. Mrs. Simpson was a daughter of 
Daniel Bucher, of East Vincent township, 
Chester county, and a first cousin to General 
Hartranft. She died February 23, 1892, 
aeed sixtv-two vears, and her remains were 
interred in Morris cemetery, Phoenixville. 



ALOYSIUS J. SCHISSLER, M. A., 
President and founder of the Schissler 
Colleges of Business and Shorthand, of both 
Manaynnk and Norristown, Penna., is a 
native of Philadelphia county, Pa., where 
he was born the 23rd day of November, 
1864, and is the second youngest son of 
John M. and Mary (Schall) Schissler. His 
father, John M. Schissler, was a native of 
Baden-Baden, Germany, who emigrated 
to the United States while yet a young man 
and in 1844 came to Philadelphia where he 
engaged for a short time in the grocery 
business and then embarked in the baking 
business. In politics he was a Democrat, 
and in religion, a member of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church. He died at Manaynnk, 
Pa., March 2, 1887, in the 70th year of age, 
having been born February 2, 1818. He 
married Mary Schall, a daughter of Anth- 
ony S. and Margaretta (Nienmer) Schall, of 
Manaynnk, Phila., and by that union had 
a family of eight children, Annie Josephine, 
married Nicholas Barthelemy, and now re- 
sides in California ; Christina, Clement B. 
married Sarah Corman, of Montgomery 
county, Penna., Edward F., M. Stanislaus, 
Margaretta, Rudolph and Aloysius J., the 
subject of this sketch. 

A. J. Schissler was reared in his native 
county, Philadelphia, and was educated 



principally in the public schools of Mana- 
ynnk. Later he entered a business college 
in the city of Philadelphia, where he had a 
full course of instruction in every depart- 
ment and from which he was duly graduated 
in 1887. He then became book-keeper for 
McClain & Vautier, of that city, but shortly 
afterwards resigned to accept the position 
of book-keeper, salesman and general man- 
ager of the firm of J. Ripka & Co., cotton 
and woolen manufacturers, at Manaynnk. 
With the latter firm he remained for a 
period of over three years when they re- 
tired from business, and Mr. Schissler be- 
came the owner of the factory. In 1887 he 
had established the Schissler College of 
Business and Shorthand at Manaynnk, of 
which he since has disposed and which was 
under his personal supervision until June 
29, 1894. On Sept. 14, 1891, he founded a 
like institution at Norristown, under the 
name of the Schissler College of Business 
and Shorthand, which he has since given 
close personal attention. 

The first session opened with only 10 
students, which increased to 25 at the end 
of the year ; in 1892 the number had grown 
to 76, and in 1894 the enrollment reached 510. 
This growth speaks eloquently of the facili- 
ties for first-class business training which 
are offered by this college. The Schissler 
College of Norristown, is one of the best 
equipped institutions of its kind in the 
State of Pennsylvania. Its corps of teachers 
has been continually increased to meet 
the demands of its growing patronage, and 
every facility for practical business oper- 
ations provided in liberal abundance. The 
specialties of this business school are book- 
keeping, shorthand and type-writing, and it 
has two city offices which call the atten- 
tion of hundreds of young men and women 
to this institution where they can prepare 





t^&i/CJ^czrfr 





rvc 



f 





Biographical Sketches. 



83 



themselves for the duties of modern busi- 
ness. 

The Schissler College of Norristown, has 
just become an incorporated institution, 
and has among its directors some of the 
most prominent bankers, professional and 
business men of the State. Its sole aim is 
to become an institution of national repute. 

On Sept. 18, 1890, Mr. Schissler was uni- 
ted in marriage to Louisa Cecila Wunsch, 
a daughter of Anselma and Margaretta 
Wunsch, of Manayunk, Philadelphia. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Schissler has been born one 
child, a daughter named Marie Frances. 
Politically Mr. Schissler is a liberal Repub- 
lican, supporting the general policy of that 
party, but inclined to independence in local 
politics. He has ability and talent for 
general management, has made his name 
known in various parts of the United 
States, and built up a business that entitles 
him to rank with the enterprising and pro- 
gressive citizens of Montgomery county. 



JOHN PHIUP REED, (better known as 
Philip Reed) the great, great-grand- 
father of Dr. W. H. Reed, emigrated from 
Manheim, Palatinate, on the Rhine, Ger- 
main-. He landed with his family in Phila- 
delphia, in the ship " Friendship" from 
Rotterdam, October 17, 1727. He located 
in *Salford township, Philadelphia count), 
there secured land and followed farming. 
Previous to 1734 he paid quit rent in Sal- 
ford township for more than one hundred 
acres ; in 1734 he was assessed for fifty 



*Sometime subsequent to 1741, Marlborough was 
/created from Salford township, and Philip Reed's 
farm fell in the detached portion or the township 
,of Marlborough. This farm remained in the Reed 
family for over one aud a quarter centuries. 



acres, but later on he became an extensive 
land owner near the present Hoppenville. 

Philip Reed was a worshipper in the New 
Goshenhoppen Reformed church, Upper 
Hanover township, and he was one of the 
original enrolled members of said congrega- 
tion. 

His wife's family fled from Switzerland 
on account of persecution, and he for the 
same cause from Germany. 

Philip Reed was born January 26, 1698, 
and died September 8, 1783, in his eighty- 
sixth year. His remains were buried be- 
side those of his wife in the New Goshen- 
hoppen Reformed church burial ground. 
His wife's name was Feronica, and they had 
three sons and five daughters : Jacob, Mich- 
ael, Andrew, Catharine, Frances, Margre- 
tha, Elizabeth, and Eve. 

Jacob Reed, the eldest in the line of de- 
scent, was born in Salford township, (after- 
ward Marlborough), June 28, 1730. He 
early received a liberal education and was 
reared a farmer. About 1755 he married 
Magdalene Leidy, to whom nine children 
were born : Philip, Jacob, John, Andrew, 
Margaret, Magdalene, Catharine, Elizabeth, 
and Eve. John was killed by lightning in 
his twenty-third year. The others all lived 
to an advanced age. 

Jacob Reed early located with his family 
in Hatfield township, and later on pur- 
chased a farm near the present Hatfield sta- 
tion, on the North Pennsylvania railroad, 
the title for which, dated the 23rd day of 
February, 1770, he received from Thomas 
and Richard Penn, who were proprietors and 
governors-in-chief in aud over the Province 
of Pennsylvania. 

In 1793 Jacob Reed sold his farm in Hat- 
field and purchased one in New Britain 
township, Bucks county, on the county line 
road dividing Montgomery and Bucks 



84 



Biographical Sketches. 



counties. On this farm he resided, and 
here his wife died August 5, 1804, aged 
sixty-five years, six months and twelve 
days. The remaining days of his life were 
spent with his sou Andrew on his farm, 
where he died November 2, 1820, aged 
ninety vears, four months and four days. 
His remains lie buried in the Leidy bury- 
ing ground, Franeonia township, beside his 
wife and other members of the family. 

Jacob Reed was a man of much promi- 
nence in his day. He was active and influ- 
ential as a citizen, filling several positions 
of public trust in the vicinity. In the 
church he also took a deep interest, wor- 
shipping at the Indian Field Reformed 
church, not far distint, in which he served 
as an elder for a number of years. He was 
also prominent and active as a defender of 
his country during the Revolutionary war. 

In 1777, after the reorganization of the 
militia by the State, Jacob Reed w r as 
elected lieutenant colonel of the first battal- 
ion of Philadelphia count}' militia, recruited 
from the townships of Upper and Lower 
Salford, Towamencin, Hatfield, Perkiomen 
and Skippack. During Washington's cam- 
paign of active operations in this vicinity 
of the State in 1777 and 1778, Col. Reed 
rendered the General invaluable service by 
his knowledge of this territory and people. 
He participated in the battles of Trenton, 
Germantown and Brandywine. 

Colonel Jacob Reed escaped unhurt on 
the field of battle, but on one occasion, 
when at home visiting his family, he was 
waylaid by Tories, who first shot him 
through the leg, then tied him to a tree, 
tarred and feathered him and commenced 
digging his grave in which they proposed 
burying him. Before completing this last 
act they were discovered and fled, when he 
was released from his perilous situation. 



The parties engaged in this transaction 
escaped from the country and their property 
was subsequently confiscated. On another 
occasion, while passing along the highway, 
he was shot at by a Hessian, who lay con- 
cealed in a fence corner, the bullet grazing 
his head. Again, on another occasion while 
the British were laying in Philadelphia, 
they engaged in a marauding expedition to 
his house while he was on a furlough, and 
took him prisoner. They were about firing 
the gun already pointed at him, when the 
British officer's wife interfered and saved 
His life. They, however, took his best 
horse and despoiled him of much other 
valuable property, for which the State al- 
lowed him in 1783 forty-five pounds. At 
the battle of Germantown he had his horse 
shot and killed from under him. 

Andrew Reed, the subject's grandfather, 
being the youngest of Colonel Jacob Reed's 
children, remained with him and aided in 
the cultivation of his farm. About 1807 he 
married Mary Hartman, to whom five chil- 
dren were born, named Jacob, Michael, Ju- 
lian, Abigail, and Sarah, all natives of 
New Britain township. Jacob, Julian and 
Abigail are deceased ; the others still sur- 
vive. 

The year following the death of his father 
Andrew Reed removed to his farm in Hill- 
town township, Bucks county, which ad- 
joined New Britain, which he cultivated 
until his children grew to mature years and 
left him. About the year 1846 he sold his 
farm and purchased a home near the Hill- 
town church, where, on June 1, 1856, his 
daughter Abigail died, in the forty-sixth 
year of her age, and on June 3, 1861, his 
wife died, aged seventy-four years. The re- 
maining days were spent with his youngest 
daughter, Sarah. The last eight years were 
spent in total blindness. His death occurred 



Biographical Sketches. 



85 



June 10, 1869, aged eighty-eight years and 
seventeen days. During his life he was 
strictly honest in all his dealings, devoted 
to his family and beloved by his neighbors. 
Both Mr. Reed and his wife were consistent 
Christians and worshipped at the church of 
the Evangelical Association at Hilltown, 
where their remains lie buried beside those 
of their daughter Abigail. 

Michael Hartman Reed was born October 
24, 1809. He early attended Mennonite 
day school, and when his parents removed 
to Hilltown, attended pay school there until 
he was sixteen years of age. Then he was 
indentured with Henry Shellenberger, of 
Line Lexington, to learn the trade of hat- 
ting. After completing his apprenticeship, 
he worked as journeyman for Shellen- 
berger ; then accepted a position in Schaf- 
fer's hat factory, Germantown, Pa. In 1832 
he opened a hat and fur store and manufac- 
tured hats in Skippackville, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. While here he was 
appointed postmaster under President Jack- 
son. He remained in business at that place 
for two years, when he disposed of his place 
and stock to George Ruth, and removed to 
Philadelphia and opened a hat and fur store 
on Fourth street, below Vine. After sev- 
eral years of successful business at this 
stand, he disposed of the same, afterwards 
forming a partnership with Jesse Shellen- 
berger, the}' together opened a hat and fur 
store on Second street, below Noble. On 
account of failing health, he retired from 
business in 1847, and removed to Bucks 
county, when, on February 15, 1852, he 
married Mary A. Rockafellow, to whom 
three children were born : Franklin, Wil- 
loughby H. and Mary K. 

In 1855 he removed with his family to 
Norristown. Two years later he moved to 
Jeffersonville, at which place he still resides. 



Franklin P. is engaged in the hardware 
business at National City, Southern Cali- 
fornia, where he married and is now living. 
Mary E. resides at the home of her parents 
and is engaged in teaching. 

Willoughby H. Reed, M. D., Ph. G., a 
well read physician and skillful druggist of 
Norristown, was born at Norristown, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, January 20, 
1856. Willoughby Reed was reared prin- 
cipally at Jeffersonville, and received his 
education in the public schools of Norriton 
township. In his seventeenth year he dis- 
continued going to school and accepted a po- 
sition in the village grocery store. Subse- 
quentlv he entered the True Witness office, 
a temperance paper, owned and edited by 
Moses Auge, to learn the science and art of 
printing. He followed the trade of a printer 
for eighteen months, then he became a clerk 
in the drug store of I. M. Buckwalter, of 
Phcenixville, where he remained four years. 
He matriculated in the fall of 1877 in the 
Philadelphia college of pharmacy, of Phila- 
delphia, and was graduated from that insti- 
tution in the class of 1879. The ensuing 
year he spent as a clerk in a Philadelphia 
drug store and in reading medicine, and 
then entered Jefferson Medical college in 
the fall of 1880, from which time-honored 
institution he was graduated in the spring 
of 1882. After graduation he practiced for 
some time at Cape May Point, at which 
place he remained two seasons, having a 
good practice and conducting a large drug 
store, then located and practiced medicine 
at Jeffersonville. At the end of that time, 
in 1884, he removed to Norristown, where 
he is actively engaged in the drug business 
at the present time. 

A short period previous to the outbreak 
of the Pittsburg riots in 1877, Dr. Reed en- 
listed as a private in Company D., 1 < >t 1 1 



86 



Biographical Sketches. 



regiment, Pennsylvania militia, of Phcenix- 
ville. When the call was made by the 
State for troops, he was one of the boys to 
first report with muskets for duty. The 
troop were in the field for eighteen days 
and experienced some rough and trying 
times while at Pittsburg. 

On November 5, 1884, Dr. Reed was 
united in marriage with Annie R. Jarrett, 
daughter of Samuel F. Jarrett, of Jefferson- 
ville. 

Dr. Reed, besides filling a number of po- 
sitions of honor and trust, is a member and 
recently president of the Pennsylvania Phar- 
maceutical association ; he is a member of 
the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia 
College of Pharmacy, and also of the 
Philadelphia Botanical club, the Mont- 
gomery County Historical society, and the 
Knights of Friendship. Dr. Reed is a Re- 
publican politically, and has served for sev- 
eral terms as a school director. He is at 
the present time treasurer of the board. He 
is a congregational member and trustee of 
the Jeffersouville Presbyterian church. He 
is a member of the American Pharmaceu- 
tical association, and is a frequent and valu- 
able contributor to general, medical and 
pharmaceutical literature. He is at present 
at work on a history and genealogy of the 
" Reed " family. 



HOWARD K. REGAR, junior member 
of the firm of Rambo & Regar, manu- 
facturers of hosier)-, Norristown, this count}-, 
is a son of George K. and Mary J. (Kafroth) 
Regar, and was born in the city of Phila- 
delphia, December 16, 1861. The Regars 
are of German extraction, and for several 
generations have resided in Lancaster coun- 
ty, this State. After attaining manhood, Mr. 



Regar's father was engaged in the mercantile 
business and various industrial pursuits in 
different parts of Pennsylvania, but about 
1852 he removed to the city of Philadelphia 
and embarked in the wholesale notion trade. 
He continued the mercantile business in 
Philadelphia for a dozen years, and died in 
that city June 20th, 1865, in the thirty- 
ninth year of his age. His remains rest in 
the cemetery at Adamstown, Lancaster 
county. He was a Republican in politics 
and in religion a member of the Evangeli- 
cal church. He married Man- J. Kafroth, 
of Earlville, Lancaster county, and had a 
family of five children, all of whom are 
still living : Horace, now a practicing phy- 
sician of the city of Philadelphia ; George; 
Ida, wife of John D. Glass, of Philadelphia; 
Howard K., the subject of this sketch ; and 
Newton. Mrs. Regar resides in Philadel- 
phia, being now in her sixtieth year. 

Howard K. Regar was reared in his na- 
tive city of Philadelphia, and received an 
English education in the public schools of 
the metropolis. After leaving school he 
spent one year as law clerk, and then es- 
tablished himself as clerk in the wholesale 
notion business in Philadelphia. Afterward 
he became connected with the jewelry manu- 
facturing business as a clerk and salesman, 
in which position he remained for a period 
of one and a half years. In 1886 he became 
a member of the firm of Rambo & Regar, 
hosiery manufacturers of Norristown, Mont- 
gomery county, and removed to this bor- 
ough in 1889, assuming control of the 
financial management of the business. His 
partner is Mr. Joseph S. Rambo, a sketch of 
whom appears elsewhere in this volume. 
Their factor}', known as the Globe Knitting 
mills, is a large and commodious structure, 
located at the corner of Moore and Walnut 
streets, and is fully equipped with all 






-e^f^O 




^ 




Y- 



Biographical Sketches. 



modern machinery for the manufacture of 
every description of seamless hosiery. In 
addition to this business, Mr. Regar is also 
treasurer of the Norristown Shoe Manufac- 
turing company, treasurer of the Excelsior 
Automatic Knitting Machine company, a 
director of the Penn Tack company, and a 
stockholder in several other business enter- 
prises. 

On the 12th of April, 1888, Mr. Regar 
was united in marriage with Eugenia Sev- 
ern, a daughter of Mrs. Anna Severn, of the 
city of Philadelphia. Their union has been 
blessed by the birth of one child, a son, 
Howard Severn, now in his sixth year. 

Politically Mr. Regar is an uncompromis- 
ing Republican and protectionist, though 
he has never taken any active part in politi- 
cal matters, a strict devotion to business be- 
ing more congenial to his tastes. In reli- 
gion he is an Episcopalian, being connected 
with St. John's Episcopal church of Norris- 
town, and is also a director of the Young 
Men's Christian association. He is a man 
of musical talent, and is now serving as 
chorister of the Episcopal Sunday-school, 
and president of the Norristown Choral so- 
ciety. Mr. Regar is also a member of the 
Order of Sparta. He and his wife are very 
popular socially, and as a business man his 
record is one of honorable success. 



GILBERT RODMAN FOX, Esq., a 
gifted lawyer of the Norristown bar, 
is a son of Gilbert R. and Catharine (Cru- 
ger) Fox, and was born at Oscawana, on 
the Hudson, Westchester county, New 
York, July 26, 1861. The Fox family is 
of English ancestry and was founded in 
the new world by General Edward Fox, 
who came to Philadelphia during the latter 



part of the eighteenth century and engaged 
in the mercantile business, in which he was 
very successful for many years. He served 
as auditor general of Pennsylvania under 
Joseph Reed, when the latter was president 
of that State. He was the friend of Robert 
Morris, and lost heavily by endorsing for 
him. Gen. Fox was born at Dublin, Ireland, 
but of English parents, and married Eliza- 
beth Sergeant, sister of Jonathan Dickinson 
Sergeant, and aunt to Thomas Sergeant, 
a judge of the supreme court of Pennsyl- 
vania. His son, Judge John Fox, was born 
at Philadelphia April 26, 1787, was gradu- 
ated from the University of Pennsylvania 
and read law under Alexander J. Dallis, 
with George M. Dallis, the sou of the latter, 
and afterwards vice-president of the United 
States. Soon after admission to the bar 
Mr. Fox was recommended by his physician 
to settle in the country, and was succes- 
sively a resident of Bristol, Newtown and 
Doylestowu, the three successive seats of 
justice for Bucks county during the first 
half of the present century. He was a 
Democrat, and served as deputy attorney 
general of Bucks county for several years. 
In 1830 he was appointed president judge 
of the Seventh Judicial district, then com- 
posed of the counties of Bucks and Mont- 
gomery, and would have held that position 
for life, had he not, with all other judges, 
been legislated out of office by the adoption 
of the constitution of 1838, which made 
the judical office elective. He left his law 
cases when prosecuting attorney to serve on 
General Worrall's staff in the War of 1S12. 
He served with the rank of major and 
afterwards was appointed major general of 
the Seventh division of the Pennsylvania 
militia, which command he held until he 
went on the bench. Judge Fox died at 
Doylestowu, Bucks county, April 15, 1849. 



88 



Biographical Sketches. 



He was an intimate friend of John C. Cal- 
houn, and an admirer of Daniel Webster, 
with whom he never agreed politically ex- 
cept on the interpretation of the United 
States constitution. He was the intimate 
friend and private adviser of Samuel D. 
Ingham, when the latter was secretary of 
the treasury under President Jackson in the 
days when the " Kitchen Cabinet " was a 
prominent factor in politics at Washington 
city. An unselfish man of good judgment 
and tender heart, yet Judge Fox had great 
courage, both physical and moral, and 
never knew fear or timidity. His opinion 
on the negro suffrage question in a case he 
argued was published by direction of the 
Pennsylvania legislature and gave him 
reputation not only throughout the United 
States, but also in the leading countries of 
Europe. On June 6, 1816, he married 
Margery Rodman, and left five children, 
three sons and two daughters. Mrs. Fox 
was a daughter of Gilbert Rodman, a re- 
tired Philadelphia merchant and a member 
of the old Colonial Rodman family. 

One of these sons, Gilbert R. Fox, 
(father), was born at Doylestown, Bucks 
county, March 27, 1S17. He was graduated 
from Princeton college in 1835, and two 
years later received his degree of A. M. 
from that old historic institution of learn- 
ing. He read law, was admitted to the bar 
of Bucks county in September, 1838, and 
removed the same year to Norristown, 
where he was immediately admitted to the 
bar November 19, 1838. 

The next year he was appointed deputy 
attorney general of Montgomery county 
and held that office up to 1845. He was 
then engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion until January, i860, when he was ap- 
pointed clerk of the district court of the 
United States for the eastern district of 



Pennsylvania, which position he resigned 
fifteen years later, on April 19, 1875. He 
died at Norristown, December 4, 1892, 
when in the seventy-sixth year of his age. 
Mr. Fox ranked as one of the best equity 
lawyers of the State, and in politics sup- 
ported the Democratic party, but was no 
politician. He was a Presbyterian and 
served for many years as an elder of his 
church, in which he was a leading and in- 
fluential member. He wedded Catharine 
Cruger, a daughter of Nicholas Cruger, of 
New York, who was born December 13, 
1829, an d died January 8, 1S94. To their 
union were born five children : Kate Mar- 
gery, Francis M., Martha R., Gilbert Rod- 
man, Governeur C. Of these children three 
are living, Gilbert Rodman, Francis M., and 
Martha R., wife of Albert R. Genet, an 
attorney-at-law, of New York City. 

Gilbert Rodman Fox was brought up in 
Norristown, receiving his academical edu- 
cation in the Classical institute of Philadel- 
phia, and the Hill school of Pottstown. 
He entered Princeton college in 1880, being 
admitted to the Sophomore class, and was 
a member of the class of 1884, but left col- 
lege in 1883, at the end of the Junior 
year, to commence the study of law. 
He was admitted to the Montgomery coun- 
ty bar May 23, 1885, and on January 30, 
1888, was admitted to practice before the 
supreme court of Pennsylvania. He is 
also a member of the bar of Philadelphia 
county, and was admitted to the supreme 
court of the United States on March 11, 
1895, upon motion of the Hon. George F. 
Edmunds, of Vermont. Since his admis- 
sion to the bar, Mr. Fox has practiced con- 
tinuously in Montgomery and adjoining 
counties and before the supreme court of 
the State. He is a Democrat in politics, 
like his father and grandfather before him, 



Biographical Sketches. 



89 



and while not neglectful of any political 
duty, yet is devoted to the practice of his 
profession in which he has been successful. 
On May n, 1886, Mr. Fox was united in 
marriage with Rebekah Coleman, daughter 
of George F. Coleman, senior, member of 
the well known firm of Coleman & Brother, 
commission merchants, of Philadelphia, 
since retired from the firm. They have 
had five children : Gilbert Rodman, now 
deceased; George Coleman, Josephine, Mil- 
dred, and John Wister. 



HON. HENRY K. BOYER, ex-speaker 
of the house of representatives of Penn- 
sylvania, lawyer, scholar and politician, 
is a son of Ephraim D. and Rebecca (Kline) 
Boyer, and was born at Evansburg, in Lower 
Providence township, Montgomery eountv, 
Pennsylvania, February 19, 1850. The Boyer 
and Kline families are two old German 
families which have been resident in Mont- 
gomery county for over one hundred and 
fifty years. 

Henry K. Boyer received his elementary 
education in the public schools of his native 
township and then took a classical course at 
Freeland seminarv, now Ursinus college, of 
Collegeville. At sixteen years of age he 
commenced life for himself as a teacher. He 
taught a district school in his own neigh- 
borhood for two years, and then went to 
Philadelphia, where he became teacher 
of the English branches in a classical acade- 
my, in which ever}- leading nationality was 
represented by the students in attendance. 
One year later he was elected a teacher in a 
classified school in the twenty-third ward, 
which was an old Quaker settlement, and 
while teaching there he received and ac- 
cepted the offer of the principalship of the 



Kaign's Point Grammar school in Camden, 
New Jersey. In this new and advanced 
field of educational labor he did such thor- 
ough, practical and satisfactory work as to 
make him popular with his patrons and win 
the reputation of an able and progressive 
educator. He served as principal of this 
school for three years, although offered in 
the meantime the principalship of a Phila- 
delphia Grammar school at an increased 
salary. In 1871 he became a law student in 
the office of ex-Attorney General Benjamin 
Harris Brewster, of Philadelphia, and in 1872 
resigned the principalship of the Kaign's 
Point Grammar school in order to devote 
his entire time to his legal studies. Two 
years later on, 1874, at the early age of 
twenty-four years, he was admitted to the 
bar of Philadelphia, and has engaged in the 
practice of his profession ever since in the 
civil courts of the State. His present law 
offices are at 608 Chestnut street, Philadel- 
phia, and he has met with flattering success 
in his profession. 

With a reputation for scholarship and 
legal ability, it was but natural that his 
party called upon him for leadership, and 
his distinguished political career com- 
menced in 1882, when the Republicans 
elected him as a member of the Pennsylva- 
nia house of representatives from Philadel- 
phia. He was re-elected in 1884, 1886,' and 
1888, and again in 1892. In 1887, at the 
earl}' age of thirty-seven years, he was 
elected speaker of the house, and re- 
elected in 1889, receiving each time the 
unanimous support of his party, and in 
1889 was complimented by receiving the 
unanimous vote of the house. Except- 
ing Mr. Boyer, but three or four persons of 
any age in the history of the State, have 
enjoyed the distinction of having served 
two consecutive terms as speaker of the 



9 o 



Biographical Sketches. 



house. During the time he served as a 
member of the house he was active in com- 
mittee work and prominent and able in de- 
bate, and helped to add some valuable laws 
to the statute book of the State. He advo- 
cated the Bullitt bill, the Medical Exam- 
iners' bill, the Board of Health bill, and the 
bill regulating fraternal societies, and as- 
sisted in framing the revenue act of 
1885. While speaker he won an enviable 
reputation for fair and just rulings in a 
time when partisanship was rife and party 
feeling ran high. 

His services as speaker gave Mr. Boyer 
such a degree of popularity that his party 
in 1889 unanimously nominated him for 
State treasurer, the only elective office that 
year on the State ticket, and he was elected 
by the handsome majority of sixty thousand 
nine hundred and twenty-six votes. He 
served as State treasurer from May, 1890, 
to May, 1892. While serving as treasurer, 
in 1891, the famous Taggart (Granger) 
State revenue bill was passed by the house 
and sent to the State senate for concurrence, 
and to oppose it Mr. Boyer had a bill (since 
known as the Boyer revenue act) passed in 
the house and also sent to the senate for 
concurrence. A sharp contest there ensued 
over the bills, and on a test vote on a minor 
matter connected with these bills, the Tag- 
gart following fell into the minority by one 
vote. The influence of this vote was such 
that the final passage of the Boyer revenue 
act was secured by a good majority, and be- 
came the present revenue law of the State. 
After completing his term as State treasurer, 
he was nominated by the Republicans of 
the Seventh District of Philadelphia and 
elected as a member of the legislature of 
1893 by a majority of two thousand six 
hundred and seventy-seven votes, serving 
during; that session as chairman of the com- 



mittee on ways and means. He declined a 
renomination in 1894, and announced his 
retirement from politics. 

Henry K. Boyer has the reputation of a 
man of fine literary attainments and as be- 
ing an excellent mathematician. In 1887 he 
delivered the address at the commencement 
of Ursinus college, and his effort was so 
able and showed such deep and accurate 
scholarship, that the faculty of that institu- 
tion of learning conferred upon him the de- 
gree of A. M. Subsequently he became a 
member of the board of directors of Ursi- 
nus college and one of the executive com- 
mittee. Able as a lawyer, popular as a man, 
and distinguished as a legislator, Mr. Boyer 
has discharged every duty that has devolved 
upon him with credit and honor. 



DANIEL PRICE, president of the First 
National bank at Pottstown, is a son 
of Hon. William and Lydia (Urner) Price, 
and was born in North Coventry township, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 
1827. 

The ancestors of Mr. Price, both paternal 
and maternal for several generations back, 
were natives and residents of Chester and 
Montgomery counties. Indeed they were 
among the very earliest settlers of these 
counties and were uniformly noted for their 
thrift and prosperity as farmers. His great- 
grandfather's name was George Price, and 
his grandfather was Daniel Price, both of 
whom died in Chester county. 

Hon. William Price, our subject's father, 
was bom in North Coventry township, coun- 
ty of Chester, in 1801. He was reared 
on the farm, educated in the schools of 
his native township, and followed the oc- 
cupation of farming for a number of 



Biographical Sketches. 



9 1 



years, in connection with which he operated 
a large saw-mill. In politics he was a 
Whig and took an active and commendable 
interest in all political and civil matters af- 
fecting his comity. By reason of his fidel- 
itv to the public interest, he was elected to 
the State legislature and during his term of 
service was the author of a number of bills 
which always reflected a wise and cautions 
judgment. He was united in marriage 
to Miss Lydia Urner, and to this union 
were born six children, of which the 
subject of this sketch is the only one now 
surviving. Those deceased are : Sarah A., 
wife of George Crull, of Montgomery 
county; Elizabeth, wife of Franklin Baugh, 
a practicing lawyer of the Philadelphia bar; 
Caroline, wife of Thomas Sprague, of Cali- 
fornia ; Jonas Urner, and Hon. Nathan 
Urner. The former of the two last mention- 
ed was a graduate of Union college, Schen- 
ectady, New York, and at the outbreak of the 
Civil war enlisted in the Union army. He 
was killed in the first engagement at Green 
Briar Valley, West Virginia, and now lies 
buried at Cheat Mountain summit. Nathan, 
the youngest brother, after enjoying a liber- 
al education, read law and began his 
professional career in the State of Kansas. 
He rapidly rose in his profession to a 
position of honor and usefulness. He be- 
came a member of both houses of the legis- 
lature of his adopted .State and subsequently 
was elevated to the office of judge of the 
district court. At the expiration of his 
term of service, he resumed the practice of 
law which he followed until his death. He 
also enlisted in the service of his country 
during the late Civil war where he was 
soon given a captain's commission on ac- 
count of valorous conduct. As an evidence 
of the respect and high esteem in which he 
was held, one of the Grand Army posts of 



the State of Kansas was christened in his 
honor. 

Daniel Price, our subject, received his 
early education in the local schools, later 
entering Pottstown Academy and afterwards 
the academy of Joshua Hoopes at West 
Chester. After finishing his academical 
course, he was attracted to Philadelphia 
where he accepted a position as book-keeper. 
He followed this vocation for a period of 
nine years, at the expiration of which time 
he was induced to leave his position in 
Philadelphia to accept that of clerk in the 
Pottstown bank. This was on September 
14, 1857, the date of the organization of that 
institution. Mr. Price continued in this 
capacity until the year 1S61, at which date 
his integrity and financial ability brought 
him the position of cashier. On November 
22, 1864, the bank was re-organized and be- 
came a National bank, and in January, 1867, 
Mr. Price was made its president. His 
former services and well recognized probity 
received through this promotion only an 
additional recognition of his worth, and 
Mr. Price has deservedly continued to merit 
the confidence of both stockholders and 
patrons of the bank. Besides his connection 
with the National bank, Mr. Price is one of 
the managers of the Cold Storage and Ice 
company of Pottstown, formerly a manager 
of the Schuylkill bridge and is at present a 
member of the town council. In politics he 
was originally a Whig, but after the birth 
of the Republican party, affiliated with it. 
He is in no sense a politician, but accepts 
the citizen's responsibility, and contributes 
his best efforts toward the moral, intellectual 
and industrial improvement of his communi- 
ty. In these latter respects he has been an 
indefatigable and faithful worker. 

Daniel Price has been twice married. 
His first marriage was in July, 1852, with 



9 2 



Biographical Sketches. 



Malvina Wiley, a daughter of Ur. Penrose 
Wiley, of Penrose, Berks county, by whom 
he had five children, two of whom died in 
infancy, and three are yet living : Mary, 
wife of W. Stewart, a chemist ; Walter, 
(deceased) married to Florence Harburger 
of Pottstown, by whom he had three 
children — William, Daniel and Walter ; 
and William, a gradnate of Yale University 
and former tntor in that institution. Mr. 
Price's second marriage took place in 1868 
to Mrs. Katharine C. Shewell, who subse- 
quently died without issue. She was the 
daughter of Fred. R. Backus, and a grand- 
daughter of Peter Keyser, a prominent of- 
ficial of the Dunkard church. 

Mr. Price is a man of good business 
qualities, excellent social standing and 
leads a very active and useful life. He is 
a man of intellectual force, unassuming in 
manner and has contributed not a little to 
the up-building and advancement of the 
community in which he lives. 



WILLIAM W. POTTS, who served in 
the Civil war and is now a leading 
fanner of Swedeland, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, is the representative of an 
old and honored Pennsylvania family that 
dates back to the time of William Penn. 
He was born December 1, 1838, at Swede- 
land, this county, and is the youngest son 
of Robert T. and Eliza M. (Hiltner) Potts. 
The founder of the American branch of 
the family, David Potts, great-great-grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, came to 
this country from Bristol, England, with 
Markain, when a young man, and settled at 
Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He 
was a Quaker in religion, a farmer by occu- 
pation, and in 1693 married Alice Crosdale, 



who came over in the ship Welcome from 
England with William Penu. One of their 
sons was Nathan Potts, (great-grandfather), 
who was born and reared at Bristol, and 
later settled near Plymouth meeting house 
in Montgomery county. He was a fanner 
and blacksmith, and in religion a member 
of the Society of Friends. In 1736 he 
married Esther Rhodes, and reared a family 
of six children : Daniel, Stephen, Nathan, 
Alice, Zebulon, and Isaiah. Hon. Zebulon 
Potts, (grandfather), was born and grew to 
manhood on the old homestead near Ply- 
mouth meeting house, and afterward en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits in Plymouth 
township. He became a prominent politi- 
cian, served as the first sheriff of Mont- 
gomery county, and was afterward elected 
to the State senate of Pennsylvania, in 
which he died while serving his second 
term. In religion he adhered to the faith 
in which he was reared, being a strict 
member of the Society of Friends until ex- 
pelled for enlisting in the American army 
during the war of the Revolution. In that 
contest he served with distinction, taking 
part in the battle of Brandywine, and other 
historic struggles. He was also a member 
of the committee of safety with Robert 
Morris and others, and was honored by 
having a price set on his head by the 
British government, for the active interest 
he took in behalf of the struggling colonies. 
After the war he served as justice of a 
court in Philadelphia, and occupied other 
positions of trust and emolument. In 1771 
he married Martha Trotter, of Philadelphia, 
and they had a family of ten children : 
Ann, Joseph, Esther, Hannah, Alice, Es- 
ter, Martha, William, Robert T. and Daniel. 
Robert T. Potts, (father), was born at 
Plymouth township, in 1790, and after se- 
curing: a good common school education 



Biographical Sketches. 



93 



became a clerk for Harmon Yerkes, at 
Harmonville, where he remained until 
twenty-one years of age. He then went to 
Philadelphia and embarked in the whole- 
sale dry goods trade, which he conducted 
successfully until 1838. In the latter year 
he purchased property at Swedeland and 
removed to Montgomery count)'. He was 
an ardent Whig in politics, and was a can- 
didate for congress in the Henry Clay 
campaign. The county being largely- 
Democratic, he was defeated, but was ac- 
tive in both local and general politics for 
many years. In 1828 he married Eliza M. 
Hitner, a native of Whitemarsh, and a 
daughter of Daniel Hitner, of Marble Hall, 
and granddaughter of Daniel, who was a 
soldier of the Revolution and was killed at 
the battle of Germantown. To their union 
was born a family of five children, three 
sons and two daughters: Henry C, Ellen 
E., widow of R. L. Rutter, of Philadelphia ; 
Ellery C, Martha T., and William W. 
Robert T. Potts died December 13th, 1873, 
at Swedeland, this county, aged eighty- 
four. His wife had preceded him in 1851, 
at the age of fifty-nine. 

William W. Potts was reared at Swede- 
land, where he obtained his elementary edu- 
cation in the public schools. In 1851 he 
entered Haverford college, where he re- 
mained until 1854. He then studied for 
one year at the Pennsylvania State college 
at Bellefonte. After leaving college in 
April, 1861, he enlisted in Company K, 
4th Pennsylvania infantry, under Captain 
Cook and Colonel John F. Hartranft. At 
the end of his term of service, Mr. Potts re- 
enlisted in Company F, 124th Pennsylvania 
infantry. He was seriously wounded at the 
battle of Antietain, which incapacitated 
him for further service, and he was dis- 
charged on account of disability. Return- 



ing to Montgomery county, he soon after- 
ward engaged in farming at Swedeland, 
and has been connected with agricultural 
pursuits ever since, in which he has been 
successful and is regarded as among the 
most progressive farmers of his community. 

Politically Mr. Potts has always been a 
Republican. His first vote was cast for 
Abraham Lincoln and A. G. Curtiii in i860. 
He has always been active in support of 
his party, but never entertained any politi- 
cal ambitious for himself. He served as 
school director for a number of years and 
was treasurer of the school board for some 
time. Since 1865 he has been a member of 
Charity Lodge No. 190, Free and Accepted 
Masons ; and is also connected with Zook 
Post No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic, 
Norristown ; also vice-president of the His- 
torical society of Montgomery county. 

On November 9th, 1870, Mr. Potts was 
united in marriage to Ella Holstein, a 
daughter of Dr. G. W. Holstein, of Bridge- 
port. To Mr. and Mrs. Potts have been 
born five children : Brita H., Helen R., 
Carrie, Abbie, (deceased) ; and Ella. 



WILLIAM AUCHENBACH, founder 
and senior member of the wholesale 
grocery firm of William Auchenbach & 
Sons, of Pottstown, is a native of Pottsville, 
Schuylkill county, where he was born Feb- 
ruary 22, 1832. His parents were Henry 
and Mary (Shultz) Auchenbach, both na- 
tives of Berks county, this State. Henry 
Auchenbach, (father), was a carpenter by- 
trade, and shortly after marriage moved to 
Pottsville, from whence he removed to 
Reading, Berks county, when the subject of 
this sketch was an infant. Politically he 
was a Democrat, and in religion a member 



94 



Biographical Sketches. 



of the Methodist church. He died in 1852, 
aged fifty-one years, and his wife passed 
away in 1888, in the eighty-seventh year of 
her age. They were buried in the Charles 
Evans cemetery in Reading. 

William Auchenbach was a pupil in the 
public schools at Reading until he reached 
the age of nine years, when he went to 
work in a tobacco shop, and had no further 
opportunity to attend school. His addi- 
tional education was acquired in the uni- 
versity of practical life, and that he was an 
apt student of the world is attested by the 
success he won. From the tobacco works 
he went into a store in Reading as clerk 
and salesman, and after six years in that 
position he went to work for the Reading 
Railroad company in the foundry depart- 
ment in that city. There he remained two 
years, after which he came to Pottstown, in 
1850, and engaged as clerk in the general 
store of Daniel H. Beecher, with whom he 
remained in that capacity for four years. 
In 1854 Mr. Auchenbach was admitted to 
a partnership in the business, but one year 
later disposed of his interest and embarked 
in the dry goods and grocery business. 

This enterprise he conducted successfully 
for a year and a half, when on account of 
failing health he sold out and purchased a 
farm so as to live more in the open air. At 
the end of four years the pure air and out- 
door exercise had completely restored his 
health and Mr. Auchenbach sold his farm 
and once more engaged in merchandis- 
ing. When the Civil war occurred, 
he again sold his store and enlisted 
in the Federal army. Upon its organiza- 
tion, Mr. Auchenbach was elected captain 
of Company H, 68th Pennsylvania infantry, 
and served with his command in the Army 
of the Potomac for one year. He then re- 
signed, and returning to Pennsylvania, 



again embarked in the grocery business at 
Pottstown Here he continued the retail 
grocery trade until 1890, when in partner- 
ship with his sons, Harry and Frank Auch- 
enbach, he enlarged the sphere of his ope- 
rations and began the wholesale grocery 
business, under the firm name of William 
Auchenbach &; Sons. Their business has 
rapidly assumed large proportions and now 
extends over a wide reach of territory. 

Besides his wholesale grocery business, 
Mr. Auchenbach is closely identified with 
a number of other important enterprises of 
Pottstown. He has been stockholder and 
director in the Pottstown Gas and Water 
company ever since its organization, and is 
now the only original director. He is a 
stockholder and president of the Pottstown 
Textile mills, and a stockholder in the 
Pottstown Market company, and in a num- 
ber of other business and industrial enter- 
prises in this city. He has served as a 
councilman and school director, and is a 
director of the First Building and Loan as- 
sociation, of Pottstown. 

In 1854 Mr. Auchenbach was married to 
Anna Wambach, a daughter of Bartholo- 
mew Wambach, of Montgomery county, and 
by that union had three children, one of 
whom died in infancy. The other two are 
Harry and Frank, both now partners with 
their father in the wholesale business. On 
January 8, 1867, Mrs. Auchenbach died, 
aged thirty-eight years, and on the 17th of 
June, 1868, Mr. Auchenbach married Effie 
Bachtel, a daughter of Joshua Bachtel, of 
Pottstown. Mr. Auchenbach is a member of 
Stitcher Lodge No. 254, Free and Accepted 
Masons, of which he is past master, and is 
also a Knight Templar. His career shows 
what may be accomplished by energy, 
ability and continued application to a wise- 
ly chosen and honorable vocation. 



Biographical Sketches. 



95 



SAMUEL F. JARRKTT, who served 
for three consecutive terms as treasurer 
of Montgomery county, is a son of David 
and Rebecca (Farra) Jarrett, and was born 
in Upper Providence township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, Nov. 19, 1825. The 
Jarretts are of Scotch origin, and the Farras 
of Welsh and English extraction. 

The Jarrett family was in the county as 
early as the Rittenhouse family, and its 
founder in America was from the far famed 
Highlands of Scotland. One of his decend- 
ants, John Jarrett, was born in 1719, and 
married Alice Conrad. Their children 
were : John, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, 
Rachel, William, Alice, Jonathan, David, 
Jesse, Tracy and Joseph. Jesse Jarrett was 
a farmer and life long resident of this 
county. He wedded Elizabeth Palmer, 
and to them were born six children : Mary, 
married Isaac Shoemaker, a farmer, now 
dead ; David, a farmer, who lived to see 
his ninety-third birthday; Alice ; Joseph, 
a farmer ; Tracy, wedded James Kirk, a 
farmer, and John, who became a merchant 
in Philadelpha. David Jarrett (father) was 
born in Whiteinarsh township, October 24, 
1797, and became a farmer in Upper Provi- 
dence township, which he left in 1836, to 
settle in Plymouth township. He died Oc- 
tober 20, 1890, aged ninety-three years, and 
his remains rest in Plymouth cemetery. He 
was a Friend and served for several years as a 
school director. He married Rebecca Farra, 
who was a daughter of Atkinson Farra, of 
Norristown, and died Feb. 11, 1876, aged 
seventy-nine years. They were parents of 
eight children : Jesse, a farmer and builder 
of Lower Providence township ; Samuel F. 
(subject) ; Charles P., a mechanic, who was 
killed while serving as a soldier in the late 
Civil war; Atkinson F., of Norristown, Pa.; 
Elizabeth Jarrett ; John, now deceased ; 



Lucretia, who married Joseph Umstead, a 
farmer, and C. Halkley, a mechanic. 

Samuel F. Jarrett was reared in Upper 
Providence and Plymouth townships, re- 
ceived his education in the early common 
schools of Montgomery county, and re- 
mained with his father on the farm until he 
.was twenty-four years of age. He then en- 
gaged in farming for himself in Lower 
Providence township, where he remained up 
to 1853. In that year he purchased and re- 
moved to his present farm which is in Nor- 
ritou township and only two and a half 
miles from Norristown. He has been very 
successful as a farmer, and has done well in 
dairying, which he made a specialty nearly 
twenty years ago. 

On June 3, 1849, Mr. Jarrett married 
Amanda Crawford, whose parents, Joseph 
and Rebecca (Francis) Crawford were resi- 
dents of Lower Providence township. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Jarrett were born two chil- 
dren : Emma, who died in infancy, and 
Anna R., wife of Dr. W. H. Reed, of Norris- 
town. 

Mr. Jarrett was among the first to enlist 
in the Norris Cavalry when Lee threatened 
Pennsylvania, and did two months of effi- 
cient " emergency service " in Maryland. 
He is a member of the Society of Friends, 
and has always been a pronounced Republi- 
can. In 1872 he was nominated by his 
party for county treasurer, and, although 
in a strong Democratic locality, was elected 
by a majority of twelve votes. He was 
re-nominated the next year by acclamation 
and secured his election by a lair majority. 
At the end of his second term he was 
again nominated and for a term of three 
years. He was elected by an increased ma- 
jority and upon the expiration of his third 
term retired from political life and turned 
entire attention to his business affairs. The 



9 6 



Biographical Sketches. 



capable manner in which he handled the 
county finances brought him into public 
notice, and his services were frequently 
sought in affairs where a considerable 
amount of capital is involved. From farm- 
ing and dairying he branched out into 
other lines of business in which he has 
been successful. Mr. Jarrett is a director in 
the People's National bank of Norristown, 
and a stockholder in the First National 
bank of Coushohockeu, the Farmers' and 
Mechanics' bank of Phcenixville, Chester 
county, the First National bank of Jenkin- 
town, and all the National banks of Norris- 
town. He is a stockholder in the Ridge 
Avenue and Spring Garden Farmers' Mar- 
ket of Philadelphia ; and a director and 
manager of the Norristown Farmers' Mar- 
ket. Mr. Jarrett has given some attention 
to railways, and at present is a stockholder 
of the Lehigh Valley, and the Philadelphia, 
Germantown and Norristown Railroad com- 
panies. 



SAMUEL VERNON RUBY, A.M., Ph.D. 
professor of the English Language and 
Literature, Aesthetics and Social Science in 
Ursinus college, was born at Carlisle, Penn- 
sylvania, May 22, 1832. He was fitted for 
college in the Preparatory school at Mer- 
cersburg, and, at the same place, was a 
student in Marshall college from Septem- 
ber, 1849, to March, 1853, when Marshall 
college was transferred to Lancaster and 
united with Franklin college. After a so- 
journ at Lancaster for eleven weeks he was 
graduated from Franklin and Marshall col- 
lege in August, 1853. At Lancaster he 
read law in the office of Hon. Thaddeus 
Stevens, and completed his studies at Car- 
lisle, where he was admitted to practice in 
1858. He was immediately successful in 



his profession, and continued busily en- 
gaged in it until the breaking out of the 
great rebellion. 

On the 21st day of April, 1861, he en- 
listed as a volunteer in defence of the 
nation. The company whose roll bears his 
name became Company A, 7th regiment in- 
fantry, P. R. V. C, and in this he served as 
private, sergeant, 1st sergeant, 2nd lieuten- 
ant, and 1st lieutenant. He participated as 
commander of his company in the battle 
of second Bull Run, August 27, 28, 29, 
1862 ; as 2nd lieutenant in the battle of 
South Mountain, September 14, 1S62 ; Au- 
tietam, September 16, 17, 1862 ; First Fred- 
ericksburg, December 13, 1862 ; and com- 
manded the first division of his regiment, 
consisting of Companies A and E, in the 
battle of the Wilderness, Virginia, May 5, 

1864. On this day his regiment was cap- 
tured, and he suffered imprisonment for the 
space often months. After his return from 
imprisonment he was appointed, April, 

1865, by the secretary of war as 1st lieuten- 
ant in Hancock's Corps of Veteran Volun- 
teers, and in August of the same year was 
promoted to captain, and was placed in com- 
mand of Company D, 3rd regiment of that 
corps. In April, 1866, he was honorably 
discharged. 

Lieutenant Ruby was judge advocate of 
the military district of Alexandria, Vir- 
ginia, from June, 1863, to April, 1864 ; 
also, when a captain was judge advocate 
and assistant inspector general at Camp 
Butler, Illinois, during a part of the years 
1865 and 1866. 

Having decided not to return to the 
practice of law, he obtained the position of 
principal of the third district grammar 
school, Dayton, Ohio. In this position he 
served one year. In August, 1868, he be- 
came professor of ancient languages, and 



Biographical Sketches. 



97 



belles lettres, in Palatinate college, at My- 
erstown, Pennsylvania. In this position 
he labored faithfully and successfully for 
the space of four years, doing much good 
and winning many friends. In the sum- 
mer of 1872 Prof. Ruby received a call to 
the chair of English, etc., in Ursinus college. 

Here his line of work was considerably 
changed. He ceased teaching Latin and 
Greek, and instead taught logic, English 
literature, and political economy. Soon 
after receiving this appointment he began 
to restudy psychology and ethics, which, 
however, led him to new thought concern- 
ing teaching. As a result he undertook a 
rebuilding of the study of English in the 
collegiate curriculum. He started with a 
thorough drill in the elementary sounds of 
the English language and the principles of 
pronunciation ; held that punctuation is 
necessary to sentence construction ; taught 
that the paragraph is not only the unit of 
discourse, but also the key to its interpre- 
tation ; and made the study of grammar, 
rhetoric, and logic, in their order, and as 
illustrated in English master pieces, the 
prerequisites of good writing. 

During the earlier years of his connec- 
tion with the faculty of Ursinus he taught 
natural history. Botany became one of his 
favorite branches. He also gave attention 
to chemistry, zoology, and mineralogy. 
The ideas which Professor Ruby has em- 
phasized in his teaching are elaborated in 
addresses delivered by him before the fac- 
ulty and students of Ursinus college. The 
addresses are ten in number. The first is 
on the studies requisite to a proper under- 
standing of English letters ; the second, 
on the literary critics and literary criti- 
cism ; the third, on the education of the 
American citizen ; the fourth, on the 
genius and value of the government of 

7 



the United States ; the fifth, on the theory 
and practice of logic ; the sixth, on the 
contents and application of aesthetics ; 
the seventh, on the activities of the reason ; 
the eighth, on two questions of vital im- 
portance to our nation ; the ninth, on hu- 
man culture ; the tenth, on the national 
language in the collegiate curriculum. 

Poetry has also had its charms for him. 
He began at an early age to read English 
verse, and while at college wrote many 
pretty lines. His best collegiate effort was 
a poem of some twenty minutes in length, 
'Napoleon's retreat from Moscow,' delivered 
at Mercersburg, on the occasion of the anni- 
versary of the Goethean Literary society, 
held in March, 1853. Other poems follow- 
ed, and a few found their way into periodi- 
cals. His last poem is on "Spring, a Pennsyl- 
vania idyl." From it we quote the Prelude : 

To picture with its throbs and throes ; 
To picture as it comes and goes 
With mellow voice and silver ring, 
The yearly Pennsylvania Spring — 
Is now my task. We need no more 
Of British taste, or British lore ; 
Of Oxford cap, or Cambridge gown, 
Or Britain's Thomson of renowu, 
To paint our seasons as they fly, 
With changing scene and fitful sky. 
Within our hearts are penciled fair 
The very currents of our air, 
The trilling of each gentle rill, 
The light and shade on every hill, 
The clouds that sink or rise to view 
Upon our mountain's ridge of blue, 
Or sailing far in cloud laud by, 
With beauty decorate the sky. 
In every forest, every grove, 
We hear some tender lay of love ; 
And by the barn, or orchard near, 
The simplest songs to household dear. 
River and wood, and valley green, 
And all that marks the landscape scene, 
Are ours : the bird, the brook, the flower, 
Rain and sunshine, and April shower. 
Have filled our hearts, until their glow- 
Gives Spring tide in its flush and flow. 



98 



Biographical Sketches. 



EDGAR S. COOK, president of the 
Warwick Iron company, is a son of 
Jesse M. and Sarah (Scndder) Cook, and 
was born in the city of Philadelphia, Aug. 
25, 1851. His paternal grandfather, Daniel 
Cook, was of English descent, and passed 
his life in New Jersey, of which State he 
was a native. He was a large land holder 
in his day, and died in 1837. He was a 
justice of the peace and an active member 
of the Presbyterian church. His father, 
Samuel Cook, was a descendant of one of 
six Cook brothers, who came from England 
to Rhode Island about 1660. Jesse M. 
Cook, the father of Edgar S. Cook, was 
born and reared in New Jersey and received 
his education at Lafayettee college. At 
nineteen years of age he came to Philadel- 
phia, and shortly afterwards, in connection 
with a Mr. Moore, established and operated 
a line of omnibusses. Later he withdrew 
from the omnibus business to become a 
member of the firm of Cain, Hackei & 
Cook, which dealt extensively in the mining 
•and selling of Schuylkill county anthracite 
coal, until President Cowan, of the Phila- 
delphia and Reading Railroad companv, 
absorbed nearly all of the coal interests in 
the Schuylkill county anthracite region. 
When Mr. Gowan came in control of the 
coal trade, Mr. Cook removed to the eastern 
shore of Maryland and engaged in the 
small fruit business there on a farm which 
he had purchased about the close of the late 
Civil war. After ten years spent actively 
and successfully as a small fruit raiser and 
dealer, he retired from active business and 
still resides in Maryland. While a coal 
operator in Schuylkill county, Mr. Cook 
was also a manufacturer of pig iron at 
Monocacy, Berks county. He has been suc- 
cessively a Whig and Republican in poli- 
tics, and is a Chapter and Commandery 



Mason, and a consistent member of the Pres- 
byterian church, having been an elder for 
many years of the Tenth and Arch Street 
church of Philadelphia. Mr. Cook was 
born September 23, 1821, and has been not 
only a successful, but also a useful business 
man. He married Sarah Scndder, whose 
father, John Scndder, was a native and 
farmer of New Jersey. To their union 
were born six children, of whom four are 
living : Henry C, of Philadelphia ; Kate 
S., wife of George H. Potts; Sallie A., 
who married Dr. John Dale, of Princess 
Ann county, Maryland ; and Edgar S., 
whose name appears at the head of this 
sketch. The two children who died were : 
Carrie B., aged sixteen, and May E., who 
was twenty years of age. 

Edgar S. Cook was reared in his native 
city, and received his education in the 
Philadelphia Central High school, from 
which he was graduated at the head of the 
class of July, 1869, whose average was the 
highest of all the class averages up to that 
date. After graduation he became a clerk 
in the office of Cain, Hacker &: Cook, and 
in 187 1 went to Monocacy, Berks county, 
where he was bookkeeper for two years and 
manager for three years of the blast furnace 
of that place. In 1877 he came to Potts- 
town as manager of the Warwick furnace, 
and in 1891, upon the death of Isaac Fege- 
ley, was elected president of the Warwick 
Iron company, which important aud re- 
sponsible position he still holds. He is 
also president of the Pottstown Light, Heat 
and Power company, and is a member of 
the board of health and in many other ways 
has served to promote the interests of the 
borough. 

On January 2, 1S79, Mr. Cook was united 
in marriage with Josephine Bailey, of 
Pottstown. To their union have been born 



Biographical Sketches. 



99 



five children, four sons and one daughter : 
Edwaid B., Joseph W., Richard B., Harry, 
and Jessie M., who passed away January' 18, 
1891. 

Edgar S. Cook is a capable and efficient 
business man and handles well the exten- 
sive and varied operations of the large com- 
pany, at whose head he has been serving 
for the last five years. He is a Republican 
in politics, and a member of the First Pres- 
byterian church, of whose board of trustees 
he has served as president for several years. 



JOHN CRAWFORD SPEAR, Medical 
Inspector U. S. N., now a resident of 
Norristown, is a son of Hon. John C. and 
Mary F. (Hanson) Spear, and was born 
near Middletown, New Castle county, Dela- 
ware. The Spears are of English descent, 
while the Hansons are of Swedish extrac- 
tion, and both families were among the 
pioneer settlers of Delaware and Pennsyl- 
vania. Dr. Spear's grandfather was An- 
drew Spear, and his father, Hon. John C. 
Spear, was born in New Castle county, 
Delaware, July 10, 1807. He was an excel- 
lent fanner, and a progressive man, and 
died in June, 1867. He was a Whig, and 
an Episcopalian, and served as a member 
of the Delaware legislature. In 1836 he 
married Mary F. Hanson, a daughter of 
Isaac Hanson, and to their union were born 
six children. John Crawford Spear was 
graduated as a doctor of medicine from the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1861, and 
directly after receiving his degree he was 
examined by the Naval Medical Examin- 
ing board for assistant surgeon in the U. S. 
navy and was commissioned as such May 9, 
1861. His first orders were to the steam fri- 
gate Roanoke, on the blockade off Charleston 



and Wilmington. In the autumn of the 
same year his vessel had a short engage- 
ment with the rebel ports at Hattrass Inlet, 
and March 8th and 9th, 1S62, she was in 
the memorable naval battle between the 
United States vessels of war and the rebel 
iron clad Merrimac in Hampton Roads. 
The Roanoke was under a heavy fire from 
the ports at Sewell's Point for several hours 
on the first day of the fight, and she also 
received occasional shots from the Merri- 
mac on the same afternoon. Having a 
broken shaft, she was towed into action by 
a river steamboat, Commodore Marston 
acting as commander-in-chief. In this en- 
gagement, on learning by signal that lieu- 
tenant commanding John L. Warden, the 
captain of the Monitor was badly wounded, 
the commodore sent Dr. Spear on board to 
aid the medical officer of the Monitor in 
operating upon Captain Worden's eyes, 
which were filled with powder from the ex- 
plosion of a shell over the peep-hole in the 
pilot house. In the spring of 1862, Assist- 
ant Surgeon Spear joined the United States 
steamer Mahaska, and saw much arduous 
and perilous service on the York and James 
rivers, being many times under heavy fire 
from earth work and field artillery and 
sharp shooting on the river bank. At the 
battle of Malvern Hill many wounded sol- 
diers of the Union army came under his 
care, both on board his vessel and on shore. 
In the same year he served as surgeon and 
adjutant of a land expedition to Matthews 
Court House,Virginia, commanded by Com- 
mander Foxhall A. Parker, in which there 
were several skirmishes with the enemy. 
Later in the year on the same vessel he was 
under a heavy fire for several hours from 
shore batteries at the mouth of Cape Fear 
river. 

On the application of Fleet Surgeon 



I 



®f O- 



IOO 



Biographical Sketches. 



William Maxwell Wood, Dr. Spear was 
detached from the Mahaska and ordered as 
surgeon of the flagship Minnesota, though 
very young in rank and years. His turn 
for examination for promotion came in the 
summer of 1863, and he was ordered to 
Philadelphia, where he passed successfully. 
For several months he was stationed at the 
Philadelphia navy yard, and on receiving 
his promotion to full surgeon in June, 1864, 
was ordered to the West Gulf Blockading 
squadron, under Admiral Farragut, and as- 
signed to the Seminole. He was present 
at the bombardment and surrender of Fort 
Morgan, Mobile Bay, and later saw service 
on the blockade on the coast of Texas, 
serving there both on the Seminole and 
Monongahcla. He saw many cases of yel- 
low fever during his tour of duty in the 
gulf of Mexico. At the close of the war in 
the Monongahela, he returned home and 
was shortly assigned as attending surgeon 
in the city of Washington, and at the same 
time did duty as assistant chief of the bu- 
reau of medicine and surgery in the naval 
department. 

His first foreign service was seen on the 
Swatara, Commander William N. Jeffers. 
She visited all the principal ports in the 
West Indies and on the Spanish Main, then 
cruised in Europe, and finally on the west 
coast of Africa. The cruise was unusually 
extended and interesting. Many of the 
ship company on the coast of Africa, off 
the mouth of the Congo river, were stricken 
with a severe form of congestice malarial 
fever, but happily no one succumbed. He 
was transferred to the flagship Franklin, 
Admiral Farragut, at Gibraltar, and re- 
turned to New York in the autumn of 
1868 He was elected a member of the 
academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia, 
in 1869. Surgeon General William Wood 



selected him as geologist of the United 
States Tehuantepec surveying expedition 
under Admiral Shufeldt in 1870-1. He 
wrote a report on the geology and general 
resources of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, 
with reference to the proposed construction 
of a ship canal there. The work done on 
the isthmus by Dr. Spear was officially 
commended by Admiral Shufeldt, and 
highly spoken of by Prof. Fuertes, of Cor- 
nell university. After a short tour of duty 
at the naval hospital in Philadelphia, he 
joined the steamer Omaha, and made a long 
cruise, visiting Brazil, the straits of Magel- 
len, Chili, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and 
some of the Pacific islands. He made an 
examination of the extensive coal deposits 
in the interior north of the strait of Ma- 
gellen, and wrote an official report about 
them. He also in the same region ob- 
served natives washing gold in the bed of 
a small river and learned of the probable 
existence of gold there in quantity. A 
company was formed later in Chili to 
thoroughly explore this region for gold, 
and Dr. Spear was to have had charge of the 
party, but the death of the principal sub- 
scriber to the funds for the expedition put 
an end to the undertaking at that time. 
During their cruise one day off the east 
coast of Patagonia, Surgeon Spear went as 
one of a boat's crew of volunteers to pick 
up an officer and man over board, a heavy 
sea running at the time, the volunteer crew 
was in great peril, both in leaving and 
boarding the Omaha. On several occasions 
while in Peru, Dr. Spear obtained leave 
and visited the interior, abounding in 
interesting ruins, and wrote popular ac- 
counts of his explorations for the newspa- 
pers at home. He served in 1875-6 on the 
Monitor Dictator, North Atlantic squadron. 
A large fleet of Monitors and other war 



Biographical Sketches. 



ioi 



vessels were assembled in Port Royal 
waters on account of the probability of 
war with Spain, when an epidemic of yel- 
low fever broke out in the vicinity. Sur- 
geon Spear devised and executed necessa- 
ry quarantine measures to protect the fleet 
under the orders of the commander-in-chief 
of the station, who on the 4th of October, 
1876, wrote to the secretary of the navy : 
"Surgeon Spear rendered efficient service, 
especially in recommending measures to 
prevent the introduction of yellow fever 
with which we have been threatened. 
It is in my opinion due largely to his energy 
and judgment in this direction that I have 
been able to report that among the vessels 
here there has been no sickness of any de- 
scription. He deserved the favorable con- 
sideration of the navy department." The 
doctor was also instrumental in discovering 
a source of potable water in quantity suffi- 
cient for the fleet near Port Royal, where 
till then either distilled water or water 
brought in a boat from Charleston had to 
be obtained from the station at great ex- 
pense. He further kept such health data 
of Port Royal waters as to furnish proof in 
a congressional debate of the healthfulness 
of the place and its suitableness for a naval 
station or salubrious rendezvouing for a 
fleet. 

After serving on various examining 
boards in the navy department, he was in 
October promoted to medical inspector 
with the relative rank of Commander in 
the navy. The following year he was as- 
signed as fleet surgeon of the Euro- 
pean station, under Rear Admiral Howell, 
flagship Trenton. This cruise was about 
two years, and most of the principal sea- 
ports and countries in Europe were visited. 
During this cruise he wrote many interest- 
ing letters of travel, which were published 



in the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. 
Returning from sea, he was again employed 
on the examining board in Washington 
and Philadelphia. He has served much on 
this duty. Indeed a large number of the 
younger medical officers of the navy have 
been professionally examined by Dr. Spear, 
either for admission to the naval service or 
for promotion. In the summer of 1883 he 
joined the New York naval station as chief 
surgeon of the navy yard and filled this po- 
sition for three years, when he was assigned 
as director of the United States naval 
laboratory at the same station. He served 
one year here when he was granted leave 
of absence on account of ill health. He 
was placed on the retired list in September, 
1888, and has since resided at Norristown. 
He is a companion of the Loyal Legion. 
Dr. Spear was president of the Montgomery 
County Medical society in 1892. 

In 1865 Dr. Spear married Emma 
L. Mulvany, daughter of Hon. Daniel 
H. Mulvany, of Norristown. To this union 
have been born five children : Roscoe, born 
at Norristown, January 9, 1872 ; Raymond, 
at Nice, France, March 18, 1873 ; John Van 
Couwenhoven, born at Washington city, 
Christmas, 1877, and died April 10, 1893 ; 
Bertha, November 16, 1879; and Reginald, 
May 16, 1881. Mrs. Spear is a member of 
the Society of the Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, as she is a direct descen- 
dant of the old Couwenhoven and Fonnan 
Revolutionary families. 

Roscoe Spear, eldest son of Dr. Spear, 
though born in Norristown, received the 
major part of his early education in France. 
Later he attended the Brooklyn Polytech- 
nic institute, and was finally prepared for 
entrance to the United States Naval Acade- 
my at Annapolis, Maryland, by private in- 
struction. He was graduated from the lat- 



102 



Biographical Sketches 



ter institution in 1894, having " passed 
with credit." After graduation he was as- 
signed to service in the United States navy, 
and is now serving as a cadet on the flag- 
ship Sa/i Francisco, European squadron. 



BENJAMIN F. WHITBY, a leading 
business man of Norristown, is a son of 
Anthony and Mary (Supplee) Whitby, and 
was born at Norristown, Pennsylvania, 
October 7, 1843. The family is of Scotch 
descent, its first representative in America, 
so far as known, being John Whitby, pater- 
nal great grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, who came over from Scotland in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century and 
settled in Montgomery County. Among 
his sons was John Dunlap Whitby (grand- 
father,) who was a farmer by occupation, 
served as a soldier in the war of 1812, and 
resided in Norriton township during the 
latter years of his life. His son, Anthony 
Whitby (father) was born in Norriton town- 
ship, this county, February 13th, 1803, and 
in earlier life learned the weaver's trade, at 
which he became very expert. After fol- 
lowing that occupation for a number of 
years, his attention was turned to farming, 
which business he successfully conducted 
on the farm now occupied by the Mont- 
gomery cemetery and the homestead of Jos- 
eph E. Rapp, for a period of eighteen years. 
He then removed to Lower Providence town- 
ship, this county, and purchased the farm 
now occupied by his son, James M. Whitby. 
There he passed the remainder of his life, 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, dying 
November 2nd, 1870, at the age of sixty- 
seven years. Politically, he was a staunch 
Democrat, and for many years an active 
trustee of the Lower Providence Presbyter- 



ian church. In 1S30 he married Mary Sup- 
plee, a daughter of Edward Supplee, of 
Merion township, and by that union had a 
family of ten children, five sons and five 
daughters : Geo. W. and Mary Ann, now 
deceased ; John D. ; Elizabeth J., married 
Henry S. Kulp, secretary of the Mutual 
Fire Insurance company, of Montgomery 
county ; William M. ; James M., now re- 
siding on the old homestead in Lower Prov- 
idence township ; Benjamin F., whose name 
heads this sketch ; Isabella K. ; Sallie R., 
wife of W. A. Shearer, of Eagleville, this 
county ; and Emma J., who married James 
R. Weikel, of Trappe. Mrs. Whitby, mother 
of this family, died in 1850, in the forty-sec- 
ond year of her age, and her remains lie beside 
those of her husband in the cemetery at 
Lower Providence Presbyterian church. 

Benjamin F. Whitby spent his early years 
on the farm near Norristown, and removed 
with his father's family, when five years old, 
to Lower Providence township. He re- 
mained on the farm until sixteen years of 
age, receiving his education in the public 
schools and at Washington Hall, Trappe. 
Soon after leaving school, he began teach- 
ing, and was thus employed for a period of 
five years. In 1868 he embarked in agri- 
cultural pursuits in Lower Providence town- 
ship, to which he applied himself for a 
dozen years very successfully, and at the 
expiration of that time removed to Eagles- 
ville, in that township, where he began the 
business of a conveyancer and real estate 
dealer, in addition to performing his duties 
as a justice of the peace, to which office he 
had been elected in 1878, while still on the 
farm. This combined business he con- 
ducted on an extensive scale for a period of 
fourteen years. In 1894 he removed to Nor- 
ristown, where he has since resided, being 
still engaged in the general real estate busi- 



Biographical Sketches. 



J °3 



ness, and June 17th, 1895, was appointed 
treasurer of Montgomery count}'. 

On January 31st, 1868, Mr. Whitby was 
married to Annie G. Custer, only daughter 
of Jacob G. Custer, a prosperous farmer of 
Lower Providence township, this count}-. 
Their only child, a daughter, Cora C, re- 
cently graduated from the Broad Street Con- 
servatory of music, in Philadelphia, with 
the highest honors of the class. Mrs. Whit- 
by died October 23, 1893, at the age of fifty- 
one years, and her remains rest in the cem- 
etery of the Lower Providence Presbyterian 
church, in which church she was a faithful 
member and an active worker for a period 
of twenty-seven years. 

In politics Mr. Whitby is - a Democrat and 
has frequently served as a member of the 
county executive committee of his party. 
He served as a justice of the peace for five 
years, and also as a school director in Lower 
Providence township for some time. His 
name has been mentioned as a candidate of 
his part}' for assemblyman and other offices 
of importance, but he has always declined 
the candidacy. He is a director and sec- 
retary of the board of directors of the Spring 
Garden Market company, and was one of 
the originators of that enterprise. For 
twenty years he served as secretary of a 
beneficial society at Eagleville, of which he 
is still a member, and for nearly a quarter of 
a century was an elder in the Lower Prov- 
idence Presbyterian church, only resigning 
that position upon his removal to Norris- 
town. He was always active in every good 
work undertaken by his church, and for a 
number of years served as superintendent of 
its large Sabbath school. For many years 
he has been a member of the Masonic fra" 
ternity, being now connected with Warren 
Lodge No. 310, of Trappe. He has been a 
director in the Montgomery National bank 



of Norristown for many years. His fine 
residence at the corner of Haas avenue and 
Main street is built upon what was the hand- 
some lawn of the late Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, John F. Hartranft, deceased. 



GEORGE C. MORGAN, proprietor of 
the well known Morgan flouring 
mills of Norristown, is a son of Antrim 
F. and Martha (Harris) Morgan, and was 
born at Chester Springs, Chester county, 
Pennsylvania, June 10, 1856. He is of 
Welsh descent on the paternal side, and 
the immigrant ancester of the Morgan 
family was Morgan Morgan, sr., who came 
from Wales to Montgomery county over a 
hundred years ago. He was a farmer In- 
occupation, and his son, Morgan Morgan, 
(grandfather), was reared on the farm, but 
left farming to engage in blacksmithing 
and gunsmithing, which he followed dur- 
ing the active years of his life. He served 
for many years as a justice of the peace at 
Montgomeryville, where he died at an ad- 
vanced age. He married and reared a 
family, and his son, Antrim F. Morgan, is 
the father of the subject of this sketch. 
Antrim F. Morgan was born March 8, 1818, 
at Montgomeryville, where he received his 
education. Some years after attaining his 
majority he removed to Chester Springs, 
Chester County, where he was engaged in 
the milling business for a number of years, 
where the subject was born. He then re- 
moved to Quakertown, Bucks count}', 
where he has followed farming ever since. 
He was a Whig, then a Republican in early 
and middle life, but of late years has affili- 
ated with the Prohibition party, whose 
principles meet his approval and receive 
his support. He is a member of the Society 



io4 



Biographical Sketches. 



of Friends, as were all his family, and was 
connected for several years with the Oua- 
kertown Friends school. He takes an ac- 
tive interest in the temperance cause ; was 
nominated for State senator on the Prohi- 
bition ticket of Bucks county, and was a 
member and worker in the order of Good 
Templars, while that organization was in 
its prime and active in the wide field of 
usefulness that lay around and beyond it. 

He married Martha Harris, whose father 

was Harris, of . To Mr. and 

Mrs. Morgan were born five children, three 
sons and two daughters : Thomas H; 
Hannah, widow of S. F. Penrose, and now 
a resident of Quakertown, Bucks county ; 
Kate, who wedded C. E. Smulling, of Qua- 
kertown, and is now deceased; George C, 
and Joseph A. 

George C. Morgan, although born in 
Chester county, yet was reared at Quaker- 
town, Bucks county, and received his edu- 
cation in the excellent Friends school at 
the latter place. Leaving school he made 
choice of an industrial pursuit for a life 
vocation and came to Conshohockeu, where 
he spent two years with John J. Brooke in 
learning the trade of miller. At the close 
of his apprenticeship he went to Green 
Lane, where he was engaged in milling for 
two years. At the end of that time, in the 
spring of 1878, he came to Norristown and 
took charge of the Old Stony Creek mill at 
the bridge near Main street. After running 
this mill for one year he purchased it and 
the water power by which it was operated. 
He then tore the old mill down and erected 
his present large and well equipped flour- 
ing mill, which has a capacity of forty 
barrels of flour per day. His leading 
brands are the "Spray," "Lily White," 
and " Golden Light. " In addition to ope- 
rating his mill, he is a wholesale and retail 



dealer in grain and feed. Mr. Morgan is 
a Prohibitionist in political opinion. He 
takes an active interest in the Prohibition 
movement ; has been for some time the 
managing editor of the Montgomery County 
Prohibitionist, and was a candidate for the 
legislature in 1894, receiving the largest 
vote cast on the Prohibition ticket in the 
county. Mr. Morgan is a director in the 
West Norristown Loan and Building asso- 
ciation. He is a member of the Oak Street 
Methodist Episcopal church, of whose board 
of trustees he is serving as president. He 
is active and energetic, and has been suc- 
cessful in business. 

On , 1880, Mr. Morgan married 

Inez Brooke, a daughter of John J. Brooke, 
of Conshohocken. To their union have 
been born eight children, three sons and 
five daughters: Warren B., Lottie, Elsie, 
died, fifteen months old ; George R., John 
J., Inez, Blanche, and Janet. 



HB. DICKINSON, a well known mem- 
• ber of the Montgomery county bar, 
who has been in successful practice at Norris- 
town since 1863, is a native of this county, 
having been born in Whitemarsh township, 
April 14, 1836. His parents were Henry 
and Maria (Bigler) Dickinson, both de- 
scendants of early pioneers who settled in 
this country during the colonial period. 
The Dickinsons are of English Quaker ori- 
gin, and trace their American ancestry 
back to John Dickinson, a member of the 
Constitutional congress, who on May 5, 
1779, signed the Articles of Confederation 
and Perpetual Union between the State of 
Delaware. Prior to the Revolution mem- 
bers of the family had removed to Penn- 
sylvania, and for a number of generations 



Biographical Sketches. 



105 



their descendants have been residents of 
Montgomery county. Israel Dickinson, 
(grandfather), was a native of this county 
and a fanner by occupation. One of his 
sons, Joseph Dickinson, served as a captain 
in the war of 181 2. Another son was 
Henry Dickinson, (father), who was born 
on the old homestead in Whitemarsh town- 
ship, this county, June 12, 1799. He was 
a farmer by vocation, a Jacksonian Demo- 
crat in politics, and a strict member of the 
Society of Friends. During the more ac- 
tive part of his life he held a number of 
local offices and gave considerable attention 
to public affairs. He died in Whitemarsh 
township, in 1876, aged seventy-nine years, 
and his remains rest in the cemetery at 
Union church. In 1821 he married Maria 
Bigder, a daughter of George Bigder, who 
served with distinction in the Revolution- 
ary war, and by that union had a family of 
twelve children, five of whom still survive. 
H. B. Dickinson, the son and subject of 
this sketch, was reared on the farm in 
Whitemarsh township, and was educated 
in the public schools and at Treemont 
seminary, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1856, at the age of twenty. 
He then engaged in teaching, which occu- 
pation he followed successfully for a period 
of four years. At the end of that time, 
having determined to devote himself to the 
legal profession, he entered the office of 
Gilbert R. Fox, of Norristown, and began 
the study of law. On November 16. 1863, 
he was admitted to the bar of Montgomery 
county, and has ever since been in continu- 
ous practice. He was a candidate for dis- 
trict attorney soon after his admittance to 
the bar, and has acted in turn as solicitor 
for incumbents of every office in the county. 
For many years he has enjoyed a good 
general practice and is widely known 



throughout this part of the Keystone State. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Dickinson 
has always been a Democrat, and until the 
last few years has taken an active interest 
in all civic and political affairs. He has 
served frequently as a delegate to the 
Democratic State and county conventions, 
and during a number of years was regarded 
as an active local leader of his party. He 
is a Friend in religious belief, and for a 
quarter of a century has been a member of 
the Masonic fraternity of Norristown. 

On February 17, 1858, Mr. Dickinson 
was united in marriage with Sarah J. Mar- 
tin, a daughter of John and Sarah Martin, 
of Gwynedd, this county. To them was 
born a family of nine children, only one of 
whom now survives. Their surviving son, 
Warren M. Dickinson, was born July 31, 
i860, pursued his preparatory studies in 
the public schools of Norristown, and en- 
tered Princeton college in 1879. He was 
graduated from that institution of learning 
in 1883, after which he studied law with 
his father, and on October term, 1887, was 
admitted to practice before the courts of 
Montgomery county, and is now actively 
engaged in his profession. In 1893 he was 
married to Mary H. Hamill, a daughter of 
S. Porter Hamill, of Norristown, and has 
one child, a son named Lawrence B. Both 
wife and child died in the spring of 1895. 



JOHN JAMES BECKER, agent of the 
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 
company, at West Conshohocken, is a son 
of James and Susanna (Glasser) Becker, and 
was born at Lehigh Church, near Alburtis, 
Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, December i, 
1861. He grew to manhood in his native 
State, received his education in the public 



io6 



Biographical Sketches. 



schools and Kutztown State Normal school, 
and then to fit himself thoroughly for com- 
mercial and industrial pursuits, took a course 
at Peirce's Business college of Philadelphia. 
Leaving the business college he was en- 
gaged in teaching in the public schools of 
Lehigh county for two years, and then 
learned telegraphy, which he followed at 
different places for the Perkiomeu Railroad 
company, Philadelphia, Newtown and New 
York Railroad company, and Philadelphia, 
Reading and Pottsville Telegraph company 
for three and one-half years. At the end of 
that time he entered the employ of the 
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad com- 
pany, and was variously employed in sta- 
tion service for the next twelve months. 
He was then, in 1889, appointed station 
agent at West Conshohocken, where he has 
discharged the many duties of that position 
satisfactorily up to the present time. Mr. 
Becker is a Republican in political opinion, 
and is a member of the Evangelical Luth- 
eran church. He is well acquainted with 
station work in all of its branches and de- 
tails, and conducts everything upon safe 
business principles. 

On December n, 1888, Mr. Becker was 
united in marriage with Mary Alice Lesher, 
a daughter of Dr. Lesher, of Kutztown, 
Pennsylvania. Their union has been blessed 
with one child, a daughter, named Alma. 

As the name would indicate, the Beckers 
are of German descent. They have been 
resident for six generations in this country, 
and James Becker, sr., the paternal grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was a 
native of Lynnville, Lehigh county. He 
was a large land owner, and a Democrat in 
politics. He wedded Hannah Sechler, of 
Lynnville, Pa., and their children, five in 
number, were Lewis, James, jr., Levi, and 
Amanda. James Becker, sr., died July 25, 



1853, a g e d fifty years, and his wife passed 
away January 9, 1836, when in the thirty- 
first year of her age. Their son, James 
Becker (father), was born in Greenwich 
township, Berks county, and followed the 
occupation of farming at different places in 
Berks and Lehigh counties. He was a 
Democrat and Lutheran, like his father be- 
fore him, and died October 11, 1866, when 
in the thirty-ninth year of his age. He 
married Susanna Glasser, who is still living 
at Kutztown, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Becker 
reared a family of three children, one son 
and two daughters : Louisa A., who mar- 
ried Charles W. Miller ; John James, whose 
name heads this sketch ; and Hannah V., 
who wedded Morris Gehret. 

The Becker family has been noted dur- 
ing the several generations of its American 
residence for the many sterling qualities of 
the Pennsylvania German race. 



ALBERTUS HALLMAN, now engaged 
in the general mercantile business at 
Hartranft Station, is a son of Lewis and 
Sarah A. (Harner) Hallman and was born 
at Penn Square, Norriton Township, Mont- 
gomery County, Pennsylvania, August 18, 
1853. Lewis Hallman was born in this 
county, January 29, 1816, and about 1848, 
removed to Penn Square, where he died 
March 19, 1894. He was a wheelwright 
and coach maker by trade, and followed 
that line of business for over forty-three 
years. He was a Democrat in politics, and 
served three terms as supervisor of roads in 
his township. He was a member of 
Boehm's church, and wedded Sarah A. 
Harner, a native of Montgomery county 
and a daughter of Samuel Harner. To 
their union was born four children, two 



Biographical Sketches. 



107 



sons and two daughters : Dallas H., of Penu 
Square ; Annie, now deceased ; Albertus, 
whose name appears at the head of this 
sketch ; and Mary Ida, wife of George W. 
Hoover, of Whitemarsh township. 

Albertus Hallman was reared at Penn 
Square, and received his education in the 
common schools of his native township. 
Leaving school, he learned the trade of 
blacksmith, which he followed from 1877 
to 1880, when he became a clerk in the store 
of Judge Hiram Hoover, of Hooverton. 
He soon became manager of the store, and 
in April, 1885, purchased the stock of goods 
from Judge Hoover. Mr. Hallman has 
kept up with the rapid advances made in 
the mercantile business during the last 
decade. He has a large and well selected 
stock of general merchandise and has built 
up a fine trade at Hooverton and in the 
surrounding country. 

Well qualified for his special line of busi- 
ness, he has made it a success. He also 
does an extensive farming business in con- 
nection with the management of his gen- 
eral mercantile establishment. Mr. Hall- 
man has always supported the principles of 
the Democratic party, and is a member of 
Boehm's Reformed Church, of Blue Bell, 
while he has acted as Treasurer for several 
years of the Penn Square Sunday school. 
He is a member of Curtis Lodge, No. 239, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Nor- 
ristown, and has passed all of the chairs in 
Washington Camp, No. 322, Patriotic Order 
Sons of America, of Penn Square, in which 
he is now serving as a trustee. 

On December 2, 1880, Mr. Hallman was 
united in marriage with Mary M. Hoover, 
and their union has been blessed with three 
children : Naomi H. ; Margaret D. ; and 
Nancy Iona. Mrs. Hallman is a daughter 
of Judge Hiram C. and Margaret (Dull) 



Hoover, of Hooverton. Judge Hoover is 
a member of the old Hoover family of 
eastern Pennsylvania, and has held many 
important offices. He was a member of the 
Pennsylvania house of representatives for 
two terms, and served as associate judge of 
Montgomery county from 1865 to 1875. 



WILLIAM A. FINLEY, proprietor of 
the Hotel Finley, at Norristown, is a 
son of John S. and Phoebe (Rhodes) Finley, 
and was born the 13th day of May, 1853, at 
Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was reared 
in his native borough and educated in the 
public schools. When about twelve years 
of age he began work in Schall's rolling 
mill, and later learned the trade of ma- 
chinist, but not feeling satisfied with the 
monotony of machine life, and possessing 
an inclination for the stage, he soon after- 
ward adopted the theatrical profession. For 
nearly sixteen years he followed that voca- 
tion, with varying degrees of success, and 
abandoned it in 1889, to embark in the 
hotel business at Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. 
He conducted that enterprise successfully 
until 1892, when he sold out and purchased 
his present hotel property, the Hotel Finley, 
at Nos. 16 and 18 West Main street, to which 
he has ever since given his careful attention. 
He now enjoys a large patronage from the 
travelling public, and the reputation of be- 
ing one of the successful and solid business 
men of the prosperous and rapidly growing 
borough of Norristown. 

On April the 10th, 1880, Mr. Finley was 
married to Bella Capstick, of Norristown, 
and to them has been born one child, a 
daughter, named for her mother. In poli- 
tics Mr. Finley is a Republican, but has 
never taken any active part in political 



I,,S 



Biographical Sketches. 



affairs. For several years he has been con- 
nected with a number of secret societies, 
being now a member of Montgomery 
Lodge No. 57, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows ; Washington Camp No. 51, Patri- 
otic Order Sons of America ; Philadelphia 
Lodge No. 2, Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks ; Kensington Lodge No. 55, 
Knights of Pythias, of Philadelphia ; Mont- 
gomery Castle No. 34, Knights of the Golden 
Eagle, of Norristown ; Beaver Tribe No. 62, 
Independent Order of Red Men ; Iroquois 
Degree Council No. 10, I. O. R. M. ; Gen- 
eral Zook Post No. 11, Grand Army of the 
Republic, and was also for sixteen years 
connected with the Montgomery Hose and 
Steam Fire Engine company of Norristown. 
The Finleys are of Scotch and German 
descent, and the family formerly resided in 
New Jersey. David Finley, paternal grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was 
long a resident of Pennsneck, this State, 
and there his son, John S. Finley, (father), 
was born in 1813. When quite young he 
went to Delaware county, Pa., but soon after 
came to Norristown, Montgomery county, 
where he entered the McCreedy mills. At 
that time Norristown was a small village. 
Later Mr. Finley learned the machinist's 
trade, and for a time had charge of Schall's 
rolling mill. He was also employed with 
Moore & Hooven. Politically he was a Demo- 
crat, and a Baptist in religion. He married 
Phoebe Rhodes in 1838, and to them was 
born a family of eight children : David, 
Ruth, Charles, John E., (a sketch of whom 
appears elsewhere in this volume), Samuel, 
William A., subject of the foregoing sketch ; 
James, and Albert. The father, John S. Fin- 
ley, died in 1891, at the age of seventy-eight, 
and his wife preceded him in 1879, aged 
sixty-two. Their remains rest side by side in 
the Treemont cemeterv at Norristown. 



WILLIAM O'BRIEN, proprietor of the 
Montgomery hotel, of Pottstown, is 
a native of County Limerick, Ireland, where 
he was born January 6, 1848. His parents 
were Michael and Alice O'Brien, both na- 
tives of the Emerald Isle, and the father a 
carpenter by trade. 

Their youngest son, William O'Brien, was 
reared in his native land, and educated in 
the public schools of Ireland. After leav- 
ing school he followed fanning until June, 
1865, when he emigrated to America, com- 
ing direct to Pottstown, Pennsylvania. 
Here Mr. O'Brien began to work as a 
laborer for the Reading Railroad company, 
but after two years left the road and secured 
employment at the Black Bear hotel for 
three years. For six years he remained at 
this hotel and then accepted a position at 
the Black Bear hotel in Douglasville, where 
he remained three years. From Douglas- 
ville Mr. O'Brien went to the Murphy hotel 
Pottstown, where he became connected with 
the saloon trade for a period of eleven years. 
In 1888 he returned to Pottstown and em- 
barked in the coal, plaster and cement 
business, which he successfully conducted 
for two years. At the end of that time he 
sold out, and in 1891 purchased the Mont- 
gomery hotel property on Nos. 226 & 228 
High street, Pottstown, which he now owns 
and manages. This hotel is conducted on 
the European plan, and is finely equipped 
and supplied with ever convenience for the 
comfort of guests. 

Politically, Mr. O'Brien is an ardent 
Republican, and what may be termed a 
standing delegate, always ready to serve 
his party in any capacity. He organized 
the young Men's Republican club of Potts- 
town and never allowed it to want for 
money, but supported it financially from 
the beginning. It was principally through 



Biographical Sketches. 



109 



his efforts that the club became a success, 
and it may justly be said that he wields a 
potent influence in local politics. Mr. 
O'Brien served as a delegate to the Re- 
publican State Convention of 189 1, and 
took an active part in its deliberations. He 
also served one term in the town council of 
Pottstown. 

In 1878 Mr. O'Brien was married to 
Theresa Kelly, a daughter of John Kelly, 
of Pottstown. Mrs. O'Brien died in June, 
1889, aged 35 years. In religion Mr. O'Brien 
is a Roman Catholic and is chancellor of 
the Catholic Benevolent League of Potts- 
town. 

He served two years as president of the 
Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, and for a 
like period presided over the Emerald Cath- 
olic Beneficial association of this citv. 



NOAH S. BORNEMAN, D. D. S., a 
popular practicing dentist of Norris- 
town is the oldest son of Dr. Joseph H. and 
Esther (Stauffer) Borneman, and was born 
January 7, 1857, at Boyertown, Berks coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania. The Bornemau's trace 
their transatlantic origin to Switzerland, 
where Daniel Borneman, the founder of 
the American branch of the family and 
great-great-grandfather of Noah Borneman, 
was born in 1699. He was reared and edu- 
cated in his native land, but in 1721 he 
emigrated to America and settled on a farm 
in what was then Hanover township, Phila- 
delphia county. He died in 1768 and was 
buried in the family graveyard on the old 
homestead. 

Daniel Borneman left several children, 
one of whom was Christian, the great- 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
Christian died in 1809 and left surviving 



him, among others, a son John (grand- 
father). 

John Borneman was a weaver by trade 
and settled in Limerick township, Mont- 
gomery county, where Joseph H. Borne- 
man, the father of Noah, was born in 1832. 
Joseph H. was a watchmaker by trade bnt 
subsequently he entered the Philadelphia 
college of Dentistry from which he was 
graduated in 1865 with the degree of Doc- 
tor of Dental Surgery. For a number of 
years, he was engaged in the practice of 
dentistry, but subsequently became pro- 
prietor of a pharmacy in Allentown, Penn- 
sylvania, and afterwards of the Boyertown 
Pharmacy, which he is still successfully 
conducting. Politically he is a Republican 
and in religion, a Mennonite. 

Joseph H. Borneman married Esther 
Stauffer, a daughter of John Stauffer of 
Clayton, Berks county. They have five 
children: Amanda, wife of Joseph Y. Moyer, 
residing on a farm at Clayton, Pennsylvania; 
Noah, the subject of this sketch ; Sidney 
and Harris, both of whom are engaged in 
the practice of dentistry at Norristown ; 
and Henry, an attorney-at-law practicing at 
Philadelphia. 

Noah S. Borneman resided with his 
father in his native village until he was 
about twelve years of age when he removed 
to Allentown, Pennsylvania. Here he ac- 
quired a good common school education. 
In 1873 he went to Clayton, Pennsylvania, 
where he worked on a farm for his father, 
till 1882 when he removed to Boyertown. 
He then entered the Philadelphia Dental 
college, from which he was duly gradu- 
ated with the degree of Doctor of Dental 
Surgery. 

After graduation he located in Boyer- 
town, and after several years of professional 
experience, he removed to Norristown. 



no 



Biographical Sketches. 



Since that time he has been continuously 
engaged in the practice of dentistry and 
has been very successful in building up a 
large and valuable business in his chosen 
profession. 

In 1883 Dr. Borneinan was united in 
marriage to Emma Stauffer, a daughter of 
John C. Stauffer, of Bechtelsville, Penn- 
sylvania. They have one child, a son 
named Walter. Like his father, Dr. Borne- 
man is a Republican in politics and in re- 
ligion a Mennonite. 



MILTON G. ERB, one of the present 
commissioners of Montgomery county, 
is a son of Jonas and Elizabeth (Geist) Erb, 
and was born in Frederick township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, April 6, 1850. 
Jonas Erb is of German descent, and was 
born in this county April 16, 1816. The 
active years of his life were passed in fann- 
ing, and he is now a resident of Pottstown. 
He is a Democrat in politics, and has been 
a member of the Evangelical Lutheran 
church for many years. He married Eliza- 
beth Geist, who was a daughter of John 
Geist, of Berks county. Mr. and Mrs. Erb 
reared a family of seven children, five sons 
and two daughters. 

Milton G. Erb was reared on his father's 
farm and attended the public schools until 
he was nineteen years of age. He then 
learned the trade of cabinet maker and the 
undertaking business, which he followed 
for about eight years. At the end of that 
time he went to Bechtelsville, Berks county, 
where he was engaged in keeping a hotel 
up to 18S3. In that year he became a resi- 
dent of Pottstown, and embarked at that 
place in the bottling business, which he has 
followed ever since. His bottling estab- 



lishment is on High street, Pottstown, and 
he bottles large quantities of ale, beer, por» 
ter, and other drinks. In 1892 he engaged 
in the wholesale malt liquor business, which 
he has followed in connection with his 
bottling business up to the present time. 
Mr. Erb is a Democrat in politics. In 1893 
he was elected as a county commissioner 
for a term of three years, and has served in 
that office since January 1, 1894. 

He is a member of the Evangelical Luth- 
eran church, and the Independent Order of 
Red Men. He is a Knight Templar Mason, 
being a member of Stichter Lodge No. 
254, Free and Accepted Masons ; Pottstown 
Chapter No. 271, Royal Arch Masons ; and 
Nativity Commandery No. 71, Knights 
Templar. 

On November 16, 1876, Milton G. Erb 
was united in marriage with Catharine 
Rhue, a daughter of Nathan Rhue, of Pleas- 
antville, Berks county. Mr. and Mrs. Erb 
have six children living, two sons and four 
daughters : J. Lawrence, Maty E., Annie 
R., Howard N., Ella May, and M. Katie. 

The oldest son, J. Lawrence Erb, is the 
youneest graduate in the historv of the 
Pottstown High school. He was graduated 
there in the class of 1892, with first honors, 
and is now a student in the Metropolitan 
College of Music, in New York. 



FG. STRITZINGER, a fine representa- 
• tive of the sturdy German race, which 
has furnished Pennsylvania with so many of 
her leading citizens, is a son of Gotleib and 
Christena (Minchinger) Stritzinger, and was 
born November 4, 1832, at Oetiesheim, 
Wurtemburg, Germany. He was reared 
and educated in his native village, where 
he afterward learned the trade of baker at 



Biographical Sketches. 



iii 



Maulberoun, with a large bakery and flour 
mill combined. At the age of twenty-one, 
in 1854, he left the Fatherland, to find a 
new home in America, and first settled at 
Newport, Rhode Island. From there he 
came to Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1854, 
and entered the employ of R. B. Stiles as a 
confectioner. After a few months he went 
to Williamsport, where he worked at his 
trade for a time, but returning to Norris- 
town, in 1859, he embarked in the bakery- 
business on his own account at Washington 
street and Strawberry alley. This enter- 
prise he continued until 1870, when he sold 
out and engaged in the building business, 
putting up cottages and residences and sell- 
ing them. In 1872 he purchased a lot at 
Main and Cherry streets, and erected a 
large bakery, which he conducted until 
1889. He then purchased the Norristown 
Roller mill and began the manufacture of 
flour and ground feed, to which he has ever 
since devoted his attention with success. 

On December 4, 1861, Mr. Stitzinger was 
married to Christiana Durrowackter, a na- 
tive of the same village, and a daughter of 

Durrowwackter. To them was born 

a family of eight children : Ludwig G., 
Frederick G., (1) deceased ; Benjamin F., 
Elizabeth L,., who married Dr. William 
Drecker ; Frederick G. jr., a graduate of 
West Point Military academy, now serving 
in the United States army, Texas (2); Wil- 
liam; Anna M., deceased ; and George, also 
dead. Mrs. Stretzinger passed from earth 
on January 8th, 1895, aged fifty-four years. 

In politics Mr. Stretzinger is a Republi- 
can and protectionist, though he has never 
taken any active part in political affairs. 
He is an active member of the Evangelical 
church, in which he has served as steward 
and class leader for a number of years, and 
has always taken a part in all church work, 



and is regarded as a good business man and 
citizen. 

The Stretzingers are descended from an 
old German family at Oetiesheim, where 
Gotleib Stretzinger, (father), was born and 
passed most of his life. He served six- 
years in the German army, and afterward 
engaged in the bakery business at his na- 
tive place. In religion he was a Lutheran, 
and married Christena Minchinger, a daugh- 
ter of Minchinger. They had a 

family of eight children, five of whom died 
in early childhood. Those who reached 
maturity were : F. G., the subject of this 
sketch ; Louisa, widow of Ernst Windis, of 
Norristown ; and Elizabeth, who wedded 
N. Eiser, of Bridgeport. Gotleib Stretzing- 
er died at Norristown, this county, in 1861, 
aged fifty-nine, and his wife passed awav in 
1884, after an active life extending over a 
period of three-quarters of a century. 



MINARD L. CHRISTMAN, one of the 
Mechanical Engineers in the emplov 
of the Phoenix Iron company, is a son of 
Charles and Mary T. (Miller) Christman, 
and was born at Norristown, Montgomery 
county, June 26, 1848. Charles Christman, 
was a native of Limerick township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, and learned 
the trade of carpenter which he followed 
during his lifetime. He died at Norristown, 
August 22, 1881, at sixty-seven years of 
age. He was a member and deacon of the 
Central Presbyterian church, in which he 
was a zealous and active worker. He mar- 
ried Mary T. Miller, who was a daughter 
of John T. Miller, of Limerick township, 
and passed away February 2, 1891, when 
in the seventy-ninth year of her age. Mr. 
and Mrs. Christman reared a family of 



112 



Biographical Sketches. 



four children, three sons and one daughter. 
Minard L. Christman was reared at Nor- 
ristown, received his literary education in 
the public schools and Tremount seminary 
at that time conducted by Prof John W. 
Loch, and then entered the Philadelphia 
Polytechnic college, from which latter in- 
stitution he was graduated in the class of 
1867. Returning home, he learned the 
trade of carpenter, and was engaged in con- 
tracting and building up to 1880. In that 
year he entered the service of the Phila- 
delphia and Reading Railroad company, 
and was assigned to the department of en- 
gineering as assistant and chief draughts- 
man to the master carpenter and superin- 
tendant of Buildings and Bridges at Potts- 
town, Pa., his duties being chiefly to design 
and superintend the construction of and 
repairs to buildings and bridges, and re- 
mained with the company until 1887, when 
he resigned to accept the position of 
draughtsman in the new Steel Depart- 
ment of the Phoenix Iron company, at 
Phoenixville, Chester county. The Phoe- 
nix Iron company is one of the largest of 
its kind in the United States, and Mr. 
Christman in connection with the general 
management of the great plant, has especial 
and personal supervision over the shop and 
mill building and tracks ; also improve- 
ments in the Steel Plant. In connection 
with his important and responsible work 
at the Phoenix iron works, he has designed 
many fine public buildings and handsome 
residences. He designed the DeKalb street 
and Noble street public school buildings of 
Norristown, and the Jeffersonville and 
Bridgeport Presbyterian churches, and 
made the drawings for remodeling the 
Lower Providence Presbyterian church. 
In 1881, Mr. Christman removed from Nor- 
ristown to Pottstown, where he remained 



until 1891, when he returned to Norristown 
and resides in his present handsome resi- 
dence on DeKalb street. 

( )n December 1, 1870, Mr. Christman was 
united in marriage with Kate Briggs, a 
daughter of Alfred D. Briggs, who was en- 
gaged in the coal business at Norristown. 
To their union have been been born two 
children : Charles Alfred, who died at 
eleven years of age ; and Emma Gertrude. 

In political affairs Mr. Christman has al- 
ways been a supporter of the Republican 
party. He is recognized as a fine draughts- 
man and an excellent architect and en- 
gineer. 



M AUGUSTUS WITHERS, M.D., who 
• practiced his profession at Pottstown 
for man}- years, and is now proprietor of a 
leading drug store of that borough, is the 
only son of Michael and Mary (Smith) 
Withers, and a native of Pequa township, 
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he 
was born November 6, 1829. The Withers 
are of German extraction and were among 
the first settlers of Lancaster county. George 
Withers, paternal grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born and lived all 
his life in that count}-. He had one brother, 
Michael Withers, and they were both large 
land owners, men of independent means 
and prominently identified with the iron 
and flour milling industries of Lancaster. 
They owned and operated the Mount Eden 
(1808) and Conowingo (1809) iron furnaces, 
two of the first ever erected in Penn- 
sylvania. They both took an active part 
in public affairs and held a number of 
offices. George Withers served as a soldier 
in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1820, 
at an advanced age. His wife, Anna (Ken- 
drick) Withers, died in 1850, and their re- 



Biographical Sketches. 



"3 



mains sleep in Pequa township, Lancaster 
county. Their son, Michael Withers (father) 
was a miller up to 1S40, when he engaged 
in the lumber and coal business. He fol- 
lowed that successfully until he was sixty- 
five years of age, when he retired from 
business. He was a member of the Lutheran 
church and died in 187 1 in his eightieth 
year. In 1720 he married Mary Smith, a 
native of Lancaster county, and a daughter 
of Chester Chapin Smith. They had nine 
children : Mary, Louisa, Annie, all of whom 
died quite young ; Clara, married Colonel 
Emlen Franklin, of Lancaster ; Josephine, 
became the wife of John H. B. Wagner, an 
attorney-at-law in Lancaster ; Louisa, wed- 
ded Dr. A. J. Carpenter, of the same city ; 
Mary, deceased at the age of twelve ; Annie, 
married Bernard Wolf, of Pittsburg ; and 
Dr. M. Augustus. 

M. Augustus Withers secured his prepa- 
ratory education in the Lancaster academy, 
and subsequently entered Yale college, from 
which famous institution he was graduated 
in 1848. He began the study of medicine 
in 1849, with Dr. F. A. Miihlenberg, of Lan- 
caster, and later entered the University of 
Pennsylvania, from which he was gradu- 
ated with the degree of M. D. in 1852. In 
the same year Dr. Withers began practice 
at Lancaster, Pa., where he remained two 
years. He then removed to Millersville, 
where he practiced until 1859, when he 
came to Pottstown. Here he practiced his 
profession until 1862, when he entered the 
Federal army as assistant surgeon of the 
76th Pennsylvania infantry. After one 
year he was promoted to be surgeon of the 
regiment, but in 1864 resigned the position 
and returned to Pottstown to resume his 
former practice in this city. In 1885 Dr. 
Withers retired from active practice. He 
had purchased a drug store in Pottstown 

s 



soon after returning from the army, and 
this business he has continued to the pre- 
sent time. 

On January 23, 1856, Dr. Withers was 
married to Mary Louise Musselman, daugh- 
ter of Henry and Anna Musselman, of Stras- 
burg, Lancaster county. They had one 
child, a daughter named Anna Mary, who 
married Horace Evans, cashier of the Potts- 
town National Bank, and who has two 
sons, Louis W. and George W. Evans, both 
of whom are pupils in the Hill school. 

Dr. Withers is a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, and Past Master of 
Strichler Lodge, No. 254, Free and Accep- 
ted Masons. He and Mrs. Withers are also 
members of the Episcopal church. 



SOLOMON GILBERT, a prosperous bu- 
siness man of Norristown, Pa., is a son 
of John and Mary Gilbert, and was born in 
Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, February 14, 182 1. His pa- 
ternal grandfather, Henry Gilbert, lived 
near Summertown, New Hanover township, 
Montgomery county, where he followed 
agricultural pursuits. The father of Solo- 
mon Gilbert was born in New Hanover 
township where he was engaged in various 
industrial pursuits. 

In politics he was a Democrat and served 
in the War of 1812. He was a consistent 
member of the Lutheran church, and be- 
came a resident of Pottsgrove township, 
where he remained until his death. He 
was married and reared a family of eight 
children : Anna Filman, Sarah Engle 
Broner, Kate Thomas, Rachael Sabold, 
Charlotte Steltz, William, Samuel and Sol- 
omon. 

Solomon Gilbert was born and reared in 



ii 4 



Biographical Sketches. 



Pottsgrove township, where he lived until 
the age of seventeen, when he removed to 
Norristown ; there he became interested in 
the marble business, first as an employee 
for David H. Decker, and afterwards as 
the partner of a man named Potts, under 
the firm name of Potts & Gilbert, locating 
at Cedar Grove, Whitemarsh township. He 
there continued in the marble business for 
a term of five years and furnished all kinds 
of marble for building purposes. With Mr. 
Potts he owned a farm of one hundred acres 
upon which were marble quarries, a saw 
mill, sand works, fire-clay beds and iron ore 
mines. At the end of five years that the 
firm was engaged, Solomon Gilbert sold his 
interest to his partner; Mr. Gilbert remained 
in Norristown where he continued in the 
marble business for fifteen years. In 1884 
he built a handsome boarding stable ninety- 
seven feet long and fifty feet wide, at 40 
east Penn street. For ten years he was a 
director of the Montgomery National bank. 

He was also a director of the Norristown 
Gas company, the Music Hall association 
and the Electric Light and Power company. 
In political sentiment Mr. Gilbert is a Re- 
publican, and in religion, is a member of 
the Lutheran church. During the Civil 
war he served in an Emergency company. 

In 1849 he was united in marriage with 
Annie Lukens, a daughter of Benjamin 
Lukens, and to this union have been born 
five children : Clara ; Mary, who married 
Prof. Jerry March, a music teacher, of Nor- 
ristown ; Alice, who married William F. 
Solly, who is one of the active members of 
the Montgomery county bar and was chair- 
man of the Republican county committee 
during the campaign of General Hastings ; 
Annie, married Dr. Charles E. Weber, a 
practicing physician in Norristown ; and 
Elizabeth is at home. 



THOMAS DAVIS, M. D., an active and 
successful physician of Montgomery 
county for over half a century, was a son 
of Dr. Roger Davis, and was born in Ches- 
ter county, Pa., March 6, 1806. The Davis 
family came from Wales, and are among 
the oldest and most worthy families of 
Chester and Montgomery counties. Their 
early home was in Chester county, from 
which members of the family came into 
Montgomery county and other counties of 
southeastern Pennsylvania. The father of 
Dr. Thomas Davis was a well known phy- 
sician in his day. 

By the death of his parents Dr. Thomas 
Davis was left an orphan when but a mere 
child. He was taken and reared by his 
elder brother Dr. Jones Davis. He read 
medicine with Professor Horner of Phila- 
delphia (of the University of Pennsylvania). 
When he had completed the required course 
of office reading and study, he entered the 
medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, from which institution he 
was graduated with honors in 1824. After 
graduation he came to Lower Providence 
township where he remained for several 
years. He then removed to Trappe, and 
after practicing there for seven years went to 
Whitemarsh township, and lived there four 
years. In 1850 he returned to Jeffersonville, 
where he continued to practice two and a 
half years. In the latter named year (1S52) 
he came to Evansburg, where he had a wide 
field of practice until his retirement from 
active professional life. Seven years later 
his final summons came and he passed 
away January 22, 1891, at the advanced age 
of eighty-two years. His remains were in- 
terred in the Upper Dublin cemetery, and 
many mourned the loss of a true friend, and 
a skillful physician. His life was one of 
activity and usefulness and he did honor 




*27/ZCr71 Z^<2-</ Jiy&Sl&t/ 



Biographical Sketches. 



"5 



by his ability and skill to the profession 
of which he was an honored member. 

On December 5, 1839, Dr. Thomas Davis 
was united in marriage with Sarah L. 
Rieff, who was a daughter of Joseph and 
Ann L Rief, of Ambler, Pennsylvania. 
She died November 2, 1869. Their union 
was blessed with one child, Mary Ann, who 
is now the only surviving member of her 
branch of the old Davis family. Mary Ann 
Davis, who has never married, is a woman 
of good business ability, and has added to 
the handsome estate left her by her mother 
through several profitable investments. 
She resides in a comfortable and well pro- 
vided home at Evansburg, and is a member 
of the Evangelical Lutheran church at the 
Trappe. 



GEORGE W. KEYS, the efficientCoun- 
ty Recorder of Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, is a son of James and Mary 
A. (Cam) Keys, and was born August 15, 
1843, on * ne Ridge turnpike in the village 
of Harmanville, Plymouth township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. 

Major Keys, grandfather, was a native of 
Londonderry, Ireland, whence he emigrated 
to the United States. James Keys, father, 
was born near Londonderry in the year 
1815. He remained in his native land until 
eighteen years of age, when because of the 
crowded economic conditions existing in 
his own country, he broke away from the 
associations of his youth and embarked for 
the new world. He located in Plymouth 
township and became a foreman in Potts 
& Dagers' marble quarries. He espoused 
the cause of the old line Whig party upon 
coming to this country and steadfastly ad- 
hered to that party until supplanted by the 
Republican party, when he became an ar- 



dent Republican. He married Mary A. 
Cam and they were the parents of six 
children : Sarah, wife of PlummerGourlev; 
George W., subject ; Mary, wife of E. 
Channing Wolfe, a resident of Plymouth 
township ; Emma, wife of Samuel Groff, of 
Norristown ; Maggie, wife of J. Hecklev 
Hand, of Philadelphia ; Harry A., deceased. 
Of the children, the girls were all teachers 
prior to their marriage. 

George W. Keys received his scholastic 
training in the public schools of Plymouth 
township and Tremont seminary at Nor- 
ristown, under the direction of Prof. John 
W. Loch. At the age of seventeen years 
he took a clerkship in the store of David 
H. Yerkes of Harmanville, Pa. 

He followed clerking with William Davis, 
jr., of West Conshohocken, until he entered 
the service of his country as a soldier in 
the late Civil war. On August 15, 1862, 
he enlisted in Company A, 138th regiment, 
Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, but on ac- 
count of physical disability, was rejected 
by the government examining physician at 
Harrisburg. He then entered a free mili- 
tary school at Philadelphia and after an 
attendance there for a short time, appeared 
before an examining board at Washington, 
D. C. He passed the requirements of that 
board and received a commission as second 
lieutenant, Class A, and was put in charge 
of Company A, of the 41st regiment, U. S. 
colored troops at Camp William Penn, and 
early in 1864, was attached to the Army of 
the James. Among the more important 
conflicts and affair in which his regiment 
figured were the following : Charles City 
Cross Roads, Chapin's Farm, &c. ; his di- 
vision, tmder General E. O. C. Ord, joined 
the Army of the Potomac under Grant ; was 
in the assault upon Petersburg and was 
present at the surrender of Lee at Appo- 



n6 



Biographical Sketches. 



inattox. After the conflict of the Civil war 
was ended, the division to which Mr. Keys' 
regiment belonged was sent to Texas nnder 
Gen. P. H. Sheridan; and at Edinburg, 
Texas, lieutenant Keys was promoted to 
first lieutenant and adjutant of his regiment. 
They remained in that country doing duty 
from the island of Brazos to Ringgold 
Barracks until December, 1865, when the 
regiment was ordered home and was mus- 
tered out at Camp Cad walader, Philadelphia. 
After returning from the service, he took 
a position as clerk and superintendent for 
Potts and Gilbert, marble merchants at 
Cedar Grove, in Whitemarsh township, this 
county. That position he filled for three 
years when he formed a partnership with 
Nathaniel W. Yerkes and engaged in farm- 
ing, merchandising and the mining, ex- 
tensively, of iron ore. He continued this 
line of business for a period of three years 
when he sold out again and assumed the 
roll of superintendent of a marble quarry 
for Mr. E. Charming Potts, which position 
he held up to 1881, when he embarked in 
the mining of fire clay, kaolin and foundry 
gravel in connection with a general con- 
tracting business which he carries on to the 
present time. He has been a successful 
business man and has accumulated a hand- 
some property. He is a Republican in pol- 
itics and has always manifested a strong 
interest in the success of his party. In 
1890 he was the candidate of his party for 
the office of recorder and was defeated by 
only two votes. In 1893 ne was renominated 
for the same office and elected by the hand- 
same majority of six hundred and seventy- 
five votes. Fraternally, Mr. Keys is a mem- 
ber of George Smith Post, No. 79, G. A. R. 
The marriage of Mr. Keys and Emma, 
a daughter of Jesse Kirk, of Whitemarsh 
township, this county, was on August 15, 



1872, and resulted in the birth of three sons : 
James, a student in the civil engineering 
department of Lehigh University, a mem- 
ber of the class 1896 ; Jesse, a skilled brick- 
layer, graduated from Williamson Manual 
Training school in the class of 1894; and 
Harry, a student of mechanical arts in the 
Drexel Institute, Philadelphia. The ma- 
ternal grandfather of Mr. Keys was Joseph 
Cam, who was of French extraction and 
his maternal grandmother was of German 
lineage. 



ALBERT G. SAYLOR, a retired busi- 
ness man of Pottstown, is the eldest 
son of Henry and Mary A. (Groves) Savior, 
and was born November 16, 1826, on the 
old Savior homestead in Limerick township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. This 
farm was purchased by the paternal grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, Henry 
Savior, sr., 1708, and has remained in pos- 
session of the family ever since. It is now 
owned by Azariah Saylor, a brother of Al- 
bert G. Saylor. Henry Saylor (grandfather) 
had two children, a son named for himself 
and a daughter, Susanna. The son, Henry 
Saylor (father) was born July 20, 1800, and 
resided all his life on the home farm near 
Limerick Square. He engaged for a time 
in huckstering and farming, but later aban- 
doned the former and gave his entire atten- 
tion to agricultural pursuits. He was a 
Democrat in politics and served at one time 
as assessor of the township. In religion he 
was a member of the Lutheran church, and 
died on April 21, 1877, aged seventy-six 
years, niue months and one day. In 1821 
he married Mary A. Groves, a native of 
Montgomery county and a daughter of John 
Groves. By this marriage he had a family 
of five children : Albert G; Azariah; Dr. 




-4/3 <.~**-£ 



Biographical Sketches. 



117 



Henry A. (see sketch of A. R. Saylor, on 
another page of this book) ; Susanna and 
Ada Eliza. Mrs. Mary A. Saylor died in 
1880, at the advanced age of eighty years, 
four months and eighteen days. 

Albert G. Saylor attended the pay schools 
of his township and remained on the farm 
until seventeen years of age. He then en- 
tered the general store of Henry McKenty, 
at Douglasville, Berks county, as a clerk 
and salesman, and after a short time came 
to Pottstown, Montgomery county, as a 
clerk in the general mercantile establish- 
ment of Daniel H. Beecher. . For three 
years he remained with Mr. Beecher and 
then became clerk for Frederick A. Bickel, 
another merchant of Pottstown. With Mr. 
Bickel he remained until the latter sold out 
to Amstead Wells, when he entered Mr. 
Wells' employ and continued in the posi- 
tion of clerk for three years longer. In 1851 
Mr. Saylor embarked in the notion and 
trimming business on his own account, at 
Pottstown, and in i860 added dry goods and 
millinery business successfully until 1884, 
when he sold out to Landis & Snell. Thus 
for more than the third of a century, Mr. 
Saylor was an active and successful mer- 
chant of Pottstown, devoting all his time to 
business and never aspiring to any sort of 
official distinction. In 1884 he retired from 
business, and has since been enjoying the 
well earned repose that fittingly crowns a 
long and active career of well directed ef- 
fort. 

In December, 1848, Mr. Saylor inar r 
ried Mary Ann Overholtzer, a daughter of 
Henry and Mary Overholtzer, of Lancaster 
county, this State. To them were born two 
children, the eldest of whom, Hon. H. D. Say- 
lor, is now State senator from Montgomery 
county. Their other child was a daughter, 
Mary Ann, who was an efficient church and 



Sunday school worker for a number of years 
and died April 11, 1883, at the age of twenty- 
one years, six months. Mrs. Mary A. Say- 
lor died in 1869, aged forty-four years, 
twenty six days; and on November 6, 1888, 
Mr. Saylor was again married, wedding for 
his second wife, Mary Ann Sassaman, a 
daughter ot Jacob and Salome (Stauffer) 
Sassaman, of Berks county, Pa. 

For forty-six years Mr. Saylor has been a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, having passed through all the 
chairs of his lodge and also all of the chairs 
of the old encampment. In 1840 he was 
confirmed a member of the Lutheran church 
at St. Augustine's Lutheran church, Trappe, 
this county, on the one hundredth anniver- 
sary of that church. That was the first 
Lutheran church ever organized in Mont- 
gomery county and was founded in 1740. 
Mr. Saylor has been a member of the church 
council and trustee of his church for many 
years, and also represented his church on 
the Pottstown cemetery board, of which he 
served as secretary since 1873. For nearly 
a quarter of a century he served as super- 
intendent of the Sunday school connected 
with his church, and was always active in 
support of the religious and charitable 
movements originated and carried forward 
by his denomination. 



SAMUEL B. LATSHAW, an enterpris- 
ing and successful business man, of 
Royersford, is a native of Spring City, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he 
was born January 17, 1852. He is the 
eldest son of Daniel and Angeline (Bean) 
Latshaw. The Latshaws are one of the early 
settled families of Chester county, where Ja- 
cob Latshaw, paternal grandfather of the 



n8 



Biographical Sketches. 



subject of this sketch, was born and reared. 
He was an extensive farmer and large land 
owner, and a prominent minister of the 
Mennonite church, to which he gave his 
sen-ices for many years without a thought 
of compensation. He married Mary Hiest- 
and and reared a family of seven children, 
three sons and four daughters : John, still 
living in Chester count}- ; David, deceased ; 
Daniel, also dead ; Betsey, who married 
Abraham Bechtel, and is now deceased ; 
Catharine, wedded William Buckwalter, 
and is also dead ; Mary became the wife of 
Joel Ebert, and is now deceased, and Annie, 
who married Rudolph Stauffer and now re- 
sides in East Pikeland, Chester county. 
Daniel Latshaw (father) was born in Chest- 
er county, this State, in 1820, and after at- 
taining manhood, engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, which he followed all his life in 
Chester and Montgomery counties. He 
owned large tracts of land in the vicinity of 
Royersford, Montgomery county. Where 
the town now stands he had four fine farms, 
including almost the entire site of the 
borough, and was the founder of Royers- 
ford. He laid out and sold lots, opened 
streets, and industriously labored to secure 
the location here of industrial enterprises 
calculated to build up the place and attract 
settlers. He was instrumental in getting 
the first stove foundry to locate here, and 
donated lots for school and church purposes. 
He was a man of great public spirit and un- 
bounded energy, and was ever ready to do 
all in his power for the interest of the town 
and its people. His death occured Oct. 31, 
1886, in his sixty-seventh year, and his re- 
mains lie entombed in the Femwood ceme- 
tery at Royersford. In 1850 he married 
Angeline Bean, a daughter of Samuel Bean, 
and by that union had a family of nine 
children, all sons : Samuel B., whose name 



heads this sketch ; Milton, a hardware mer- 
chant, of Spring City ; Jesse Newton, 
deceased ; Jacob, also dead ; Daniel, like- 
wise deceased ; B. Irvin, residing at Royers- 
ford ; John H, William L. and Ira D. 

Samuel B. Latshaw, the eldest son, 
obtained his elementary education in the 
public schools of Limerick township, this 
county, and subsequently entered the 
academy at Phoenixville. After complet- 
ing his academic studies he clerked in a 
store at Royersford for four years, and then 
took a course of training in Bryant & 
Stratton's Business College, Philadelphia, 
from which institution he was graduated in 
187 1. Soon after graduation he accepted a 
position as clerk in the Reading ticket and 
freight office at Royersford, and one year 
later entered the employ of the American 
Wood Paper company, of Spring City, as 
chief book-keeper and clerk. Mr. Latshaw 
remained with the paper company for 
fifteen years, but in 1887 resigned his posi- 
tion and embarked in the insurance and 
real estate business at Royersford. His ex- 
perience and knowledge of values, combined 
with his sound judgment and indomitable 
energy, have commended him to a wide 
circle of customers, and he has built up 
one of the most important enterprises of its 
kind in the county. Owning large real 
estate himself, he is prepared to meet the 
wants of all classes, whether for a home or 
for investments. He represents the leading 
insurance companies of the United States 
in fire, life and accident insurance, and also 
takes entire charge of real estate, securing 
desirable tenants, effecting repairs of pro- 
perty, and in every way consulting the 
best interests of the owners he represents. 

In 1887 Mr. Latshaw erected a large and 
beautiful four story brick building, the first 
floors of which are occupied by stores, the 



Biographical Sketches. 



119 



second contains commodious rooms for the 
Young Men's Christian association and 
Women's Christian Temperance Union, 
while the third is a large public hall, con- 
taining a stage and scenery, and sufficient 
room to seat more than four hundred peo- 
ple. The fourth story is fitted up for lodge 
rooms. This building reflects great credit 
on its founder and is an architectural orna- 
ment to the borough. In addition to his 
real estate business, Mr. Latshaw is a 
director of the National Bank of Royersford, 
Fernwood Cemetery Co., Royersford Build- 
ing and Loan Association and American 
Tire and Wheel Co. He is also Treasurer 
of the Home Water Co. and Royersford 
Machine Co. and interested as a stockholder 
in many other corporations. 

On October 4, 1876, Mr. Latshaw was 
married to Alice Rogers, daughter of Jones 
Rogers, of Royersford. To them was born 
one child, a son named Clarence R., now in 
his 1 8th year. Mr. and Mrs. Latshaw have 
also adopted Ella M. R. Latshaw. Mr. 
Latshaw is a member and treasurer of the 
Board of Trustees of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and librarian of the Methodist 
Sunday school. He is also a member of 
Royersford Lodge, No. 585, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, and vice president of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, of 
Royersford. Politically he is a strict Pro- 
hibitionist. As a business man and citizen 
he is valuable, and his efforts to build up 
the borough have been very successful. 



GEORGE H. CRABTREE, a promis- 
ing young physician and surgeon of 
Royersford, was graduated from the Medico- 
Chirurgical College of Philadelphia in the 
spring of 1893. He was then elected to serve 



a term as resident physician of the Samari- 
tan hospital of Philadelphia, and early in 
1894 located at Royersford, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, for the general prac- 
tice of his profession. Although a young 
man, he soon built up a good practice. 

Dr. Crabtree is a native of Maine, having 
been born at Topsfield, that State, February 
4, 1866. His parents are Lorenzo R. and 
Mary (Small) Crabtree, the former of 
Scotch and the latter of English extrac- 
tion. The father, who still resides on the 
old homestead in Maine, is a farmer by oc- 
cupation, and the boyhood of Dr. Crabtree 
was spent on the farm and in attendance at 
the public schools of his neighborhood. 
Later he entered the Lee Normal academy, 
at Lee, Maine, from which he was graduated 
in 1885 with highest honors. He then en- 
gaged in the mercantile business for two 
years in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, 
and while there took an extended course of 
study in science and languages in a private 
night school of that city. After complet- 
ing this course, Dr. Crabtree began the 
study of medicine under Dr. George F. 
Keene, the eminent physician of Howard, 
Rhode Island. He subsequently matri- 
culated at the Medico-Chirurgical College of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he 
was duly graduated as already stated. 

He is a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and of the Knights of the 
Golden Eagle. Possessing many of the 
attributes of the ideal physician, and earn- 
estly devoted to his profession, his career 
promises to be alike useful and honorable. 
He is a careful reader of the best literature 
of his school in medicine, and has been 
successful in his practice. He is unmar- 
ried. He has recently been elected a mem- 
ber of the surgical staff of the Phcenixville 
hospital, of Phcenixville, Pa. 



120 



Biographical Sketches. 



WILLIAM RITTENHOUSE, a de- 
scendant of the old and well known 
Rittenhonse family, of Norriton township, 
is a son of William, Sr. and Susanna 
(Highley) Rittenhouse, and was born in 
Norriton township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, May 24, 1843. The Ritten- 
house family is of German descent and is 
related to the Rittenhouse family of which 
David Rittenhouse, the celebrated astron- 
omer, was a member. William Ritten- 
house, Sr., was a grandson of Henry 
Rittenhouse, who married Sophia Ernhart, 
and was an early resident of Norriton 
township, where he followed farming and 
owned the farm that has come down 
through four generations of his descendants. 
His children were : Christopher, William, 
Wilhelmina, David, Joseph and Henry. 
David Rittenhouse married Rachel Zim- 
merman, and the children born to them 
were : Charlotte, Susan, William, Sr., 
Christopher, Sophia, Henry and David. 

William Rittenhouse, Sr. , was born on 
the home farm, August 3, 1803. He was 
reared to habits of industry and economy, 
and received the limited education of his 
day. When he came to do for himself he 
chose farming for a life occupation. He 
tilled the home farm for sixteen years and 
then purchased the shares of the other 
heirs. He was a successful farmer and 
died December 22, 1891, aged eighty-nine 
years. He married, in 1831, Susanna 
Highley, who was a daughter of John 
Highley, of Lower Providence township, 
and died January 5, 1848. To their union 
were born seven children : George W., 
Rachel, Mary, Charlotte, David, William 
(subject) and Susan. Of these children, 
Charlotte, David and Susan are deceased. 

William Rittenhouse grew to manhood 
on the farm, received his education in the 



common schools and Loch's select school, 
of Norristown, and then turned his attention 
to farming which he has followed ever since. 
He resided on the old homestead until 
1893, when he removed to his present com- 
fortable home at White Hall, adjoining the 
homestead. In the period of thirty years, 
during which he has done for himself, he 
has never left the farm except for two 
years that he spent in acquiring the trade 
of blacksmith, which he has never followed 
as a regular business. 

On March 19, 1874, Mr. Rittenhouse 
married Rebecca Shannon, a daughter of 
Joseph Shannon, of Norriton township. 
Their union has been blessed with one 
child, a daughter, named Charlotte. 

In politics Mr. Rittenhouse is a Republi- 
can. He is a member of Curtis Lodge, No. 
239, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
He was one of the incorporators, and is a 
present stock holder, of the Spring Garden 
market company of Philadelphia. When 
the company was organized he was made a 
director, and has served in that position 
by re-election ever since. Mr. Rittenhouse 
has been successful in business-life through 
his own efforts, and has acquired a com- 
petency and a comfortable home. 



EPHRAIM B. BICKEL, a retired mer- 
chant of Norristown, is the son of 
Daniel and Elizabeth Bickel, and was born 
near Gilbertsville, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, January 30, 1829. The 
Bickel family of this county traces its an- 
cestry back to the grandfather of Ephraim 
B. Bickel, who came from Germany to 
Pennsylvania, where he located upon a 
farm near Falkner's Swamp, Montgomery 
countv. He was an adherent to the Demo- 



Biographical Sketches. 



121 



cratic party and was a member of the 
Lutheran church. 

He married, and to their union were 
born five children : Henry, Jacob, Lewis, 
Daniel and Mrs. Isaac Fether. 

Daniel Bickle (father) was born in Mont- 
gomery county and was educated in the 
common schools of his native district. He 
turned his early aitention to farming, which 
occupation he followed during life. He 
owned a fine farm of one hundred acres 
near Gilbertville where he took great in- 
terest in agriculture. In politics he was a 
Democrat and was a faithful attendant of 
the Lutheran church. He married Eliza- 
beth Brower who died at the age of sixty-two 
years. They had five sons and three daugh- 
ters : Maria, deceased, who was the wife of 
Jacob Bucher ; Elizabeth, who married 
Samuel Bower ; Mary, deceased ; Jacob, 
deceased ; Ephraim ; Isaac, deceased ; Wil- 
liam, deceased, and Daniel, deceased. 
Father Daniel died at the age of forty-three 
years. 

Ephraim B. Bickel first attended the 
common schools near Boyertown, Berks 
county, where the family removed after the 
death of his father. Afterwards he became 
a student at the Academy at New Stone- 
ville, Berks county, which was conducted 
by Nathaniel Bertolet. Leaving school he 
was engaged as clerk, first at Boyertown 
then at Norristown, and as such, served for 
some years. In 1850 he engaged in the 
mercantile business for himself and located 
first on Main street in Norristown and after- 
wards at No. 419 west Marshall street, where 
he continued in the business until he sold 
out to his son Harry, who still conducts the 
business at that place. 

Mr. Bickel is a Democrat and takes an 
active interest in the success of his party. 
He is also a member of the Knights of 



Pythias, the Star Loan association and the 
West Norristown Building and Loan asso- 
ciation. He adheres to the Lutheran church 
of which he is a member. On January 27, 
1859, he was united in marriage with Louisa 
Hartranft, a daughter of David Hartranft, 
who was engaged in the milling business 
near Falkner's Swamp. This union has been 
blessed with two children: Harry N., who 
succeeded his father in the mercantile busi- 
ness and in 1894, induced by his friends, be- 
came a candidate for assembly but was de- 
feated with the rest of the Democratic ticket; 
and Emma, who married Dr. Elmer E. John- 
ston, a practicing physician of Pottstown, 
this county. 



CAPTAIN ROBERT McCOY, proprie- 
tor of extensive lime works at Swede- 
land, Montgomery county, is a son of Alick 
and Catharine (Rogers) McCoy, and was 
born in February-, 1831, in county Antrim, 
Ireland. His paternal grandfather, John 
McCoy, passed the early part of his life in 
the highlands of Scotland, emigrating when 
a young man to Ireland, where he married 
Sallie MacMullin. He was a fanner and 
died in county Antrim, Ireland, at the age 
of sixty-seven. His wife lived to be seventy- 
nine. Their son, Alick McCoy (father) was 
reared in the same county, obtaining an 
ordinary common school education, and be- 
came a farmer and stockman. He shipped 
live stock to all parts of Scotland and ac- 
cumulated considerable property. He was 
a Protestant in religion and became popular 
and influential in his community. About 
1830 he married Catharine Rogers, a native 
of county Entrain and of Scotch-Irish pa- 
rentage. They had a family of four chil- 
dren, of whom the subject of this sketch was 



122 



Biographical Sketches. 



the eldest and is the only son now living. 
The others were John and Alick, both de- 
ceased, and Margaret, who became the wife 
of John McCann, of Bridgeport, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Robert McCoy remained on the Emerald 
Isle until he had reached his sixteenth year, 
when he emigrated to America and soon 
afterward settled in Chester county, Penna. 
He at first worked on a farm for a short 
time and then entered the employ of John 
Kennedy, at Port Kennedy, this county, 
with whom he remained for two years. 
After that he began boating on the river 
for Mr. Kennedy, carrying lime to Mary- 
land, Virginia and other places, and was 
thus employed for two years more. At the 
end of that time Mr. Kennedy assisted him 
starting the boating business on his own ac- 
count, and Mr. McCoy remained on the water 
for a period of fifteen years, transporting all 
kinds of heavy merchandise. Later he be- 
gan boating lime for Rarnbo & Co., and 
afterward purchased the steam tug General 
Meade, where he remained for four years. 
He then purchased the steam tug Cynthia, 
plying on the Delaware river, until 1876, 
and he then sold the tug Cynthia. While 
acting as captain of the schooners Liza Ann 
and Daniel Fraley, he carried supplies to 
the seat of war, during the great rebellion, 
and was thus exposed to many dangers and 
hardships. In 1880 he embarked in the 
grocery and liquor business at Bridgeport, 
Montgomery county. After two years he 
sold the business to Robert Griffith and pur- 
chased a large limestone quarry at Swede- 
land, where he erected lime-kilns and other 
necessary buildings and began the manu- 
facture of lime on a large scale. This en- 
terprise he has ever since successfully con- 
ducted, and has succeeded in building up a 
large and valuable trade, extending to all 



parts of eastern Pennsylvania and sections 
of adjoining States. 

Politically, Mr. McCoy is a staunch Repub- 
lican, and has served two terms in the town 
council of Bridgeport. He is an Episco- 
palian in religion, and always takes an active 
part in supporting the various interests of 
his church, and is an earnest advocate of 
every measure calculated to advance the 
welfare of the community in which he re- 
sides. He is a member of the Protestant 
association, No. 59, Philadelphia, Pa., and 
for many years he was connected with 
Montgomery Lodge, No. 59, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 

In July, 1854, Captain McCoy was united 
in marriage with Catharine McMullen, a 
native of Ireland and a daughter of John 
McMullen. To them was born a family of 
ten children : Catharine, married Alexander 
Niel ; John; Mary, became the wife of Rich- 
ard Walker; Ellen, wedded William Mayers; 
Julia, wife of J. Eastborn ; Robert; Jane, 
who married Frederick Whitman ; Sarah 
and Alick. Mrs. Catherine McCoy died on 
November 8, 1887, aged fifty-six. Mr. 
McCoy is purely a self-made man, having 
worked his way up, without adventitious 
aid of any kind, until he occupies an ex- 
cellent position among the citizens of his 
adopted count} - of Montgomery. 



HORACE F. REIFSNYDER, resident 
at Norristown since 1884, is a son of 
John H. and Mary K. Reifsnyder, and a 
native of Chester county, this State, where 
he was born January 8th, 1852. He was 
reared and educated in his native county, 
and after leaving school occupied various 
clerical positions for the space of four 
years, after which he was appointed a rail- 





fmu7^CM<T: 



Biographical Sketches. 



123 



road agent and served continuously in that 
position and finally settled at Norristown 
in 1S84, and has resided here ever since, 
engaged in the business as railroad agent. 

Politically Mr. Reifsnyder has always 
been a stanch Republican. He has served 
for some time as school director for the 
Seventh ward, in which he resides, and is a 
firm friend of popular education. He is a 
member and an official of the Second Bap- 
tist church of Norristown, and is always 
active in support of the various religious 
and charitable interests of his denomination. 

On May 6th, 1874, Mr. Reifsnyder was 
united in marriage with Allie Alexander, 
a daughter of George Alexander, of Chester 
county. To Mr. and Mrs. Reifsnyder have 
been born five children, three sons and 
two daughters : Carolyn, George, Edgar, 
Herbert, and Emma. 

The Reifsnyders are of German extrac- 
tion, but have resided in Pennsylvania 
since early times. John Reifsnyder, pater- 
nal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was a country merchant of Chester county, 
where he resided all his life. His store 
was across the river from Pottstown, and 
he was well and favorably known to most 
of the older people of Montgomery county. 
He married Anna Harley, by whom he had 
a family of four children, one of his sons 
being John H. Reifsnyder, who was born in 
Chester county in 1819, and died there in 
1893, at the advanced age of seventy-four 
years. After obtaining a good education, 
he engaged for a time in teaching and then 
embarked in mercantile pursuits. For sev- 
eral years he followed merchandising very 
successfully and then retired. He was a 
staunch Republican in politics, and also 
adhered to the religious faith of his ances- 
tors, being for many years a member of the 
Lutheran church. In 1848 he married 



Mary Klink, a daughter of Frederick 
Klink. To them was born a family of four 
children, of whom three still survive : Ir- 
win, Horace F., Catharine, (deceased); and 
Charles. 



JR. UMSTAD, M. D., a general prac- 
• titiouer of medicine and a specialist on 
diseases of the eye, is a son Samuel and 
Lydia (Rieff) Utnstad, and was born near 
Shannonville, Lower Providence township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 
1856. The Umstads are of Holland-Dutch 
descent, and have been resident of the 
county for several generations. Samuel 
Umstad was born and reared in Lower 
Providence township, where his life was 
passed as a farmer. He was born July 7, 
1826, and died July 12, 1857, wnen i n the 
early years of matured manhood. He was 
a Republican politically and a consistent 
member of the Dunkard or Reformed Ger- 
man Baptist church, in whose faith he had 
been reared and taught. He wedded Lydia 
Rieff, whose father was George Rieff, of Nor- 
ristown, Pa. To their union was born four 
children : Henry Alpha and Mary, who are 
deceased ; and Dr. J. R. and Catharine, 
wife of Charles Jarrett, who are living. 

At twelve years of age Dr. J. R. Umstad 
was taken from Lower Providence town- 
ship to Norristown, where he grew to man- 
hood. He received his education in the 
public schools of Norristown, and com- 
menced the study of medicine with his 
uncle, Dr. H. U. Umstad, of Black Rock, 
Montgomery county, Pa. After two years 
spent in office reading, he attended lec- 
tures at Jefferson Medical college from 
which he was graduated in the "Centennial 
Class" (1876). In a short time after grad- 
uation he opened an office for the practice 



124 



Biographical Sketches. 



of his profession at Kulpsville, where he 
remained for three years. He then pur- 
chased Dr. Detwiler's office at Evansburg, 
and remained there ten years. At the end 
of that time in the spring of 1890, Dr. 
Umstad removed to Norristowu, where he 
has been engaged in active practice up to 
the present time. While having a large 
practice as a general practitioner, he makes 
a specialty of the diseases of the eye, for 
which he prepared himself by taking a 
special post-graduate course on eye diseases 
in connection with other advanced clinical 
work at Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital, 
in 1889. 

In politics Mr. Umstad has always been 
a Republican, and at the present time is a 
physician to the coroner, a position he has 
filled for over two years. He is also phy- 
sician to the Norristown Charity Hos- 
pital. 

He is a member of the First Presbyterian 
church of Norristown ; Economy Lodge 
No. 397, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; 
Shannonville Castle No. 211, Knights of 
the Golden Eagle ; and Norris City Lodge 
No. n, Shield of Honor. He is practical, 
skillful and successful as a physician. Dr. 
Umstad is a close student in the line of his 
profession. He is one of the special con- 
tributors to the Codex Medicus of Phila- 
delphia, which is a high standard medical 
journal, containing select contributions 
from experienced physicians, concerning 
successful treatment of complicated and dif- 
ficult cases arising in practice. Dr. Umstad 
is president of the Montgomery County 
Medical Society, and has been for some time 
a member of the Pennsylvania State Med- 
ical society. 

On November 16, 1S80, Dr. J. R. Umstad 
was united in marriage with Emma J. 
Swartley, a daughter of Henry D. Swart- 



ley, of Skippackville. To Dr. and Mrs. 
Umstad have been born three children : 
Harry Guy, who died in infancy ; W. 
LeRoy, born July 15, 1883 ; and Kathrine 
Helen, born December 10, 1894. 



HON. AARON S. SWARTZ, President 
Judge of the Thirty-eighth Judicial 
district of Pennsylvania, is a native of To- 
wameucin township, Montgomery county, 
where he was born February 24, 1849. He 
is a son of Jacob H. and Susanna (Snyder) 
Swartz. During his boyhood, Judge Swartz 
remained on the farm until ten years of age 
when his father removed to Kulpsville, this 
county. Here the subject of this sketch re- 
ceived his primary education in private 
schools. Later he concluded his academic 
studies at Freeland seminary (now Ursinus 
college), after which he taught for several 
years. In September, 1867, he entered La- 
fayette college at Easton, Pennsylvania, from 
which institution he was graduated in the 
year 1871 with the first honors of his class. 
Immediately subsequent to his graduation 
he was elected principal of the public schools 
at Phoenixville, this State, and served for 
a term of one year. In the autumn of 
1872, he came to Norristown, and began 
the study of law in the office of Gilbert 
Rodman Fox, Esq. While yet engaged in 
his legal studies he was appointed deputy 
clerk of the United States District Court at 
Philadelphia, and removed to that city. 
Having completed his preparation for the 
bar he was admitted to practice in May, 
1875, but retained his position of deputy 
clerk until 1877. In the year last mentioned 
he was put forward as the Republican 
nominee for district attorney of Montgomery 
county, but was defeated by a small ma- 




(Za 



-taw? i 




Biographical Sketches. 



125 



jority, though he ran largely ahead of his 
ticket. In 1881 Mr. Swartz was nominated 
for associate judge of this county against 
Hon. H. P. Ross, then the incumbent of 
that office, but was again defeated. In the 
same year he was appointed solicitor for the 
county commissioners and continued to act 
in that capacity until 18S7. In the latter 
year a bill was passed by the legislature 
giving Montgomery county an additional 
law judge, and Mr. Swartz was appointed 
by Governor Beaver to fill the new position, 
ascending the bench as the associate of 
Judge Boyer in 1887. In August, 1887, 
Judge Boyer died and Judge Swartz was 
commissioned President judge, having re- 
ceived three judicial commissions in one 
year — as Law judge, President judge, and 
Judge by election. In 1887 he was nomi- 
nated and elected to the position of Presi- 
dent judge of the Thirty-eighth Judicial 
district of Pennsylvania for a full term of 
ten years, beginning January 1, 1888, and 
is now discharging the duties of his high 
office in a manner that has caused him to 
be honored and respected. 

In his religious affiliation Judge Swartz 
is a Presbyterian and has served as a ruling 
elder in the First Presbyterian church 
of Norristown for a number of years. 
He has also served continuously as su- 
perintendent of the Sunday-school for 
a period of over six years. He is a 
liberal minded man of broad views, chari- 
table in disposition, and kind and generous 
in his intercourse with others. 

On April 20, 1876, Judge Swartz was 
united in marriage to A. Louisa Keller, of 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania. The result 
of this union has been five children : Gert- 
rude, Edna, Aaron S. jr., Anna and Helen, 
the last named now deceased. 

The family from which Judge Swartz 



was descended is of German extraction but 
its members have been native of Pennsyl- 
vania ever since the Collonial period. Chris- 
tian Swartz, paternal great grandfather of 
Judge Swartz, was a life-long resident of 
Montgomery county and a well known 
preacher of the religious sect known as 
Mennonites. His son, Emanuel Swartz 
(grandfather) was also a native of this coun- 
ty, a sturdy and well to do farmer, and in 
political faith a Jacksonian Democrat. He 
adhered to the religion of his father, was 
married to Ann Hendricks and had a family 
of two sons and four daughters, one of whom 
was Jacob H. Swartz, father of Aaron S. 
Jacob Swartz was born at the old homestead 
in Towamencin township in the year 1819, 
and after attaining to the years of manhood 
learned the carpenter trade, at which he 
worked for a number of years. He then 
purchased a farm and engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits and stock raising. He also 
kept a hotel for a number of years, was 
widely known throughout the county, but 
retired from active business about 1886. He 
enjoyed the evening of his life in quiet and 
comfort at Lansdale, Pa., and died in Feb- 
ruary, 1S95. In 1844 he espoused in mar- 
riage Susanna Schneider, a daughter of 
Isaac Schneider of this county, and by that 
union had a family of five children : Mary, 
Ellen, Charles, Horace and Aaron S., the 
subject of this sketch. 

Anterior to his ascending the bench Judge 
Schwartz acquired and maintained an ex- 
tremely large general law practice and was 
noted for his vigor and success as an advo- 
cate. In his judicial capacity his success 
has been equally marked. He is a careful 
student of the law, judicious in his admin- 
istration and possesses the entire confidence 
of the legal fraternity both by reason of his 
fairness and his judicial erudition. 



126 



Biographical Sketches. 



JOSEPH S. RAM BO, one of the ener- 
getic and successful business men and 
manufacturers of Norristown, is the second 
son of Lewis and Margaret A. (Miller) 
Rambo, and was born April 12, 1856, at 
Halford, near Morgan's Corner, (now 
Moore's), Delaware county, Pennsylvania. 
The family is of Swedish descent, but 
have been native Pennsylvanians for sev- 
eral generations, its first American ancestor 
having emigrated to the new world and 
settled in this commonwealth at an early 
day. Lewis Rambo (father) was a native 
of this county, where he was born January 
8, 1828, and grew to manhood. In early 
life he learned the trade of shoemaker, at 
which he worked for a short time, but did 
not make it a permanent occupation. On 
August 16, 1862, he enlisted in Company 
F, 13th Pennsylvania cavalry volunteers 
and served until July 14, 1865, at which 
time he was honorably discharged, first as 
a private and later as a non-commissioned 
officer. Politically he was a Democrat 
until the breaking out of the Civil war, at 
which time he took up the Republican 
cause, and ever afterward voted with and 
supported that party. In religion he was a 
member of the Episcopal church, and died 
at Norristown, this county, November 8th, 
1877, aged forty-nine years and nine months. 
In 1853 he married Margaret A. Miller, a 
daughter of William and Mary A. Miller, 
of this county, and by that marriage had a 
family of twelve children, only six of 
whom lived to reach maturity : Charles M., 
Joseph S., the subject of this sketch ; 
Samuel L., George W., Mary L., who is 
now deceased ; and Lewis, jr. The other 
six died in infancy. Mrs. Margaret A. 
Rambo was born December 12, 1837, and 
she is living and well. 
Joseph S. Rambo was reared principally 



at Norristown, this county, to which place 
the family removed from Lower Merion, 
this county, in 1862, and obtained a good 
practical education in the public schools of 
this borough. He has resided here ever 
since, with the exception of six months 
spent in Philadelphia and four years 
and four months residence in Pittsburg. 
He began life on his own account at an 
early age as an employee in a cotton and 
woolen factory, and after working at that 
business in various factories for some time, 
he entered a tack factory and learned the 
trade of tack tinning. At the latter 
business he worked in Philadelphia and 
Pittsburg, and in 1883 embarked in the 
business for himself as a member of the 
firm of S. P. Hollis & Co. After continu- 
ing the manufacture of tacks for something 
over a year, the firm sold out to the Central 
Tack association, in December, 1884, and 
Mr. Rambo returned to Norristown. He 
then purchased a small textile manufactur- 
ing business in the city of Philadelphia, 
but soon afterward sold out and embarked 
in the manufacture of hosiery at Norris- 
town, under the firm name of Rambo & 
Lee. During the first year Mr. Lee re- 
tired from the business and Mr. Rambo 
conducted it alone for a time. In 
September, 1886, Mr. H. K. Regar 
(see his sketch) was admitted to a part- 
nership in the business, and the firm 
name has ever since been Rambo and Re- 
gar. Their factory is known as the Globe 
Knitting Mills, and is located at the corner 
of Moore and Walnut streets, Norristown. 
Here they manufacture seamless hosiery of 
every kind and size, and their goods find 
a ready sale in the markets, their registered 
trade mark being a guarantee of superiority 
wherever it is known. In addition to his 
connection with the Globe Knitting Mills, 



Biographical Sketches. 



127 



Mr. Rambo is largely interested in a number 
of other industrial enterprises about Norris- 
towu. He is president of the PennTack com- 
pany and of the Excelsior Automatic Knit- 
ting Machine company ; a director of the 
Norristown Woolen company and the Nor- 
ristown shoe company, and is a stockholder 
in various other companies engaged in 
different lines of manufacture in the bor- 
ough and vicinity. 

On September 25, 1879, Mr. Rambo was 
married to Annie E. Dalton, a daughter of 
Michael and Annie Dalton, of Norristown. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Rambo have been born 
five children, two sons and three daughters: 
Willie C, Annie, Bessie, Joseph, jr. and 
Florence. 

In Politics Mr. Rambo is a staunch Re- 
publican, believing implicitly in the policy 
of protection to American industries. His 
business career has been one of activity and 
success, and he stands to-day among the 
substantial enterprising and useful citizens 
of Norristown. 



ANDREW SUPPLEE, Treasurer of the 
Union Mutual Fire and Storm Insur- 
ance Company, of Norristown, is a son of 
Alexander H. and Jane M. (Rambo) Supplee, 
and was born December 5, 1834, at Swedes- 
ford hotel, now the location of the borough 
of Bridgeport, this county. The family 
for several generations back, have been of 
American birth although of French origin. 
Zimmerman Supplee, paternal great-grand- 
father, lived during the earlier part of his 
life, in Upper Merion township, this county, 
where he ranked among the prominent and 
intelligent citizens, holding local political 
offices and taking an active interest in the 
welfare of the community at large. He 



married Hannah Henderson, of Upper 
Merion township, and they became the 
parents of the following children : Jane 
C, Alexander H., Andrew J., Henderson, 
Mary Ann. 

Zimmerman Supplee and his wife both 
lived to the advanced age of eighty years. 

Alexander Supplee was born in Upper 
Merion township, January 1, 1803, was 
reared upon a farm, became a tiller of the 
soil himself which worthy craft he followed 
all his days. He was a man of thorough 
going spirit and did not confine his activi- 
ties to the pursuits of farming but lent his 
services to whatever move that seemed to 
him for its object the welfare of the com- 
munity. He was a director of the old 
Montgomery Mutual Fire Insurance com- 
pany and president of the Union Mutual 
Fire and Storm Insurance company. He 
married Jane M., a daughter of Jonathan 
Rambo, and four children blessed their 
union : Jonathan R., Andrew, Mark R. 
and Hannah, who became the wife of 
Austin L. Taggart. 

Andrew Supplee is indebted to the com- 
mon schools for his educational training. 
He remained with his father upon the farm 
until a short time prior to the latter's 
death, which occurred in September 1, 1882, 
when he purchased the farm and success- 
fully plied the avocation of an agriculturist 
until the Spring of 1886, when he disposed 
of his landed interests and removed to Nor- 
ristown. He lived a retired life one year, 
when he was elected treasurer of the Union 
Mutual Fire and Storm Insurance company, 
the duties of which office have since en- 
grossed his attention. 

The Union Mutual Fire and Storm In- 
surance company was organized in 1866, 
and is regarded as one of the most stable 
and business institutions of the county. 



128 



- Biographical Sketches 



The present officers of the company are : 
David Trucksess, president ; H. S. Kulp, 
secretary ; and Andrew Supplee, treasurer. 
On February 9, 1875, Amanda, daughter 
of Benjamin H. Cassel, became the wife of 
Andrew Supplee, and three children, Lizzie 
C, J. May, and Idora, bless this marital 
union. 



OLIVER N. URNER, a popular and 
competent magistrate of Norristown, 
Pennsylvania, is by birth a Chester coun- 
tian, having been born at French Creek 
Falls, on April 29, 1843. His fathar was 
Eli Urner, and his mother's maiden name 
was Sarah Richards. Mr. Urner's ances- 
tors on both sides are able to trace back 
their line of descent to the pioneer period 
of Chester county. On the maternal side 
he is of Welsh lineage and on the paternal 
side his ancestry belongs to the Pennsylva- 
nia German. Jacob Urner, grandfather, 
was a farmer by occupation, and is buried 
in the county of his birth. His father was 
a native of North Coventry township, and 
was born May 22, 1820, and died December 
10, 1893. He is buried at the Coventry 
village burying ground. His life was that 
of a farmer, and he also became warmly in- 
terested in politics and public issues of his 
county. He held various local offices, and 
at one time was a candidate for nomination 
to the State legislature, but was defeated 
by a very small majority. He was a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal church and 
ardent in support of all its interests. He 
was also a member of the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows and of the Masonic 
order. His family consisted of nine chil- 
dren, five of whom are still living : Oliver 
N., Hannah E., wife of Lewis Burgoyne, of 
Buckstown, Chester county; Allen W., 



Jacob F., and Webster Clay. Those de- 
ceased are : Franklin P., Elizabeth, John 
W , and Mary Alice. 

Oliver N. Urner was brought up in Ches- 
ter county, received his education in the 
public schools and after the completion of 
his preliminary education, taught school 
for a period of eight years. In 1872 he re- 
moved to Pottstown, this county, where he 
followed auctioneering and other business 
pursuits until the election of Col. M. M. 
Missimer as clerk of courts. Mr. Missimer 
recognized his executive ability and at that 
time selected him as his deputy, which pos- 
ition he held until the end of the term. 
During his stay in the office of clerk of 
courts he was appointed the successor of H. 
S. Smith, and held that position for seven 
months, having been commissioned by Gov- 
ernor Hoyt to fill the unexpired term oc- 
casioned by Mr. Smith's death. After the 
expiration of this term of service he again 
followed auctioneering and conveyancing 
until the year of 1889, at which time he was 
elected justice of the peace. He has held 
that office continuously down to the pres- 
ent time, and during his incumbency has 
handled more business than any other jus- 
tice of the peace in the county. Mr. Urner 
is a Republican in politics and has always 
been prominently identified with that party. 
In 1881 he was the nominee of his party for 
clerk of courts but was defeated. He is a 
member of the Improved Order Heptasophs. 

Mr. Urner was married on November 14, 
1863, to Sarah Murphy, of French Creek 
Falls, Chester county. This marriage re- 
sulted in the birth of seven children, five 
of whom are living. Those deceased are 
John W. and Alanetta. The names of 
those living are Daniel W., Annie S., Min- 
nie M., Bessie and Nellie H. 

Mr. Urner is one of the best known mag- 



Biographical Sketches. 



129 



istrates in the county. He is thoroughly 
familiar with every function of the mag- 
istrate's office. His long connection with 
the various county offices has rendered him 
competent in all matters of legal form and 
procedure. In addition to these qualifica- 
tions, he is a man of affable and agreeable 
manner and of acknowledged integrity. 



WILLIAM K. GRESH, manufacturer, 
of Norristown, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, is a son of Daniel and Susan 
(Kuser) Gresh, and was born January 23, 
1834, in Pottsgrove township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. The family of which 
Mr. Gresh is a member is of German origin 
and was transplanted from the old to the 
new world by Nicholas Gresh, who settled 
in Berks county, Pennsylvania, after serving 
a period as a soldier in the Revolutionary 
war. His children were as follows : Chris- 
tian, Charles, Nicholas, Daniel, and Eliza- 
beth Wentzel. 

Daniel Gresh (father) was born in Berks 
county, was reared upon his father's farm 
and then indentured himself to learn the 
trade of a weaver. He married Susanna 
Kruser, a Berks county lady of French 
lineage, and they became the parents of the 
following children : Augustus, Edwin, John, 
William K., subject ; Rachel, wife of Har- 
mon Custer ; Leah, who married Alexander 
Hummel ; Emaline, wife of George Hesch ; 
Elizabeth, wife of William Glase ; Henry, 
Abel, Kate A., and Milton. 

William K. Gresh received his education 
in the common schools of Berks and Mont- 
gomery counties, but by far the most essen- 
tial elements of his education have been ob- 
tained in the business world and through a 
study of men and economic questions as he 

9 



meets them in the everyd-ay walks of life 
rather than from books. At the age of sev- 
enteen he assumed the responsibilities of 
life on his own account, and at the age of 
eighteen started a brick yard at Center 
Point, in Worcester township, this countv, 
and in connection with this enterprise he 
also did some work as a contractor and 
builder. In the meantime his enterprising 
spirit led him to begin the manufacture of 
cigars on a small scale in his own house. In 
1867 he removed to Perkiomen township, 
where he purchased land. He remained in 
that township five years, carefully looking 
after every detail of the newly founded en- 
terprise and had the satisfaction of seeing it 
expand and prosper until 1872, when he re- 
moved to Norristown. Here he purchased 
land upon which to erect a factory, the size 
of which soon proved too small for his con- 
stantly increasing business, compelling him 
to enlarge it. In 1891 he built the factory 
which he now occupies. It is located on 
the corner of Marshall and Corson streets, 
and is fifty by ninety feet, and four stories 
high, a handsome brick structure of rare ar- 
chitectural beauty and utility, perhaps the 
finest cigar factory in the countv. The en- 
terprise is ranked among the most substan- 
tial industries of Norristown, and gives 
employment to over three hundred hands. 
At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Gresh mar- 
ried Leah, a daughter of Peter Hendricks, 
of Worcester township, this county, and 
their marital union has been blessed in the 
birth of the following children : Edwin 
Pierce, Hervey Clinton, William Parry, 
Kate, wife of John Geller ; and Earl, de- 
ceased. Mr. Gresh is a Democrat politically, 
but was elected a member of the borough 
council from a strongly Republican ward, a 
fact attesting in a marked degree to his 
standing and popularity in the community. 



13° 



Biographical Sketches. 



For many years he has been an elder of 
Trinity Reformed church, and is strongly 
in sympathy and prominently identified 
with all forms of church work. 

Mr. Gresh owes his success in life to in- 
domitable will power, coupled with good 
judgment and an honesty of purpose and 
probity of character that inspires confidence 
in all those with whom he has had business 
or social relations. 



TAMES APPLEBY HURST, an enter- 
<J prising contractor and builder of Nor- 
ristown, is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth 
Hurst, and was born February 18, 1852, 
at Norristown, this county. Thomas Hurst, 
father, was born in England, in February, 
1818, and died in Norristown, July 12, 
1885. He was reared in his native country 
and obtained a rudimentary education in 
the national schools of that country. He 
learned the trade of stocking maker, 
married in his native land and in the year 
1845, with his wife and one child, Mary, 
emigrated to the United States, locating at 
Norristown, where he followed his trade up 
to the time of his death. Coming to this 
country at a time marked by stormy politi- 
cal revolutions and the disintegration of 
old parties, he allied himself with that party, 
one of whose avowed principles was against 
the extension of slavery. His marriage resul- 
ted in the birth of four children : Mary, wife 
of Sylvester Slough, of Norriton ; George 
W., Elizabeth, wife of John D. Weber, of 
Norristown, and James Appleby. 

James Appleby Hurst, did not have many 
advantages for securing an education. He 
attended the public schools of Norristown 
two terms and also for a short time the 
same grade of schools in Lower Providence 



township, during the winter months very 
irregularly. He was a boy of spirit and in- 
dustry, and at the age of thirteen left home 
and secured work on a farm, working at 
first for his board. At the age of seventeen 
years, he came to Norristown, with forty 
dollars in his pocket, to learn the trade of 
a carpenter. He served faithfully an ap- 
prenticeship of four years, devoting his 
spare moments diligently to study and the 
acquisition of a better education than he 
posessed. After mastering the trade, he 
followed journeywork at various places 
over the country from 1873 to 1875. 

In 1878 he embarked in the contracting 
and building business on his own account 
at Norristown, where he has since remained 
engaged in the same line of business. It 
is only necessary to look at the determin- 
ation, shown in the boyhood of James A. 
Hurst, to divine what elements he would 
display as a man. Determination, persev- 
erance, and stick-to-itiveness, have been 
his ruling characteristics, and have brought 
him a full measure of success. He soon 
became known as an industrious and trust- 
worthy workman and consequently his 
business expanded and prospered so that at 
times he has had under his employ as many 
as fifty skilled workmen. Since 1883 he 
has done considerable in the line of build- 
ing houses for himself and now owns con- 
siderable real estate in the borough includ- 
ing a partnership in forty valuable building 
lots. He was one of the organizers of the 
West Norristown Building and Loan Asso- 
ciation of which he is treasurer and is 
connected with a number of other business 
enterprises of the borough. Shortly after 
becoming a member of the First Baptist 
church in 1876, he was made a trustee, a 
relation he sustained to that church until 
1887, when he became one of the organizers 



Biographical Sketches. 



131 



of the Second Baptist church, of which 
organization he was made deacon and 
treasurer, positions he has since held. He 
is a no less ardent, devoted and consistent 
member of the church, than thorough 
going and enterprising business man. He 
is a Republican in politics and has served 
one term as a member of the borough 
council from the 7th ward. 

On May 30, 1878, Mr. Hurst married 
Wilhelmina, a daughter of William White, 
a lime burner of Norristown. She was 
born January 23, 1853, and died October 7, 
1894. Three children were born to their 
marriage union, all of whom died quite 
young. 



JOSEPH WARREN ROYER, M. D., 
one of the oldest and best known phy- 
sicians of the count}-, a son of Judge 
Joseph and Elizabeth (Dewees) Rover, was 
born at the Trappe, Upper Providence 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, July 21, 1820. While reputed of 
German origin, tradition claims that the 
Royer family is French and was driven into 
Germany by religious persecution during 
the fifteenth century. Sebastian Royer, or 
Reier, with his four sons came from Germany 
about 1725 and settled in Pennsylvania. 
One of the grandsons, John Royer, a son of 
Karl Reier, was the grandfather of Dr. 
Royer, and married Anna C. Apfel, by 
whom he had nine children. Their only 
son was Judge Joseph Royer, who was born 
February 6, 1784, two miles west of Trappe, 
in Providence township, then Philadelphia 
county, now Upper Providence township, 
Montgomery county. Judge Rover, though 
possessing a limited school education, was a 
man of general information and a pleasing 
conversationalist. He was a man of in- 



tellect, character and will, and possessed 
social endowments of a high order. His 
ability, standing and worth won him hon- 
ored positions. In 1821 and in 1822 he 
served as a member of the Pennsylvania 
house of representatives. He was offered a 
third term but declined, and in 1837, with- 
out solicitation upon his part, was appointed 
by Governor Ritner, an associate judge of 
the courts of Montgomery county, a po- 
sition he held with credit and honor until 
1851, when the office become elective by 
the State constitution of 1850. Judge Royer 
was engaged in the general mercantile busi- 
ness at Trappe, Pa., for over thirty-five 
years. He died November 9, 1863, when 
in the eightieth year of his age. Judge 
Royer, in 1818, wedded Elizabeth Dewees, 
who was a daughter of David and Mary- 
Catharine Dewees, nee Seltzer. She was 
born December 19, 1797, and lived to be 
almost ninety years of age, dying September 
22, 1887. Her remains were buried beside 
her husband's in the Lutheran cemetery at 
Trappe. The children of Judge and Mrs. 
Royer are : Francis, J. Warren, Lewis, J. 
Dewees, C. John, Horace, Henry and Jose- 
phine, wife of M. L. Kohler, Esq., of Phila- 
delphia. 

Joseph Warren Royer, after attending the 
common schools and being under the in- 
structions of a private tutor, took a four 
years' course at Lafayette college, at Easton, 
Pa., and then entered Princeton college, of 
Princeton, New Jersey, where he became a 
member of the senior class and was grad- 
uated from that old and famous institution 
of learning in 1842. After graduation he 
commenced the study of medicine and in 
1843 entered the medical department of the 
University of Pennsylvania, from which he 
was graduated in the class of 1845. Soon 
after receiving his diploma he commenced 



132 



Biographical Sketches. 



the practice of his profession at Trappe, 
where he has remained up to the present 
time. In 1876 he formed a partnership with 
Dr. W. J- Ashenfelter, which lasted until 
1880. 

Dr. Rover has been in active practice 
for over fifty years at Trappe and the field 
of his professional labors has been very 
extensive, and extending beyond his own 
and into Chester county. Dr. Rover is a 
member of the different medical societies of 
Montgomery count}-, was physician and sur- 
geon for the County Home from 1881 to 
1892, and in 1894 and 1895 was one of the 
two present physicians appointed for that 
institution. He is an able and interesting 
medical writer, and wields a ready pen on 
political, civil and religious topics of public 
import or general interest. He is a Repub- 
lican politically, and has been identified for 
a number of years with the Trappe Re- 
formed church, with which congregation he 
worships. He is a member and the treas- 
urer of Warren Lodge No. 310, Free and 
Accepted Masons, of Trappe, which Masonic 
body was named in honor of him for his 
zealous labors in securing its organiza- 
tion. 

On September 29, 1863, Dr. Joseph W. 
Rover married Anna Herbert, daughter of 
Henry Herbert, Esq., of Frankford, Phila- 
delphia. To Dr. and Mrs. Rover were born 
six sons and three daughters : Stella and 
Walter, who are deceased; May, wife of Rev. 
O. H. E. Ranch, pastor of the Reformed 
church, of Rover's Ford ; Ralph, a profes- 
sional singer ; Carl, now employed in the 
eeneral office of the Fidelitv Insurance com- 
pany of Philadelphia ; Joseph W., a ma- 
chinist, also residing in Philadelphia ; Jes- 
sie, who is an elocutionist; Henry H., 
drowned at nine years of age ; and Paul, 
who died in infancy. 



DR. CHARLES T. WAAGE, a physi- 
cian of nearly a half century's expe- 
rience of Pennsburg, this county, is a son 
of Frederick and Angeline (Garber) Waage, 
and was born October 22, 1827, at Milton, 
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. 

Frederick Waage (father) was born in the 
Dukedom of Holstein, Denmark, on August 
17, 1797, where he profited by attendance 
upon the excellent schools for which that 
country is noted, and completed a course of 
study in the University at Kiel. At the age 
of twenty-two years he came alone to the 
United States and located in Chester county. 
Young Waage had a strong desire to enter 
the profession of the ministry. He accord- 
ingly took up the study of theology and 
kindred subjects under the tutelage of Rev. 
Geisenheimer, a Lutheran minister of Ches- 
ter county. After making a thorough pre- 
paration for his chosen work, he was or- 
dained as a minister of the Lutheran church, 
and for sixty years zealously labored in the 
cause of the Divine Master. For a number 
of vears he was stationed at Milton, Nor- 
thumberland count} - , and in 1829 took 
charge of St. Luke's church at Pennsburg, 
where he remained forty years, supplying 
at the same time five other churches of the 
neighborhood, being assisted by his younger 
son. His marriage relation resulted in the 
birth of three sons and seven daughters : 
Hannah, deceased ; Charles T., subject ; 
Angeline, deceased, was the wife of Dr. Ed- 
win Bieber ; Fannie, who wedded Isaac 
Crouse, of Crousedale, Lehigh county, Penn- 
sylvania ; Andora, became the spouse of 
Charles Gaston, an attorney of St. Paul, 
Minnesota ; Emma, deceased, was the wife 
of Charles Gilfillan, also of St. Paul, Min- 
nesota ; Fannie, who married Charles Gil- 
fillan, the widower of her sister ; Rev. O. 
F., who was born February 4, 1845, at the 



Biographical Sketches. 



J 33 



old Lutheran parsonage near Pennsburg, 
was educated in the Bucks County Normal 
and Classical schools under the direction of 
Rev. Dr. Horn, of Quakertown ; graduated 
from the Gettysburg Lutheran seminary, 
and at once entered upon the work of the 
ministry, taking his father's entire charge 
and has ever since been actively and zeal- 
ously engaged in the work of his profession ; 
Edwin, died at the age of five years. 

Rev. Frederick Waage died on August 
23, 1884, at the age of eighty-seven years. 
His widow still survives. 

Dr. Charles Waage received his prelimi- 
nary education in Washington Hall semi- 
nar}-, at the Trappe, this count} - , and in a 
private school at Easton under the tuition 
of Prof. Vandeveer. Having resolved upon 
the study of medicine, he entered Jefferson 
Medical college of Philadelphia, from 
which well known and popular institution 
he was graduated in March, 1849. He at 
once entered upon the practice of his chosen 
profession, locating at East Rock Hill, in 
Bucks count}-, where he remained six 
years, when he came to Pennsburg and has 
remained there ever since. Dr. Waage's 
experience as a practitioner of medicine 
spans an epoch in the history of the profes- 
sion marked by great progress and with 
which progress he has ever since kept pace. 
He has been a useful man in the community 
in which he has lived for most a half cen- 
tury in other ways than as a skilled practi- 
tioner of medicine. He has always had at 
heart the political, social, educational and 
material interests of the community. He 
is a devout member of the Lutheran church, 
a Democrat in political texture, and has 
served twenty-three years continuously as a 
member of the school board of his borough, 
always taking an active and intelligent in- 
terest in the cause of popular education. 



Fraternally he is a member of Pennsburg 
Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. F. ; Barger Lodge 
of F. and A. M., and Greenville Lodge 
Knights of Pythias. He has been a di- 
rector of the Farmers' and Mechanics' 
bank at Pennsburg, and for ten years a 
director of the Perkiomen Valley railroad. 

On September 15, 1853, he married Man- 
Anna Heisler, who died December 8, 1874, 
at the age of forty years. To this marriage 
were born four children : Ida, deceased, 
born August 28, 1854 ; Emma, deceased, 
born February 29, 1856 ; Eugene, who was 
born October 30, i860, resides in Philadel- 
phia, and Charles Frederick, born Septem- 
ber 11, 1862, died in infancy. Dr. Waage 
married for his second wife, on August 29, 
1876, Lydia Eshbach ; and one child, Mary 
Catharine, born October 27, 1877, blesses 
this union. 



WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN, a prom- 
inent marble dealer and business man 
of Norristown, is a son of Florence and 
Ann E. (Main) Sullivan, and was born 
October 7, 1861, at Norristown, this county. 
His grandfather, on the paternal side of the 
family was Phillip Sullivan, who was a 
native of County Kerry, Ireland, whence, 
to escape the crowed economic conditions 
of his own country, he emigrated to this 
country in 1823. He first located with his 
wife and family at Philadelphia, where he 
was engaged as a merchant in the white 
lead business. His children were three in 
number : Florence, Margaret and Mary. 
Florence Sullivan, father, was born on the 
"Emerald Island," in county Kerry, March 
20, 1S16. He was brought to this country 
when but six years of age by his parents, 
who settled in Philadelphia. Before at- 
taining to his majority he learned the trade 



J 34 



Biographical Sketches. 



of hatter, and at the age of twenty-two, 
came to Norristown and entered the employ 
of Moses Ange, a hat manufacturer of that 
place. He soon embarked in the business 
on his own account at West Chester, Penn- 
sylvania, remaining there, however, but a 
short time, when he came back to Norris- 
town and was taken into partnership with 
his former employer. After a few years he 
went into the business on his own account 
and continued it until 1878, when he re- 
tired. He was a republican politically, 
and took a prominent part in the politics 
of his borough and county. He served a 
number of terms as borough councilman, 
five consecutive years as borough treasurer, 
and from 1857 to i860, as prothonotary of 
Montgomery county, was Prison inspector 
three terms, serving in that position of 
trust at the time of his death, and was a di- 
rector in the Norristown Water company. 

When that crisis arose threatening the 
invasion of the grand old " Keystone 
State," he twice responded to the call for 
troops in the emergency service. Upon 
the first response he was made first lieu- 
tenant, and upon the second was made 
captain of a company. He was a charter 
member of the Montgomery Fire company, 
and a past officer of Montgomery Lodge, ! 
I. O. O. F., and a member of Charity 
Lodge, No. 90, F. and A. M. 

His married life extends over a period of 
fifty-four years, and resulted in the birth 
of the following children : Hannah; Ellen, 
wife of Henry A. Derr, of Norristown ; 
Harry L, Sophia, wife of David Kerbaugh, 
of New York City ; Florence, who became 
the wife of Isaac C. Weber, and William 
M. Mr. Sullivan was an exemplary citi- 
zen, uniformly kind and genial in his in- 
tercourse with his fellow men. He was a 
model husband and father, happily com- 



bining the qualities that make a person 
loved and esteemed in all relations of life; 
a man of strictest integrity and an excellent 
business man, even up to the day of his 
death. He died June 16, 1894, in his seventy- 
ninth year. 

William M. Sullivan, subject of sketch, 
was educated in the public schools of Nor- 
ristown, and in the Tremont seminary, at 
the same place. He learned the trade of a 
marble cutter with Henry A. Derr, who 
then owned and operated the yard now 
operated by Mr. Sullivan. He remained 
with Mr. Derr until 1884, when he pur- 
chased the plant and has since operated it 
on his own account He does a large busi- 
ness in his line, giving employment at times 
to a force of twenty-five men, doing much 
of the finest marble work in Norristown. 
As samples of his work we would suggest 
the following : The marble work on the 
Wernersville State Insane Asylum, a con- 
tract amounting to twenty-seven thousand 
dollars ; the same line of work on the 
building of the Norristown Trust, Title 
and Safe Deposit company ; St. Patrick's 
Parochial school, on the corner of Green 
and Chestnut streets, Norristown ; Chain 
Street Public school building; the building 
of the Adam Scheidt Brewing Company; 
Boinberger Memorial Hall at Collegeville ; 
Ambler Opera House, and the Ambler 
Baptist and Presbyterian churches at 
Ambler, this county. In 1894 he erected 
a granite monument on the battle field 
of Antietam, to commemorate the valor 
of those members of the Thirty-fifth 
Massachusetts regiment who fell in that 
conflict. For the efficient manner in which 
this work was done, he received a letter of 
high recommendation from the Committee 
having the work in charge. He cut the 
stone for the Pennsylvania State building 



Biographical Sketches. 



i35 



at the World's Fair. Mr. Sullivan is a 
Republican and a member of Curtis Lodge, 
No. 139, I. O. O. F. 

On September 16, 1885, Mr. Sullivan 
married Margaret S., a daughter of James 
Long ; and four children, Florence, Helen, 
Ralph and Stanley, bless this union. 



DR. JESSE ZIEGLER HILLEGAS, a 
veterinary surgeon and an extensive 
breeder of fine horses, is a son of Dr. John 
G. and Catharine (Ziegler) Hillegas, and 
was born March 24, 1868, on Perkiomen 
Creek, in Upper Hanover township, this 
county. 

The ancestral history of Dr. Jesse Z. 
Hillegas appears under the sketch of his 
father. He received his education in the 
public schools of his native township 
and in Perkiomen seminary at Penns- 
bnrg, under the direction of Professor C. 
S. Weand. He then took a commercial 
course in a business college at Allentown, 
Lehigh county, this State. In 1888 he 
entered the Ontario Veterinary college 
at Toronto, Canada, from which he was 
graduated in 1890, with the degree of 
V. S. He at once located at his home in 
Upper Hanover township and entered upon 
the practice of his profession and remained 
there until 1892, when he came to Penns- 
burg. In connection with his professional 
work, he has since that time been engaged 
largely in buying and selling horses, hand- 
ling more than any other dealer in this 
part of the county. Dr. Hillegas takes a 
special delight in the breeding and training 
of fine horses, and possesses a number of 
thorough breds with good speed records. 
Among them are the celebrated stallion 
"John F," who has a record of 2.39^ on a 



one-third mile track ; " Charley West," a 
promising young horse now in training ; 
"Dozer" 16149, by "Blue Bull" 4893, dam 
"Duchess," by "Duke of Brunswick" 14266 ; 
and "Jesse Z.," his favorite driving horse, 
with a record of 2.38^. He also deals ex- 
tensively in cattle, buying and shipping to 
the New York and Philadelphia markets. 

Politically he is a Democrat, and was a 
delegate to the State convention that nomi- 
nated William M. Singerly for governor in 
1894. Fraternally he is a member of Per- 
kiomen Lodge No. 595, F. & A. M., and of 
the Ontario Medical society. 

On September 15, 1892, he married Katie 
S., a daughter of Henry Walford, of Har- 
leysville, this county. 



WILLIAM A. HOOVER, a prominent 
business man of Hooverton, is a son 
of Judge Hiram C. and Margaret (Dull) 
Hoover, and was born in Gwynedd town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
November 10, 1847. William A. was reared 
in Gwynedd and Norritou townships, and 
received his education in the common 
schools and Prof. John W. Loch's Tremont 
seminary, Norristown, where he took the 
full three year course, and was graduated in 
the class of 1868. Returning home, he as- 
sisted his father in farming for three years, 
and then conducted the home farm until 
1879, when he became a partner with his 
father in the coal and feed business at Hoo- 
verton, once known as Penn Square. 
Six years later he purchased his father's 
interest and has conducted the feed and 
coal business there successfully ever since. 
On February 21, 1871, Mr. Hoover mar- 
ried Annie S. Kerper, who was born April 
14, 1849, and is a daughter of Charles and 



136 



Biographical Sketches. 



Margaret (Henk) Kerper, of Whitemarsh 
township. Mr. and Mrs. Hoover have four 
children, two sons and two daughters : 
Irving C, Charles O., Clara M. and Mamie 
K. Mr. and Mrs. Hoover are members of 
the Reformed church at Blue Bell. 

In politics Mr. Hoover has always been a 
Republican. He has served his township 
as auditor, and as a school director, and at 
various times has been judge, inspector and 
clerk of the election board at his voting 
place. He is a member of Curtis Lodge 
No. 239, Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, and Washington Camp No. 322, Patri- 
otic Order Sons of America. 



I ACOB TYSON, ex-sheriff of Norristown, 
<J was born near the Trappe, this county, 
on June 10, 1818, and is a son of Jacob and 
Elizabeth (Bergey) Tyson. His ancestors 
were residents of the county for about five 
generations and are of Dutch descent. 
John Tyson, his grandfather, was a weaver 
by trade and a very well educated man in 
those days. He took an interest in public 
affairs, frequently served on election boards 
and was a general factotem in his neighbor- 
hood. 

On the maternal side, sheriff Tyson's 
ancestors sprang from an old Revolutionary 
family. His father was born near Skippack- 
ville, this county, January 6, 1786. He 
was a farmer by occupation, considered a 
good business man, a hard worker, and was 
esteemed as a man of the strictest integrity. 
In his religious affiliations he was a mem- 
ber of the German Reformed church. Jacob 
Tyson had nine children, three of whom 
are still living. Those deceased are : Susan, 
Charles, Man-, Abram, John, and Margaret. 
Those living are : Jacob, Elizabeth and 






Harriet. Abram and John emigrated to 
Canada in 1845, were married in the Pro- 
vinces and brought up large families. Ab- 
ram located permanently in Berlin, Waterloo 
county, and John in the city of Guelph, 
both places being in Canada West. 

During his boyhood Jacob alternated his 
time working on his father's farm and 
going to school as was the custom for a boy 
reared on a farm. He has continued to live 
on the same homestead for a period of sixty 
years. 

During this time, in addition to the con- 
ducting of large farming interests, he was 
engaged in the butchering business for 
twenty years, part of which time he drove 
a wagon throughout a portion of the coun- 
ty. He continued the quiet routine of a 
farmer's life until 1877, when he was pre- 
vailed upon to offer himself as a can- 
didate for the position of high sheriff of 
Montgomery county. 

He was elected to this office and during 
his incumbency made a very efficient officer. 
For a number of years subsequent he was 
actively identified with the political and 
public interests of the county, but during 
the past dozen of years he has been engaged 
in the coal business, although he lives 
semi-retired. 

Politically, Sheriff Tyson is a Democrat 
and has always been a staunch supporter of 
the policy of that part} - . He was president 
of the live stock company of his township 
for many years and has filled various local 
and political places of trust. He is a mem- 
ber of the German Reformed church. 

Mr. Tyson was married on March, 12, 
1846, to Sarah Y. Lindeman, daughter of 
Isaac Lindeman, Esq., of Limerick Square, 
this county. This marriage resulted in the 
birth of seven children, all of whom are 
living : Wilmina, (wife of Joseph R. Hun- 




W< C Cr-O <U^/^0~^J 



Biographical Sketches. 



i37 



sicker) ; Joanna, wife of H. H. Hunsicker ; 
John H., Mary, Sallie L., widow of Amos 
Forker ; Harriet, and Elizabeth, wife of C. 
R. Free. 



HARVEY SCHAFFER BRANDT, one 
of the editors and proprietors of the 
Norristown Review, is a son of Joseph R. 
and Samaria (Sehaffer) Brandt, and was born 
February 9, 1858, in Limerick township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. The 
family was among- the first settlers of the 
northern part of Montgomery county, hav- 
ing emigrated thither, from the Fatherland, 
prior to the Revolutionary war. Samuel 
Brandt (grandfather) was born in the north- 
ern part of this county, and in his latter 
days followed the avocation of a farmer. 
He was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian 
school and a member of the German Re- 
formed church. 

He married a Miss Rahn and they were 
the parents of nine children : Joseph R. 
(father), Elizabeth, Susanna R., Washing- 
ton, Catharine, Frederick, Hannah, Samuel 
and Emma. Joseph R. Brandt (father) was 
born in Frederick township, this county, 
in the year 1830. His education was ob- 
tained in the common schools. Leaving 
school he learned the trade of a plasterer, 
which trade he followed but a short time 
and then engaged in mercantile pursuits, 
but at the time of his death was en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits in Limerick 
township, this county. He subscribed to 
the dogmas of the German Reformed church 
and for a number of years prior and up to 
his death, held the office of elder. He mar- 
ried Samaria Shaffer and they became the 
parents of six children, four sons and two 
daughters: Clara S., deceased, unmarried ; 
Harvey S , subject; Maurice, a hotel-keeper 



at Elko, Nevada ; Joseph Henry, whose 
sketch follows ; Norma L., deceased, was 
the wife of Joseph E. Boucot ; Oscar S , an 
engraver in the employ of the Tiffany 
jewelry house, of New York city. Joseph 
Brandt died in 1S72, at the age of forty- 
two years. His widow is still living. 

Harvey Sehaffer Brandt was educated in 
the public school of Limerick township, 
this county, and at Washington Hall Col- 
legiate Institute, at the Trappe, this county. 
His father dying while he was at school 
and he being the eldest son, he was com- 
pelled to relinquish all ideas of further 
scholastic training and take charge of the 
farm, remaining in this charge until the 
farm was sold. In 1876 he came to 
Pottstown, and for two years was em- 
ployed with Captain VVilliam Auchen- 
bach, in the wholesale and retail grocery 
business. In 1878 he took a clerkship in 
the employ of H. G. Kulp and Company, 
hardware merchants of that borough, re- 
maining there ten years. In 1889 he re- 
moved to Norristown and became a business 
partner with his brother under the firm 
name of J. H. Brandt and Brother. In po- 
litical texture he has always been a staunch 
Democrat, in the success of which party he 
takes a lively interest. He was one of the 
founders of the Young Men's Democratic 
Club of Pottstown, one of the strongest 
political clubs in the Schuylkill valley, and 
was its secretary until he left that borough. 
He is a member of Reynolds Castle No. 
44, Knights of the Golden Eagle, at Potts- 
town, and a member of Montgomery Lodge, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Nor- 
ristown. He was a devoted member of 
Trinity Reformed church at Pottstown, in 
which church organization he served as 
deacon three terms up to the time of his 
leaving the town, and for four years prior 



138 



Biographical Sketches. 



to leaving the borough was superintendent 
of the Sabbath school. He helped organize 
the Church Extension Society in connec- 
tion with Trinity church, of which he 
was elected first president. It was through 
the efforts of this society that the handsome 
stone chapel, in connection with the church 
was built, Mr. Brandt being chairman of 
the building committee. Since his re- 
moval to Norristown he has associated his 
family with the Reformed Church of the 
Ascension and is actively engaged in their 
Mission in the West End, a few squares 
from his comfortable home. 

May 10, i88r he married Ella M , a 
daughter of Mahlon Rimby, the oldest 
undertaker of Pottstown, and two children 
bless their union: Miriam L-, who died 
in infancy, and Florence Ella, born August 
26, 1890. 



PERRY FRANKUN HUNTER, assist- 
ant treasurer of the Pennsylvania rail- 
road company, was born at Gulf Mills, 
Lower Merion township, Montgomery coun- 
ty, August 27, 1855. His ancestors on his 
father's side came from the north of Eng- 
land, and his maternal ancestors came from 
France. At the old Episcopal church in 
Durham, England, are the graves of General 
Anthony Hunter, Sir John and Sir Thomas 
Hunter and many others of the family 
name, the records of whom extend back to 
the year 1605. John Hunter resided at the 
close of the seventeenth century in Medoms- 
ley Hall, Medomsley, Gateshead, Durham, 
England. He was a strong church man, 
and on account of religious persecution re- 
moved to Ireland, and later entered the 
Protestant army as a trooper, participating 
in the battle of Boyne in 1690, in which en- 
gagement he was wounded in the hip by a 



musket ball. The holster and pistols used 
by him in the battle are still in possession 
of his descendants. John Hunter came to 
America in 1722, and located near Down- 
ingtown, Pennsylvania, but in as much as 
the country thereabouts was so unsettled he 
shortly purchased a large tract in Newtown 
township, Chester county, (now Delaware 
county), where he passed the remainder of 
his life. His body is interred in the church 
yard connected with St. David's Episcopal 
church at Radnor, this State, of which 
church he was a member and one of its 
most active founders. James Hunter, the 
youngest son of John Hunter, and George 
Hunter, the fourth son of James, resided on 
the homestead property in Newtown town- 
ship. 

Perry MacDonough Hunter (father of 
P. Frank Hunter) was the youngest 
son of George Hunter, and was born in 
1814. He was well educated, and at the 
age of sixteen became an apprentice in a 
general store. In 1837 he started in a gen- 
eral mercantile business at Gulf Mills, 
Montgomery county, and in 1843 ne P llr " 
chased the Bird-in-Hand hotel property at 
Gulf Mills, which included the store prop- 
erty, converting the hotel into a residence, 
which he occupied until the fall of 1855. 
Perry M. Hunter married Rebecca Ann 
Pechin, second daughter of George and 
Mary Pechin, of Lower Merion township, 
on March 23, 1848. 

The Pechin family is of French origin, 
Christopher Pechin having come to America 
from France in 1750. He became a rich 
shipping merchant of Philadelphia, owned 
vessels and imported wine from France, and 
was also engaged in the business of insur- 
ing vessels and their cargoes. His place of 
business was on Water street, above Arch, 
Philadelphia, and he resided in a large 






'{jAAIMn, 



Biographical Sketches. 



139 



mansion on Front street, which was invaded 
by the English soldiers during the Revolu- 
tionary war and valuable property destroyed. 
Christopher Pechin's body is interred in 
St. Paul's cemetery, at the rear of St. Paul's 
Episcopal church, on Third street, below 
Walnut, Philadelphia, and his tombstone 
bears the following inscription : 

" Death lias conquered life, 
but Christ hath conquered death, 
and I shall live again." 

Peter Pechin, youngest son of Christo- 
pher Pechin, carried on the business of a 
tanner, currier and farmer. He had the 
vivacity of the French, was very energetic 
and successful in business, owning several 
tanneries. In his will he bequeathed one or 
more farms to each of his children besides 
considerable personal property. George 
Pechin, eldest son of Peter Pechin, learned 
the trade of tanner and currier with his 
father. He owned several farms in 
Lower Merion township, and after his re- 
tirement from active business in 1851, he 
removed to Bridgeport, this county. His 
second daughter, Rebecca Ann Pechin, 
married Perry M. Hunter, as above stated. 

Perry M. Hunter, while having the gen- 
eral store at Gulf Mills, also engaged in the 
woolen manufacturing business at that 
place. His mill property there was de- 
stroyed by fire and in the spring of 1S59 he 
purchased the property now known as Watts' 
mill in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and con- 
tinued the manufacture of woolen goods. 
This property he sold in 1864 and about the 
same time disposed of his interest in the 
general store at Gulf Mills. In March, 1865, 
he purchased the mill property on Main 
street, below Arch, Norristown, (now owned 
by the Norristown Woolen Company) and 
in 1868 the mill property at Barbadoes and 
Airy street, Norristown, at both of which 



places he carried on the business of manu- 
facturing woolen goods until his death in 
November, 1868. 

Mr. Hunter with his family removed from 
Gulf Mills to Bridgeport in 1855 and to 
Norristown in 1866. He was a Democrat 
in politics, took an active interest in the 
welfare of his county and was prominent in 
the councils of the party. He was twice 
elected treasurer of Montgomery county, in 
1853 and 1854. He was at one time direc- 
tor of the bank of Montgomery county (now 
Montgomery National Bank) at Norristown, 
Pennsylvania, and also one of the organizers 
of the bank of Pottstown, being one of the 
first directors. For several years lie was 
one of the board of inspectors of the Mont- 
gomery county prison, and at the time o f 
his death was president of the town council, 
having previously served in the council as 
a member from the Third ward of Norris- 
town. He regularly attended services at 
St. John's Episcopal church at Norristown, 
and was a member of the vestry and treas- 
urer of the church during the latter years of 
his life. 

Rebecca A. Hunter, wife of Perry M. 
Hunter, was a woman of uncommon force 
of character, exceptionally faithful and 
conscientious in the performance of all the 
duties of her life. She was kind of heart, 
benevolent in disposition, and took an ac- 
tive interest in the affairs of St. John's 
Episcopal church, of which she was a de- 
voted member, ministering among the poor 
and lowly and giving freely of her substance, 
her time and her strength. She died De- 
cember 22, 1891, aged sixty-five years, and 
a short time after her death, in honor of her 
merits as a woman, a Christian and a 
mother, her three sons placed a beautiful 
memorial window in the church she loved. 
The children of Perry M. and Rebecca A. 



140 



Biographical Sketches. 



Hunter were Silanus Pearson, Ashley Pechin 
and Perry Franklin. 

P. Frank Hunter, the subject of this 
article, was educated in the public schools 
of Bridgeport and Norristown, Pennsyl- 
vania, and also at Tremont seminary, 
located at the same place. In 1870, shortly 
before reaching the age of fifteen years, he 
entered into business as a clerk with a 
Norristown merchant, where he remained 
for two years. He then took a course of 
instruction at Bryant and Stratton's Busi- 
ness college, Philadelphia, and in December, 
1872, became a book-keeper in a wholesale 
house on Market street, Philadelphia, which 
position he relinquished in 1874, and on 
July 1 of that year entered the service of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad company as a 
clerk in the ticket assorting room of the 
auditor of passenger receipts. He re- 
mained in this department for nine years, 
during which time he took an active 
part in introducing certain changes in the 
methods of handling conductor's accounts, 
and in the instruction and examination of 
conductors with a view to improving the 
service. He was also one of the travelling 
examiners of station agents' accounts. On 
June 1, 1883, he was promoted to the posi- 
tion of chief book-keeper in the comptrol- 
ler's office, in which position he had charge 
of the general books of the company and of 
the preparation of statistical information 
for the use of offices of the company and for 
the annual reports. He was also called 
iipon as an expert accountant to ascertain 
and report on the financial condition of cor- 
porations in which the Pennsylvania rail- 
road company became interested. On April 
1, 1893, he was transferred from the account- 
ing department to the treasury department, 
having been appointed by the board of 
directors assistant to the treasurer. He was 



appointed assistant treasurer of the Penn- 
sylvania Rairoad company, on January 1, 
1895. In addition to this latter position he 
is also assistant treasurer of the Philadel- 
phia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad 
company, West Jersey Railroad company, 
and the Camden and Atlantic Railroad com- 
pany. 

Mr. Hunter, who is yet a young man, 
has by sheer merit risen from one of the 
lowest clerkships in the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road company's service to the position of as- 
sistant treasurer of that great corporation 
owning or controlling about nine thousand 
miles of railway and canal, with an invested 
capital of over eight hundred millions of 
dollars. 

Mr. Hunter was married June 26, 1878, to 
Mary Albertson, eldest daughter of J. Mor- 
ton Albertson, a prominent banker and 
manufacturer of Norristown, Pennsylvania. 
Their children are : Sarah Albertson, Re- 
becca Anna, Morton Albertson (deceased), 
and Perry Franklin. 

Mr. Hunter, in politics, is a staunch Re- 
publican, although the requirements of his 
business have prevented him from taking an 
active interest in the affairs of his party. 
In religion he holds to the faith of his an- 
cestors, being a member of St. John's Epis- 
copal church of Norristown, in the work of 
which he takes an active interest. He is a 
member of the vestry, was one of the build- 
ing; committee which erected All Saints 
Chapel in the western part of Norristown, 
and is now one of the committee in charge 
of the work at that chapel. He is also a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, a director 
of the Albertson Trust and Safe Deposit 
company of Norristown, and of the Norris- 
town Woolen company. 

In business circles Mr. Hunter is recog- 
nized as a skilled accountant and as possess- 



Biographical Sketches. 



141 



ing financial ability of a high order. He is 
energetic, thorough and careful, and dis- 
charges with strict fidelity and integrity the 
duties of his offices. He resides in Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania. 



SAMUEL DREvSHER, the only surviv- 
ing member of the original Dresher 
family of Montgomery county, is a son of 
Oliver and Annie (Anders) Dresher, and 
was born at Dreshertown, Upper Dublin 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, March 17, 1830. The Dresher and 
Ander families are among the oldest families 
in the county, and Samuel Dresher traces 
his ancestral line on the paternal side to 
George and Maria Dresher, natives of Sile- 
sia, German)', who came to Towamencin 
townshipin 1734. Their grandson, George 
Dresher, came into Upper Dublin township 
about 17S1, and served as a supervisor in 
1788, and again in 1792. Christopher 
Dresher, son of George Dresher, was born 
in 1 771, and became the founder of Dresher- 
town. 

Oliver Dresher (father) was a son of 
George Dresher, and a grandson of Christo- 
pher Dresher, who built the old Dresher 
mill that remained in the possession of the 
old Dresher family for over a hundred years. 
Oliver Dresher was born in 1804, and passed 
from time to eternity March 17, 1880, when 
in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He 
was a farmer by occupation and a miller by 
trade. In connection with his farm he ran 
the old Dresher mill for several years. He 
was a Whig in politics and had been a 
conscientious and consistent member of the 
Schwenkfelter church from his boyhood. 
He had served repeatedly as supervisor of 
roads and as a member of the board of 



school directors in Upper Dublin township. 
He owned a valuable farm and married 
Annie Anders, who was a daughter of Abra- 
ham Anders, of Worcester township, and 
died July 21, 1894, aged eighty-four years, 
eight months and twenty-one days. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dresher were the parents of 
two children, a son and a daughter : Samuel, 
the subject of this sketch ; and Tracy Ann, 
who died March 29, 1853. 

Samuel Dresher was reared on the farm, 
and after attending the public schools en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits, which he 
followed ever since. His farm of over one 
hundred acres of good productive land, is 
situated in Norriton township, about a mile 
distant from Hartranft station on the Stony- 
Creek railroad. While carefully managing 
his farm operations, he has been successfully 
engaged in other lines of business, and 
ranks with the most progressive business 
men of his township. On November 9, 
1854, Mr. Dresher was united in marriage 
with Susanna Seipt, daughter of George 
Seipt, of Worcester township. 

Mr. Dresher is a director of the Stony 
Creek Railroad company, the Montgomery 
National bank, and the Mutual Fire Insur- 
ance company. He is also a director of the 
Montgomery Trust, Insurance and Safe De- 
posit company and a trustee of the Perkio- 
men seminary, located at Pennsburg, this 
county. Besides these places of business, 
trust and responsibility, Mr. Dresher has 
filled various places of political and local 
significance. He is a Democrat politically, 
and for a number of years was a member of 
the school board of his township. He is a 
member of the Schwenkfelter church, with 
which he has been connected over half 
a century, and has served the congregation 
in the capacity of trustee for the last twenty 
years. 



142 



Biographical Sketches 



JACOB L. REX, now resident of Nor- 
ristown, is a son of John and Sarah 
(Lentz) Rex, and was born in Whitpain 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 31, 1829. The R ex family 
is of German descent and has been resident 
for nearly two centuries, in southeastern 
Pennsylvania, where Mr. Rex's paternal 
grandfather, Levi Rex, was born. Levi 
Rex was a native of Philadelphia county. 
He was a wheelright by trade, and a fanner 
and hotel keeper by occupation. He owned 
real estate at Chestnut Hill, where he died, 
while his remains were interred at German- 
town. He wedded Catharine Riter and 
reared a family. One of his sons was John 
Rex, the father of the subject of this sketch. 
John Rex was born in 1800, in Philadelphia 
county, where he was reared and received 
his education in the public and private 
schools of his neighborhood. He was a 
farmer by occupation, and in 1828 came to 
Whitpain which he left in 1851 to settle at 
Norristown. He lived but one year after 
coming to Norristown, and passed away 
in April, 1852. He was an old line Whig 
and took an active part in political and civil 
affairs. In his younger days he was inter- 
ested in military affairs, serving in the First 
City troop of cavalry of Philadelphia. He 
was a member of the Lutheran church and 
married Sarah Lentz, whose uncle, General 
Sheetz, was a very prominent man and a 
member of the well known Sheetz family 
of Mongtomery County. To their union 
were born nine children : Catharine A., wife 
of Dr. George H. Burgin, deceased, of Ger- 
mantown ; Jacob L., subject ; Elizabeth S., 
wife of Charles Carroll Reeves, of Camden, 
New Jersey ; Mary L., who wedded Dr. 
George T. Harvey, a native of Doylestown ; 
John S., of Norristown ; Emma M., wife of 
John L. Dubois, a lawyer, of Doylestown ; 



Frederick A., a lawyer of Camden, New Jer- 
sey ; and Antrim F., who died in infancy. 

Jacob L. Rex was reared in Whitpain 
township and received his education in the 
district schools and Nazareth Hall school of 
Nazareth, this State. Quitting school he 
engaged in fanning, which he steadily pur- 
sued until 1887. In that year he removed 
to Norristown and has now retired from all 
active business pursuits. In politics Mr. 
Rex is Independent, supporting men or 
measures independent of party consid- 
erations. He served for five years as a jus- 
tice of the peace. He is a member of the 
Patrons of Husbandry to which he has be- 
longed for a number of years, and in which 
organization he has served as master of 
Wissahickon Grange No. 760, for several 
terms. 

On April 1, 1855, Mr. Rex married Sarah 
Slingluff, daughter of the late William 
H. Slingluff. They have three children : 
Mary S., William S. and John. The sons 
are both graduates of Pierce's Business col- 
lege of Philadelphia. 

Mrs. Rex was born at Norristown, Octo- 
ber io, 1834, and received her education in 
Oakland Female seminary near her native 
town. She was graduated from the semi- 
nary on September 29, 1852, and shortly 
afterwards assumed editorial charge of the 
floral department of the Farmers Friend 
and Grange Advocate. She has been a fre- 
quent contributor to various other papers 
interested in agricultural affairs. She was 
president of the East Pennsylvania Agricul- 
tural society, organized at Norristown, and 
of the Ambler Park society at Ambler. 
Mrs. Rex was treasurer for two years and is 
a present director of Charity Hospital asso- 
ciation. She was largely instrumental in 
the erection of the hospital, serving as pres- 
ident of the Women's Auxiliary of the. 



Biographical Sketches. 



143 



hospital, and as treasurer of the Hospital 
Association until the hospital was finished, 
when she resigned the position. She is 
librarian of the Montgomery County His- 
torical society. Mrs. Rex has always been 
prominent and active in the Grange cause. 
She served for several years as Flora in the 
State Grange of Pennsylvania, and was a 
member of its finance committee. 

Jacob L. Rex is a great-great-great-grand- 
son, on his mother's side, of Dr. John Jacob 
Scheetz, a minister of Cregfeldt, on the 
Rhine, who was a member of the Frankfort 
company, organized in 1683 to promote and 
encourage settlement from Germany. His 
son Henry (great-great-grandfather of Jacob 
L. Rex) was thus induced to come to Penn- 
sylvania and first settled at Germantown, 
afterwards removing to a purchase in White- 
marsh township, in Montgomery county, 
where he spent the remainder of his days. 
This property was inherited by his son 
Henry Scheetz, great-grandfather of the 
said Jacob Lentz Rex, who, in the assess- 
ment of 1780, is called a paper-maker and 
rated for owning a paper mill and eighty 
acres of land. This mill he built in 1769 
on Sandy Run, to which he added after- 
wards a grist mill which is still standing. 
He was appointed by the county a justice 
of the peace before the Revolution, and on 
the formation of Montgomery county, was 
commissioned one of the justices of the 
courts of quarter-sessions and common pleas, 
which position he resigned March 31, 1784. 



THOMAS ROBINSON, superintendent 
of the Sheet and Plate mills of the 
great iron works and rolling mill of Alan 
Wood and Co., of Conshohocken, was born 
in Derbyshire, England, November 8, 1839, 



and is a son of James and Anna (Hollings- 
worth) Robinson, natives of England. 
James Robinson was a stocking weaver by 
trade, and in 1846 came to the United 
vStates, where he was successively a resi- 
dent of Chelsea and Portsmouth, Massachu- 
setts ; and Norristown and Conshohocken, 
this county. He was a resident of Consho- 
hocken from 1859 until his death, which 
occurred October 7, 1881, when he was 
seventy-two years of age. He was a Re- 
publican and Methodist. He married Anna 
Hollingsworth, who lived to be seventy-five 
years of age, dying in the Fall of 1886. 
Their children, twelve in number and all 
of whom were born in England, were : 
Catharine, Joseph, John, Tirza, Amy, Al- 
fred, Mary Ann, dead ; next child born 
named Mary Ann, living ; George, Thomas, 
subject ; James and Sarah. 

Thomas Robinson obtained but a limited 
education in boyhood, and after attaining 
his majority, attended a public school for 
some time in order to better qualify him- 
self for common business pursuits. At 
eleven years of age he was placed on a farm 
at Blue Bell, where he received his board 
and clothes for his work for a period of five 
years. He then entered James Hooven's 
rolling mills at Norristown and worked 
there for three or four years. Leaving 
there in 1857, he worked in a wire mill 
owned by Peter Cooper, in New Jersey, but 
at the close of six months service returned 
to Norristown. The next year he entered 
the employ of Alan Wood and Co., of Con- 
shohocken, with whom he has remained 
ever since. During this long period of 
nearly forty years, he has served in every 
department of the great iron works and 
rolling mills, and is so conversant with all 
the details of each man's work, that he 
could take his place upon a moments notice. 



144 



Biographical Sketches. 



He has held various positions about the 
plant, and since Christmas, 1890, he had 
charge of the sheet and plate and bar de- 
partments, in which three hundred men 
are constantly employed. He has general 
control of these departments in which he 
does the hiring and discharging of the 
men. In addition to department manage- 
ment in the iron works, Mr. Robinson 
has found time to engage, to some 
extent, in various business enterprises. 
From 1872 up to 1874, he was a member of 
the firm of Moore and Robinson, which 
dealt largely in coal and wood. Two years 
later he and John H. Griffith formed a 
partnership under the firm name of Robin- 
son and Griffith, and were engaged for 
three years in the produce and butchering 
business. Mr. Robinson is a Republican, 
casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, 
and has served for fifteen years as a council- 
man and school director of Conshohocken. 
He is an Encampment Odd Fellow, and 
has been a member since i860, of Gratitude 
Lodge, No. 216, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, in which he has served continu- 
ously as treasurer forsixteen years. During 
Lee's second invasion of the north, he was 
among the number who volunteered in de- 
fence of the State, being a member of Co. 
F, forty-third regiment, and was stationed 
for six weeks at Clear Springs, Maryland, 
and near the Potomac river. Mr. Robinson 
is positive and energetic in character, pro- 
gressive in his special line of work, and is 
recognized as a man of good business quali- 
fications. 

On December 28, 1861, Thomas Robinson 
was united in marriage with Isabella Smith, 
a daughter of James Smith, of Conshohock- 
en. To their union have been born three 
sons and four daughters : William, Anna, 
Thomas, Maggie, Lydia, Lena and Howard. 



Of these children, William, Maggie and 
Lydia are deceased ; while Thomas is a 
machinist, Lena, a graduate of Pierce's 
Business college, and Howard is attending 
school. 



R WILSON PERRY, a prosperous busi- 
• ness man of Norristown, is the young- 
est son of Samuel and Isabella (Wilson) 
Perry, and was born at Bridgeport, this 
county, May 22, 1842. He was brought up 
in Norristown, where he obtained his ele- 
mentary education in the public schools. 
He afterward attended Tremont seminary, 
under the instructorship of Rev. Samuel 
Aaron, for one year, and then entered 
Dickinson seminary at Williamsport. After 
graduation from the latter institution, he 
engaged in the book and stationery busi- 
ness with his brother, W. G. Perry, in the 
city of Philadelphia. About June, 1858, 
he gave up the stationery business and em- 
barked in the milling business at Dresher- 
town, Montgomery county. This con- 
tinued to be his occupation until the out- 
break of the Civil war. On September 12, 
1861, Mr. Perry entered the service as a 
private of Company C, 104th Regiment, 
Pennsylvania volunteers. He was promoted 
to corporal January 1, 1862, commissioned 
second lieutenant of Company H, 34th U. 
S. C. T, and promoted to first lieutenant 
and adjutant of the same regiment June 20, 
1864. From August 15, 1863, to Novem- 
ber, 1863, he served as assistant aide-de- 
camp on the staff of Colonel James Mont- 
gomery, commanding the fourth brigade, 
Terry's division, tenth corps, department of 
the south. From March, 1865, he was 
commissioned post adjutant at Jacksonville, 
Florida, but resigned that post on May 1 
of the same year. During his service he 



Biographical Sketches. 



i45 



served in the provisional brigade defence of 
Washington, D. C, until March, 1862; in 
the first brigade, third division, fourth 
corps, Army of the Potomac, until Decem- 
ber, 1862 ; second brigade, second division, 
eighteenth corps, department of North 
Carolina, until August, 1863 ; fourth bri- 
gade, Terry's division, tenth corps, depart- 
ment of the South, until November, 1863 ; 
third brigade, Terry's division, tenth corps, 
department of the South, until February, 
1864 ; third brigade, second division, dis- 
trict of Florida, department of the South, 
until April, 1864; fourth separate brigade, 
district of Florida, tenth corps, department 
of the South, until May, 1865. During 
this period of service, Mr. Perry partici- 
pated in the siege of Yorktown. battle of 
Williamsburg, Virginia, Bottomsbridge, 
Savage station, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, 
Fort Wagner, Morris' Island, siege of 
Charleston, Devaux' Neck, South Caro- 
lina, Honey Hill, and a number of others 
of minor importance. Upon the expiration 
of his commission, on May 1, 1865, he re- 
turned to Philadelphia, where for a short 
time he resumed the book business. Some- 
time subsequent to this he removed to Sa- 
vannah, Georgia, where he embarked in 
the general stationery trade and remained 
until 1867. At the latter date he returned 
to Norristown and engaged in the wall 
paper and painting business. This enter- 
prise prospered in his hands, and to it he 
has given the greater part of his attention 
from that to the present time. 

In politics Mr. Perry is an active Repub- 
lican, and has served three years as coun- 
cilman from the eighth ward. He is vice 
president and one of the directors of Charity 
hospital, Norristown, and was one of the 
incorporators, and now vice president and 
director of the Consumers Ice company of 

10 



the same place. In religion Mr. Perry is a 
Presbyterian, and in addition to this is 
connected with a number of well known 
fraternal organizations, among which are 
Curtis Lodge No. 239, Independent ( >rder 
of Odd Fellows ; Charity Lodge No. 190, 
Free and Accepted Masons ; Norristown 
Chapter No. 190, Royal Arch Masons; and 
Hutchinson Commandery No. 32, Knights 
Templar. He is also connected with the 
Improved Order of Heptasophs, and with 
Zook Post No, 11, Grand Army of the Re- 
public. 

On August 22, 1867, Mr. Perry was 
united in marriage with Caroline C. Ouar- 
terman, a native of Georgia, and a daugh- 
ter of Thomas Quarterman. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Perry have been born four children, 
of whom three died in infancy. The only 
one who arrived at the age of maturity is 
Dr. Charles F. Perry, a practicing physi- 
cian, located at Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

Samuel Perry, father of the subject of 
this sketch, was a nail cutter by trade, and 
spent the early part of his life at Bridgeton, 
New Jersey, and in Philadelphia. About 
1835 he removed to Norristown and passed 
the remainder of his life in Montgomery 
county, dying in 1847, at the age of forty- 
seven years. He was a man of ordinary 
education and quiet reserved manner. In 
politics a Republican, and in religion he 
was a member of the Methodist church, 
which latter he served as trustee for many 
years. He was also a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows of Phila- 
delphia. In 1822 he married Isabella 
Wilson, a daughter of Robert and Naomi 
Wilson, of West Creek, Cape May county, 
New Jersey. To them was born a family 
of eight children, four sons and four daugh- 
ters : John R., Charles, William, Kliza ()., 
wife of George H. Jones, of Weatherly, 



146 



Biographical Sketches. 



Pennsylvania ; Mary Ann, Sarah C, wife 
of Jesse H. Bringhnrst, of Philadelphia ; 
Margaret S., and R. Wilson. 

Mrs. Isabella Perry died in June, 18S2, in 
her eighty-fifth year. 



AMOS L ALBERTSON, a prominent 
business man and the president of the 
Norristown Glass company, is a son of 
Jacob Morton and Sarah Pirn (Lee) Albert- 
son, and was born at Norristown, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, October 14, 
1854. The Albertson family traces its 
trans-atlantic ancestry back to Amsterdam, 
Holland, from which the first American 
member of the family came over in the 
ship Fox, arriving at New York, September, 
1640. From this Holland ancestor was de- 
scended Jacob Albertson, senior, whose 
wife was a descendant of Cadwallader 
Roberts, of Wales, who came to Gwynedd in 
1693. About the year 1800 Jacob Albert- 
son purchased from Joseph Potts the farm 
in Plymouth township, which has been 
known ever since as the old Albertson 
homestead. His son, Jacob Albertson, was 
born on this farm, passed his life as a 
farmer, and his remains were interred at 
Plymouth Meeting graveyard. He was an 
old line Whig in politics, and married 
Martha Livezey, by whom he had ten 
children. His fifth child, Jacob Morton Al- 
bertson, was born May 5, 1826, and received 
his education in a day school and at the 
Westtown boarding school. At twenty-two 
years of age he became interested in con- 
veyancing, and afterwards studied with his 
uncle, Lewis Jones, an expert surveyor and 
conveyancer. In 1850 he removed to Nor- 
ristown, and the following year was elected 
surveyor of the borough. From that 



time forward Mr. Albertson was successful 
in all his business undertakings, and in 
1857 established a private banking business 
into which, in 1875, he admitted his sons, 
William E. and Amos L., under the firm 
name of J. M. Albertson & Sons. In 1889 
the Albertson Banking company was 
changed into an incorporated organization, 
under the name of the Albertson Trust and 
Safe Deposit company. In addition to bank- 
ing, he purchased in 1870, the Star Gla^s 
works, whose capacity at a later date he 
increased by the erection of a second fac- 
tory. He was also largely interested in 
real estate, and aided in many business en- 
terprises by which his borough was bene- 
fitted. He was an active Republican, and 
served for several years as a member of the 
board of prison inspectors. He was a 
member of the Society of Friends, and 
died June 19, 1889, aged sixty-three years. 
His remains are interred in Plymouth 
Meeting cemetery. In 1852 Mr. Albertson 
wedded Sarah P. Lee, of Exeter, Berks 
county, whose English ancestor, Anthony 
Lee, took up and settled on a tract of six 
hundred acres of land in that county by 
survey of October 10, 1716. Mrs. Albert- 
son died October 11, 1889. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Albertson were born five children : 
William E-, treasurer of the Albertson 
Trust and the Star Glass companies ; Amos 
L., subject ; Mary A., wife of P. Frank 
Hunter, assistant treasurer of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad company ; Martha A., wife 
of Abner U. Howard, of Pittsburg, Penn- 
sylvania, who is vice president of the Al- 
bertson Trust company, and secretary of 
the Pittsburg Plate Glass company ; and 
Lizzie P., wife of Edward S. Perott, of 
Yonkers, New York. 

Amos L. Albertson was reared at Norris- 
town, received his education in the West- 



Biographical Sketches. 



HI 



town boarding school and Tremont semi- 
nary, and then engaged in his present busi- 
ness, the manufacture of glass. He is now 
president of the Norristown Glass company 
and a director of the Albertson Trust and 
Deposit company. He is also a large real 
estate owner. Mr. Albertson is a Republi- 
can in politics, and has always given his 
party a hearty support. He is active, 
prompt and energetic, and gives careful 
and intelligent management to all his vari- 
ous business enterprises. 

On September 25, 1890, Amos L. Albert- 
son wedded Kate Longaker, a daughter of 
George W. Longaker, of Norristown. 



JESSE S. CRESSMAN, a prosperous 
<-f merchant at Sumneytown, this county, 
is a son of Jesse and Lena (Triesback) 
Cressman, and was born March 4, 1853, at 
Zieglersville, this county. Jesse Cressman 
was one of a family of the following chil- 
dren : Mrs. Frances Dannehower ; Mrs. 
Nace ; and Jesse, father, who learned the 
trade of a shoemaker, and during the early 
part of his life followed that trade at Tylers- 
port, but for thirty years followed it at 
Zieglersville. For thirty years he was 
gate keeper at Zieglersville for the Green 
Lane and Sumneytown turnpike. He was 
a Democrat and an official member of the 
Lutheran church. His marriage to Lena 
Triesback resulted in the birth of five sons 
and four daughters : Henry, Mahlon, Kate 
Burke, Sarah, deceased ; William, Mary, 
Jacob, John, and Jesse. 

Jesse S. Cressman attended the public 
schools at Zieglersville and Ursinus col- 
lege. Leaving school and entering upon a 
course of independent action on his own 
account, he taught school three terms, and 



after this for six months was engaged in 
the bakery business at Boyertown. In 1S76 
he came to Sumneytown and entered the 
store of Harvey Barndt, as clerk, and re- 
mained in his employ until March 13, 1884, 
when he became a partner in the business, 
under the firm name of Barndt & Cress- 
man. They conduct a first-class general 
store, occupying two floors, fifty by twenty- 
five feet, heavily stocked. He is a Demo- 
crat, and a member of Green Lane Castle 
No. 202, Knights of the Golden Eagle; 
Perkiomen Lodge No. 267, I. O. O. F ; 
and Pinta Lodge, Knights of Pythias, 
and of the Lutheran church at Sumney- 
town, of which he has been deacon eight 
years, and superintendent of the Sunday- 
school for eighteen years. He is interested 
in the following Building and Loan asso- 
ciations : E. C. Tyson B. & L- A., of Phila- 
delphia ; the Excelsior, of Norristown ; and 
the National, of Washington, D. C. 

He wedded Fannie Hoffman, a daughter 
of Rev. Andrew Hoffman, and two chil- 
dren, Forest J., and Annie S. bless their 
marriage relation. 



GEORGE F. COLEMAN, one of the 
prominent and leading business men 
of Norristown, is a son of Nicholas and Re- 
becca (Wiseman) Coleman, and was born in 
the city of Philadelphia in the year 1839. 
In the early settlement of Pennsylvania, the 
pioneer ancestors of the Coleman family 
in this country, came from Wales. And 
among the earliest descendants was Nich- 
olas Coleman, the paternal grandfather of 
George F. Coleman, of Norristown. Nich- 
olas Coleman, who is mentioned in West- 
cott's history of Philadelphia, a com- 
missioned officer in Proctor's Artillery and 



148 



Biographical Sketches, 



served under Washington throughout the 
Revolutionary war. He passed through 
all the sufferings of Valley Forge and par- 
ticipated in all the hard battles of his reg- 
iment. He received wounds in the battles 
of Brandywine and Gennantown, and died 
from the effects of one of them in 1801. 
Nicholas Coleman was born in 1745, and 
spent his entire life in Philadelphia. He 
was actively engaged for many years as a 
manufacturer, and his son Nicholas Cole- 
man (father) was born in Philadelphia in 
1801, where he resided until his death in 
January, 1858. He was largely a self-edu- 
cated man, whose business ability won for 
him position and success. He was one of 
the first wagon manufacturers in his native 
city and conducted a business on Front 
street below Girard avenue. He controlled 
an extensive business and made the first 
carts that were shipped from this country to 
South America, where they were used for 
local transportation in the coffee fields He 
was successively a Whig and Republican, 
but never held any official position, although 
once offered the nomination for the city 
treasurership, which he was prompt to de- 
cline. He was a Friend although he mar- 
ried outside the Society, and contributed 
financially towards the organization of Col- 
onel Small's regiment during the war with 
Mexico. He wedded Rebecca Wiseman, a 
daughter of the late Samuel Wiseman, and 
to this union were born fourteen children, 
six of whom still survive. 

George F. Coleman received his elemen- 
tary education in the grammar school of 
Philadelphia, from which he was withdrawn 
at thirteen years of age on account of deli- 
cate health. Afterward he attended Roach's 
academy where he graduated in surveying 
and civil engineering. Subsequently he 
took the full course in Crittendon's Com- 



mercial college. Leaving college he en- 
tered the office of N. Coleman and Son, 
which firm then consisted of his father and 
eldest son Robert. His father retiring in 
1856, he became the junior partner, under 
the firm name of Simons, Coleman and 
Company, founders of the large wagon 
works on Front street and at Second and 
Lehigh avenues. In i860 he and his brother 
sold out their interests to Mr. Simons, and 
George F. turned his attention to dealing in 
stocks. After some years of experience in 
the stock markets, he engaged in the worsted 
yarn commission business, then an industry 
in its infancr. In this new enterprise he 
associated with him his younger brother 
Joseph Coleman, who was well acquainted 
with the woolen business, and they operated 
under the name of Coleman and Brother. 
They first located at No. no and afterwards 
removed to 212 Chestnut street, where the 
old house of Coleman and Brother still re- 
mains. Mr. Coleman's experience in the 
stock markets of the country and especially 
in Wall street, New York, was verv valuable 
to him in the prosecution of his commission 
enterprise, which enterprise he successful lv 
continued for twenty years. At the end of 
that time in 1893, on account of impaired 
hearing he retired from the firm and became 
interested in the manufacture of woolen 
goods, in which line of business he made 
large investments at Norristown and else- 
where. He was soon made president of the 
Norristown Woolen company, which posi- 
tion he still holds in addition to being a 
director in the Conshohocken Woolen com- 
pany. 

On May 14, 1S60, Mr. Coleman was united 
in marriage with Josephine Aitkin, a daugh- 
ter of Joseph Aitkin, and a great-grand- 
daughter of Robert Aitkin, who published 
the first Bible in the English language in 



Biographical Sketches. 



149 



America, and the first magazine issued in 
Philadelphia. 

Mr. and Mrs. Coleman were blessed with 
three children, two sons and a daughter : 
Joseph Aitkin Coleman, who is married to 
Margaret Noble, a daughter of Rev. William 
Noble, and is a member of the firm of Cole- 
man and Brother at 212 Chestnut street, 
Philadelphia ; Rebecca Coleman, wedded 
Gilbert R. Fox, Esq., of Norristown ; and 
William S. 

George F. Coleman came to Norristown 
about the year 1878, and resides at "Fir- 
mere" on north Powell street, one of the 
finest residences in the city. The grounds 
are tasteful and beautiful, consisting of a 
large and well kept lawn ornamented with 
choice trees and rare shrubbery through 
which inviting paths and graceful drives 
have been laid out with care and due regard 
to pleasing effect. 

Mr. Coleman is not only an enterprising 
representative but is also a very pros- 
perous business man. His firm was the first 
to introduce to the manufacturers of the 
United States the French system of spun 
worsted yarn. The yarn in this country was 
first spun at the Conshohocken Woolen mills 
and rapidly came into general favor. In ad- 
dition to this, Coleman and Brother estab- 
lished the first commission house in the 
United States for the sale of worsted yarns 
and in ten years their sales increased one 
thousand per cent. 

Mr. Coleman is a Republican in politics 
but gives his time chiefly to his various busi- 
ness enterprises and has always subjected 
himself to rigorous and exacting business 
principles. He is a member of the Manu- 
facturers' club of Philadelphia and a number 
of other organizations of Philadelphia, but 
his impaired hearing prevents him from 
active participation. 



ALBERT R. PLACE, a promising law- 
yer of the Montgomery county bar 
and a member of the legal firm of Hall- 
man & Place, is a son of Israel and Han- 
nah (Rosenberger) Place, and was born 
June 1, 1857, in Upper Providence town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. 
His parents were of German ancestry, and 
both descended from old families well 
known in eastern Pennsylvania, having re- 
sided for several generations in the United 
States. 

Henry G. Place, paternal grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, was a prominent 
citizen of this county and a personal ac- 
quaintance of Governor Francis R. Shunk, 
who occupied the executive chair of Penn- 
sylvania from 1845 to his death in 1848. 
One of the sons of Henry G. Place was Is- 
rael Place (father), the latter of whom was 
born July 5, 1819, at the old homestead in 
Upper Providence township. After receiv- 
ing a common school education, he learned 
the carpenter trade, which occupation he 
followed successfully for many years. He 
now resides in Hatfield township with his 
oldest daughter, Sarah A. Gotwals, retired 
from all active affairs and in feeble health. 
He was a Whig in early life, but became a 
Republican upon the organization of that 
party, and always took an interest in politi- 
cal matters, though he never aspired to or 
held any important political office. In re- 
ligion he is a member of the Reformed 
church, and in 1843 married Hannah Ro- 
senberger, a daughter of Abraham Rosen- 
berger, also of the township of Upper 
Providence, by which union he had a 
family of seven children, two of whom are 
deceased. Those living are Sarah A., wite 
of Jacob C. Gotwals ; Hannah, married to 
Anthony B. Schultz ; Mary, the wife of 
Wilson Schultz ; J. Warren and Albert R. 



I 5 



Biographical Sketches. 



Mis. Hannah Place is now deceased, having 
died in 1885, aged sixty-five years. 

Albert R. Place was reared in Upper 
Providence township until his seventeenth 
year, receiving his education in the acade- 
mic department o( Ursinus college at Col- 
legeville, Pa., and at Washington Hall Col- 
legiate institute, Trappe, Pa. After com- 
pleting his studies, he engaged in teaching, 
which he followed continuously until July, 
1885, at which time he commenced reading 
law in the office of Judge Aaron S. Swart/. 
at Norristown. During the time he de- 
voted to teaching, Mr. Place was principal 
oi the schools at I.ansdalc for a period o( 
four years, and held a like position in the 
Hatboro schools for three years, and re- 
ceived at the hands oi K. K. Higbee, State 
superintendent, a permanent teacher's cer- 
tificate for this State. He was admitted to 
the bar in October, 1SS7, and during the 
winter following taught commercial law at 
Pence College oi Business in the city of 
Philadelphia. He then began the practice 
o( law in Montgomery county, having his 
office at I.ansdalc, and has remained in the 
practice o( his profession to the present 
time. In April, [889, he formed a law 
partnership with Ellwood I.. Halhuan, of 
Royersford, and these gentlemen have 
practiced together up to this time. They 
have conducted and still enjoy a prosperous 
general law business, and practice in all 
the courts o( Montgomery and Chester 
counties, and also in the supreme court of 
the State of Pennsylvania. 

Politically Mr. Place is a staunch Repub- 
lican, but has refrained from participation 
in politics, preferring to devote himself 
strictly to business in the line of his pro- 
fession. He has served as a member of the 
school board oi I.ansdalc for a number of 
years, is counsel for the boroughs of I.ans- 



dalc and Souderton, and also is solicitor of 
the North Wales National bank of North 
Wales, of which he was one of the founders 
ami first directors. He was also one of the 
organizers of the North Penn Building and 
Loan association of Lansdale, and was its 
first president. Possessed of ability and 
judgment, his management of these enter- 
prises has proved successful. He is also vice 
president and one of the founders o( the 
" Schissler College of Business," located at 
Norristown, Pa. 

In religion Mr. Place was for a number 
of years connected with the Ahington Pres- 
byterian church, but later became a mem- 
ber of St. John's Reformed church at Lans- 
dale. He is also a member of the Masonic 
order, with which he has been connected 
since [893. His business ami professional 
career has been successful, and being 
founded on the corner-stones of honesty, 
integrity, ability, and a determination to 
do thoroughly whatever he undertook, 
his career furnishes an example for the 
emulation of young men. 

On April n, 1883, Mr. Place was mar- 
ried to M. Alice Frederick, of Lansdale, 
Pa. Their union has been blessed by the 
birth of one child, a daughter named 
Kate Helen, who was born February 7, 
1SS0. 



A A RON FOX is the leading contractor 
and builder of Pennsburg and vicinity. 
The father oi Aaron Fox was Israel Fox, 
and his mother's maiden name was Catha- 
rine Xace. He was born October 31, 1844, 
in Upper Hanover township, this county. 
His grandfather on the paternal side of the 
family was John Fox. His father was born 
in Upper Hanover township and was 
one of a large family of children. He 



Biographical Sketches. 



i. 5 i 



learned the trade of a carpenter and fol- 
lowed that craft all his life. He found his 
political affinity in his support of the 
Democratic party, whilst in religious mat- 
ters he worshipped at the shrine of St. 
Luke's Lutheran church. His marriage to 
Catharine Nace, a daughter of Peter Nace, 
of Sum ney town, resulted in the birth of 
eleven children : Jacob, John, Samuel, 
Aaron, Kate, Mary, Elizabeth, Leah, Ange- 
line, Sarah, Matilda. 

Aaron Pox learned the trade and became 
a carpenter under the direction of Joseph 
Hallaway, with whom he remained until 
1872, when he took up the work as a con- 
tractor and builder on his own account. 
He employs a large force of men and has 
done considerable work in his line of a 
highly creditable character, among which 
he prefers to mention the large railroad 
hotel for Preston Moore, of Moore's Wind- 
sor hotel, in Philadelphia. 

Mr. Fox is a Democrat politically, and is 
strongly of the opinion that a Jacksonian 
enforcement of Jeffersonian principles would 
bring prosperity to the land and greatly 
ameliorate the condition of the working 
classes. 

He takes a lively interest in the cause 
of education and the common schools 
of Montgomery count)' can count few more 
ardent friends than he. He has served as 
a school director in the borough of Penns- 
burg for six years. He is n member of the 
Lutheran church at Niantic, and is inter- 
ested as a stockholder in the Goshen- 
hoppen Fire Insurance company at Penns- 
burg. 

His marriage in 1871 to Rebecca Hess 
resulted in the following issue : Horace, 
Oscar, Rosa, Andora, Elmer C, Alice, 
Robert, Morris, Adeline, and Lottie, and 
three that died in infancy. 



Mr. Pox is a master of his trade and as 
an artisan is trustworthy and reliable. He 
has won his success by close attention to 
his business and the exercise of an indom- 
itable courage. 



ISAAC W. SMITH, proprietor of the 
I well known Woolen mills of Bridgeport, 
that bear his name, is the second son and 
only surviving child of Aaron and Mary 
(Watkin) Smith, and was born in Lower 
Merion township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, July 29, 1839. The Smith 
family is of Welsh descent, and Aaron Smith, 
the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
a shoemaker, of Lower Merion township. 
He also owned and tilled a small farm until 
his death, which occurred in 1847, at fifty 
years of age. He was a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and a Whig 
and Republican in politics. Mr. Smith 
wedded Sarah Free, who died, and some 
time after her death married Mary Watkin, 
who was a daughter of Enoch Watkin, of 
Delaware county, and passed away in 1871, 
when in the sixty-ninth year of her age. 

By his first marriage Mr. .Smith had four 
children : William P., John Albin, Sarah 
A., widow of Joseph Shaw, and one that 
died in infancy. To the second union were 
born four children, three sons and a daugh- 
ter : George and Mary E., who both died 
in infancy; Isaac W., (subject); and Aaron 
W., who died in his twenty-sixth year. 

Isaac W. Smith was reared in Lower 
Merion township and received his education 
in the common schools. At the age of 
twelve years he entered the carpet yarn 
factory of his brother-in-law, Joseph Shaw, 
which was then on Mill Creek. 

After completing his apprenticeship he 



T 5 : 



Biographical Sketches. 



removed with Mr. Shaw to Valley Forge, 
where he served as manager of the factory 

started there until Shaw's death in 1S63. 
He then managed the business for Mr. 
Shaw's widow for nine years, at the end of 
which time he leased the mill. When his 
lease expired he purchased the machinery 
and operated the factory up to 1SS2. In 
that year he disposed of his property at 
Valley Forge and became a resident of Nor- 
ristown. In the early part of the succeed- 
ing year, 1SS3, he purchased ground on 
Third street above Dekalb at Bridgeport 
and near the Philadelphia aud Reading 
railroad tract, where he erected his present 
Woolen mills and removed his family to 
Bridgeport. His main mill, two stories 
high, is fifty-six by one hundred and twenty 
feet in dimensions on the inside, and an ad- 
dition three stories in height with inside 
dimensions of forty-five by seventy-five feet 
has been added in conection with numerous 
out-buildings. The chief products of his 
mills are cotton aud wool mixed and all 
wool cassimers, for men's wear and ladies' 
cloakiugs. 

In 1865, Mr. Smith wedded Mary L. 
Grow, a daughter of George Grow, of 
Lower Merion township. To their union 
have been born seven children : Jo- 
seph, who died in 1S91 ; Isaac A., chief 
book keeper and assistant manager of 
Smith's Woolen mills ; Man W., Emma 
L,., Louis V., J. Futhey, and Leslie, who 
died in infancy. 

In polities Mr. Smith is a Republican 
and has served as a school director and 
member of the town council. He is a 
member of the First Presbyterian church, 
Norristown, of which he has been a trustee 
for twelve years. He is a member of the 
Masonic bodies of Norristown. While 
active and prominent in his own especial 



line of manufacturing, he is also interested 
in other local matters, and gives much time 
and attention to all measures for municipal 
growth and improvement at Norristown 
and Bridgeport. 

He is a stockholder in a cotton mill at 
Piedmont, Alabama ; and a stockholder and 
director in the Bridgeport Water Company, 
and the Norristown Gas, Steel and Electric 
Light companies. He is a director of the 
Norristown Title, Trust and Safe Deposit 
Co., and a member of the Prison board. 
Mr. Smith was the chief promoter of the 
Bridgeport division of the Norristown Pas- 
senger street railway. He was treasurer of 
the company up to the time of its substi- 
tution of electricity for horses as a motive 
power. 



REV. THOMAS F. SHANNON, the 
present pastor of St. Patrick's Catho- 
lic church of Norristown, Pennsylvania, is 
a son of Thomas and Harriet (Coghlan) 
Shannon, and was born in County Clare, 
Ireland, March 27, 1S44. When he was 
three years of age his father died, and five 
years later the family came to Philadelphia. 
There Thomas F. Shannon attended the 
city and Parochial schools for some time and 
later entered St. Charles college, Ellicott 
City, Maryland, where he remained for one 
year. At the end of that time he entered 
St. Charles seminary at Glen Riddle, in 
Delaware county, this State, and in Sep- 
tember, 1S6S, was admitted to St. Charles 
Theological seminar} - , at Eighteenth and 
Race streets, Philadelphia. Here he pur- 
sued his philosophical and theological 
studies, finishing the prescribed course at 
the new Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, 
located at Overbrook, this county. On Oc- 
tober 18, 1S72, he was ordained to the 




/hjhLCLj 7* 5^L, 



^i^-^W^* — < 










^K-60c\ 



Bi< >c, r.\ phical Sketch es. 



*53 



priesthood at Overbrook by the late Areh- 
bishop Wood, of Philadelphia. After his 
ordination he was appointed successively 
assistant at the Church of the Annuncia- 
tion, Philadelphia ; St. Ann's church, Port 
Richmond ; Church of the Sacred Heart, 
Philadelphia ; and St. Michael's church, of 
the same city. In May, 1879, he was trans- 
ferred to the Philadelphia Cathedral, filling 
the position of assistant for seven and one- 
half years, or up to October 14, 1886. Dur- 
ing the latter year he was appointed pastor 
of St. Patrick's church, Norristown, suc- 
ceeding Rev. Father John Monahan. Dur- 
ing his pastorate in connection with St. 
Patrick's church, Rev. T. F. Shannon has 
labored faithfully and uninterruptedly for 
the intellectual advancement and spiritual 
good of his people. Soon after he assumed 
charge of St. Patrick's parish the member- 
ship of the church increased to such an ex- 
tent that the congregation was divided in 
1892, and the result was the establishment 
of St. Augustine's church in the southern 
part of Bridgeport, with Rev. Michael J. 
Gately as pastor. During Father Shannon's 
administration a suit entered by his prede- 
cessor against the Pennsylvania Railroad 
company for damages in depreciating the 
value of the church property at Norris- 
town was decided in favor of the church. 
Father Shannon has done much for the 
betterment of his people in the way of 
church and educational facilities. In March, 
1894, he purchased ground at the corner of 
DeKalb and Chestnut streets, as a site for a 
new church, a parochial school, pastoral 
residence and convent. The first parochial 
school at Norristown was opened in Sep- 
tember, 1875, in the basement of the 
present church building, but in a short 
time it will be removed to the new paro- 
chial school building erected under the 



supervision of Father Shannon at the cor- 
ner of Chestnut and Green streets. This 
school structure is a beautiful stone and 
brick building, three stories in height and 
furnished in modern style. The success of 
the enterprise has been brought about by 
the incessant efforts of Father Shannon, 
who has been remarkably active as well as 
successful in promoting the educational in- 
terests of his parish. 

Rev. Father Shannon in his personal re- 
lations and address is a man who commands 
the highest admiration. He possesses a 
pleasing personality, is a man of refined 
and educated tastes and in his every effort 
to promote the public good has seemingly 
met with a deserved success. 



JACOB C. SOTTER is one of the six 
<J brothers — Henry, John (deceased), Fred- 
erick, Ferdinand, Jacob, and Philip — whose 
father, Frederick Sotter, emigrated to this 
country from Coblentz, on the Rhine, Ger- 
many, and settedat Moselem, Berks county, 
Pennsylvania. There Frederick Sotter 
planted a vineyard and industriously car- 
ried on the manufacture of wine for a num- 
ber of years. While thus engaged he mar- 
ried Philobena Muschbach. Later he sold 
out and 'removed to Reading, this State, 
where he secured employment at his trade 
of machinist in the Union Boiler works of 
that city. He was a good mechanic and 
was held in high esteem by his employers. 
Later he was smitten by typhoid fever 
which resulted in his death. 

Jacob C. Sotter, the fifth son, was born 
December 17. 1856, at Reading, Pennsylva- 
nia. He attended the public schools of 
that city for a time, but on account of his 
father's death was compelled to leave school 



i54 



Biographical Sketches. 



and seek employment. He became an ap- 
prentice in the Union Boiler works of 
Reading, where he spent four years in 
learning the trade in all its branches, and 
afterward worked in that establishment for 
a period of five years. He then worked 
several years in the boiler works of Pawling 
& Gahall, Lewistown, this State, and after- 
wards entered the extensive boiler and en- 
gine manufacturing works of Frick & 
Company, at Waynesboro, Franklin county. 
There he married Lydia Krause, the daugh- 
ter of a well known and thrilty farmer of 
Waynesboro, Franklin county, who died 
three months after her marriage. By this 
time the skill and dexterity of Mr. Sotter 
had become widely known and he was re- 
called to the Union Boiler works at Read- 
ing. 

In the spring of 1879 Mr. Sotter formed 
a partnership with his three brothers, 
Henry, Frederick and Ferdinand, and they 
leased a small building at Pottstown and 
founded the Mechanics' Boiler works of 
that city. The brothers were all expert 
boiler makers, and with four hands besides 
themselves, they began a business which 
has rapidly grown until it has assumed 
very creditable proportions. The most 
careful attention was given to every detail 
and they were compelled from time to 
enlarge their quarters, until, in 1886, it be- 
came necessary to remove the plant to a 
more favorable location. They purchased 
six acres of land in the western part of 
Pottstown and erected a large and commo- 
dious brick boiler shop with the necessary 
stock and storage houses. The plant 
is situated between the Reading and 
Pennsylvania railroads, and has direct com- 
munication with both. Their growing 
business has made it necessary to enlarge 
these buildings, and the boiler shop is now 



eighty by two hundred and sixty feet in 
dimensions, with a large machine shop, 
flanging shop, storage and warehouse build- 
ings, all substantially built. The works 
are equipped with the latest and most im- 
proved machinery and labor-saving devices, 
many of which have been constructed 
under Mr. Sotter's personal care and su- 
pervision. The plant is said to be second 
to none in the State, and the products here 
manufactured enjoy a well earned reputa- 
tion in all parts of the United States. 
From eighty-five to one hundred men are 
employed in the establishment, which is 
now owned by Jacob C. Sotter and his 
brothers, Henry and Philip. 

Jacob C. Sotter is also an inventor of 
note. In 1885 he secured a patent for an 
automatic steam house heating boiler, 
which is now in use in a large number of 
homes, churches, schools and railway 
buildings. In 1887 he was granted a 
patent on an adjustable radiator carpet foot 
which filled a long felt want and was ex- 
tensively adopted. In 1895 he obtained a 
patent on a feed water heater and purifier, 
which although just put on the market, 
promises to be one of the most successful 
devices of its kind. Numerous sales have 
already been made and Mr. Sotter avers 
that the aparatus has exceeded his most 
sanguine expectations. 

For a number of years Mr. Sotter has 
identified himself with such projects as 
were calculated to further the best interests 
of Pottstown. He has erected five sub- 
stantial and commodious dwellings, and is 
one of the originators and a director in a 
number of enterprises. Among which are 
the Pottstown Light Heat and Power com- 
pany ; the Pottstown Street Passenger Rail- 
way company ; the Bramcote Land com- 
pany, of Pottstown ; and the Columbian 




(O^JU^^r^r-^^ C-V^^e^/ 



Biographical Sketches. 



155 



Paper company, of Buena Vista, Virginia. 
He is also a director in the National Iron 
bank of Pottstown. 

In 1879 Mr. Sotter was married to Emma 
Kirmse, a daughter of August Kirmse, a 
well known shoe merchant of the city of 
Reading. In his religious faith Mr. Sotter 
is a consistent Lutheran and holds mem- 
bership in Emanuel Lutheran church of 
Pottstown. 



ELLWOOD ROBERTS, born at Wil- 
mington, Delaware, first month, 1846, 
twenty second day, is descended from Welsh 
Friends. His ancestor, Edward Roberts, 
who married in 17 14, Mary Bolton, (born 
in Cheltenham, eleventh month, fourth day, 
1687) was one of the early settlers in Rich- 
land, Bucks county, now Ouakertown. In 
1 7 16, he left Byberry, Philadelphia, on 
horseback with his wife and little daughter, 
and proceeded through the woods with all 
his worldly goods to Richland. Here he 
erected a temporary dwelling in which they 
lived until 1728. Edward and Mary Rob- 
erts had seven children, one of whom was 
David. The wife's parents were Everard 
and Elizabeth Bolton, who emigrated from 
England and settled in Cheltenham in 1682. 
The ancestry of the Boltons is traced back 
to the Lord of Bolton, the lineal descend- 
ant of the Saxon Earls of Murcia. In 1753 
David Roberts married Phoebe Lancaster. 
Among their children were : Amos, David, 
Nathan and Evan. The first named mar- 
ried Margaret Thomas, also of Welsh- 
Quaker descent, in and under the care of 
Richland monthly meeting, eleventh month, 
thirtieth day, 1775. The original certifi- 
cate, signed by forty-six persons, is now in 
the possession of Ellwood Roberts. 

This document is all the more valuable 



from the circumstance that Amos Roberts 
kept the family record on the back. Here 
are entered in regular order, the names of 
nine children and the date of their birth. 
They were : Mordecai, Hugh, Andrew, 
Mary, Alice, Phoebe, Margaret, Deborah 
and George, all of whom grew to manhood 
or womanhood, except George, the young- 
est. Of these children, Hugh, the grand- 
father of Ellwood Roberts, was born second 
month, sixteenth day, 1782. The parents 
had left Richland soon after their marriage 
and their children were born and reared at 
Branchtown, near Philadelphia. 

Hugh married Sarah Spencer, daughter 
of Nathan and Rachel Pirn Spencer, who 
lived on a large neighboring farm. The 
Spencers were descendants of Samuel 
Spencer, who came from Baradoes to Phila- 
delphia, late in the seventeenth century. 
He left two sons, Samuel and William. 
The former, who was Sarah's great grand- 
father, settled in Upper Dublin, the brother 
in Bucks count}'. Each left numerous de- 
scendants. 

Sarah Spencer Roberts was a woman of 
marked intelligence, and was possessed of 
a retentive memory and excellent conver- 
sational powers. Her husband died in 
1821, but she lived until 1874, to the age 
of eighty-six years. Among their offspring 
was Hugh Roberts, born eighth month, 
fifth day, 1821. He grew to manhood an 
excellent type of his race, of fine presence, 
honorable instincts, superior intelligence 
and the highest integrity. An earnest and 
sincere Friend, he trusted in the Inner 
Light, as an infallible guide to all who 
listened to its revealings. His life, spent in 
honest industry and crowned by the suc- 
cess which his faithfulness to duty deserved, 
ended at Norristown, eighth month, twenty- 
third day, 1894. He learned the trade of a 



i56 



Biographical Sketches. 



miller, with his elder brother, Spencer 
Roberts, at the old homestead, the mill, 
long since torn down, being among the 
oldest in Pennsylvania. In 1839 he went to 
Wilmington, Del., and was employed for a 
dozen years at Brandywine mills. Here, in 
1842, he married Alice A. Gallagher, of a 
well known family of Scotch-Irish descent 
in that city. 

Their children were : Charles H., an at- 
torney at Kansas City, Missouri ; Ellwood, 
and Mar}* R., wife of Samuel Livezey, all 
of Norristown. Their mother, a woman of 
energy and industry, whose principal care 
was to bring up her children properly, still 
survives. The family left the vicinity of 
Wilmington in 1861, locating, after two or 
three years, in Gwynedd, on a farm which 
was subsequently divided into several 
smaller tracts and sold, new buildings be- 
ing erected on each. They came to Nor- 
ristown in 1882. 

Ellwood Roberts grew up in the midst of 
farm duties, having few advantages as to 
attendance at school and never entered any 
of the higher institutions of learning. His 
education is largely the result of home cul- 
ture and that gained in fourteen years spent 
in teaching, mostly in Friend's and public 
schools in or near Philadelphia. In 1878 he 
married Mary L. Carter, of Mickleton, New 
Jersey. They have four children : Howard, 
Alice R., William H, and Mary C. Roberts. 

Having manifested a decided literarv taste 
from early life, and having written from 
time to time many poems and prose articles 
for various periodicals, including the Nor- 
ristown Herald, he became attached to the 
latter as a member of its editorial staff in 
1883. It is almost superfluous to dwell at 
length upon his labors in this position, so 
well are they known to the community in 
which he lives. In conjunction with his 



father, he engaged in building enterprises 
in Norristown, and is still extensively in- 
terested in real estate. An ardent Republi- 
can, he has never sought official distinction 
and regards office seeking as one of the 
worst features of popular government. 
Deeply attached to the principles of Friends, 
although not regarding a strict adherence 
to antiquated forms of the Society as abso- 
lutely essential, he is a liberal and progres- 
sive thinker, a vigorous writer and an in- 
dustrious worker. He is an active member 
of the Montgomery County Historical so- 
ciety and thoroughly devoted to the ad- 
vancement of its interests. 

A volume of his poems, " Lyrics of Qua- 
kerism," has just been issued from the 
press. It is a satisfaction to him to reflect 
that his half century of life has made an 
impress upon those around him. He bears 
a faithful testimony, as Friends phrase it, 
against intemperance, and looks forward 
with hope to the day when the liquor traffic 
shall be so restricted as to be incapable of 
mischief. He is also interested in obtain- 
ing equal rights for women and other needed 
reforms. 



HENRY A. KNEULE, editor and busi- 
ness manager of the Bauern Frcttnd 
and Democrat, of Pennsburg, is a son of 
Albrecht and Louise Elanora (Kraft) 
Kueule, and was born September 29, 1S64, 
in Pennsburg, this county. 

Henry A. Kneule attended the public 
schools of Pennsburg and East Greenville, 
and still further profited by attendance 
upon the Perkiomen seminary. Leaving 
school, he entered his father's newspaper 
office, where he learned the trade of a 
printer and remained with his father as a 
journeyman until the latter went to Norris- 



B» igraphical Sketches. 



r 57 



town in May, 18S1, since which time he has 
been associated with him as editor and 
business manager of the Bauem Freund 
and Democrat. This paper was established 
in 1827, an d is the oldest German paper in 
Montgomery county. It is a wide awake 
and aggressive sheet, fearlessly and ably 
edited and is devoted to the local news, in- 
terests of the community at large and to 
the exposition of the principles and the 
promotion of the success of the Democratic 
party. In connection with the publication 
of the Bauern Freund and Democrat, they 
carry on a large and flourishing business as 
job and book printers. Mr. Kneule, as will be 
inferred, is a staunch Democrat, active and 
popular. He has shaped the policy of his pa- 
per after the same aggressive spirit, having 
the widest circulation in the county, and is 
deservedly popular. He served three years 
as a member of the county committee, and in 
18S5, under Cleveland's first administration, 
served as postmaster at Pennsburg, in 
which position he showed a high order of 
business talent, and administered the affairs 
of the office with efficiency and dispatch. 
He is a member of Pennsburg Lodge No. 
334, I. O. O. F. ; Pennsburg Encampment, 
I. O. O. F. ; Castle No. 298, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, and Lodge No. 231, Knights 
of Pythias. 

On Juh- 18, 1885, he wedded Mary Jane 
Kulp, a daughter of Henry Kulp, and four 
children bless their marriage : Elanora Lou- 
isa, HarryAlbrecht, Eva Gertrude, and Mabel 
Alverta. 



DR. ALLEN K. DAVIDHEISER, one 
of the youngest and most successful 
veterinary surgeons of Pottstown and Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Reuben R. and 
Sarah (Kepner) Davidheiser, and was born in 



Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, 

Pennsylvania, November 5, 1871. Reuben 
R. Davidheiser is of German descent, and 
was born in Montgomery county, Septem- 
ber 21, 1841. Mr. Davidheiser was vari- 
ously employed until 1887, when he estab- 
lished his present brick yards at Pottstown 
and West Pottstown. As a brick manufac- 
turer he does quite an extensive and remu- 
nerative business. 

In addition to brick manufacturing, he 
with his son, Dr. Allen K., opened an ex- 
tensive livery, boarding and exchange stable 
in Pottstown in 1894, under the firm name 
of R. Davidheiser & Son. This stable is 
well supplied with teams and saddle horses 
to accommodate the public, and is liberally 
patronized. Part of this stable is also used 
as an infirmary by the junior member of the 
firm, Dr. Allen K., where he has constantly 
a number of sick and lame animals under 
his care and treatment. 

Mr. Davidheiser is a good business man 
and an active supporter of the Democratic 
party. In 1865 he married Sarah Kepner, 
who was a daughter of Abraham Kepner, 
and a native of Montgomery county. To 
this union have been born four sons and 
eight daughters : Wilson, Sallie, Katie, Dr. 
Allen K., Mary, Olivia, Anna, Agnes, 
Howard, Mazie, Bertha, and Frederick. Of 
these children, Sallie, Katie, and Mazie are 
deceased. 

Dr. Allen K. Davidheiser was reared in 
Pottsgrove township, and attended the pub- 
lic schools and Professor John W. Ann's 
academy at Pottstown. After completing 
his three year academic course he engaged 
as clerk in his brother Wilson's butchering 
establishment in Pottstown. He remained 
with his brother for one year and then com- 
menced a course of veterinary studies, which 
he pursued for some time under the instruc- 



153 



Biographical Sketches. 



ticm of Dr. E. G. Gilbert. He then entered 
the New York College of Veterinary Sur- 
geons and school of comparative medicine, 
from which he was graduated March 18, 
1892. After graduation he immediately re- 
turned to Pottstowu, where he has been en- 
gaged in the active practice of his profes- 
sion ever since. 

Although a young man, he has been re- 
markably successful, and has built up a 
large and lucrative practice in Montgomery 
and parts of the adjoining counties of Ches- 
ter, Berks, and Bucks. He is a member of 
the Alumni association of the New York 
college of veterinary surgeons, and is a close 
and careful student in the line of his work. 
Dr. Davidheiser is a Democrat in politics, 
and has been a member of the Emaunel 
Lutheran church since 1888. He is a mem- 
ber of U. S. Grant Council No. 352, Junior 
Order of United American Mechanics, of 
Pottstowu, Pennsylvania. 



GEORGE J. HUMBERT, vice presi- 
dent and general superintendent of 
the Norristown Steel company, is the eldest 
son of George W. and Rachel F. (Jackson) 
Humbert, and was born in the city of 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on September 17, 
1858. 

The Humberts are of German extraction 
and rank with the early families of Western 
Pennsylvania, where various members have 
resided for several generations. They are 
connected with many leading families of the 
State. Andrew Humbert, paternal great- 
grandfather, came from Alsace-Loraiue, was 
a soldier in the Revolutionary war, settled 
in Berks county in 1775, and removed 
thence to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and 
finally to Pittsburg some time prior to the 



year 1800. He was by trade a tin and cop- 
persmith, and married Margaret Long, of 
Cumberland county. Their family at his 
decease consisted of two sons and three- 
daughters. 

About 1822 Andrew Humbert visited 
Beaver, and on his return trip the stage, 
which was his conveyance at that time, was 
upset on Beaver Hill, and he was so seri- 
ously hurt by accident that his death took 
place within a few succeeding weeks. His 
son George, paternal grandfather of the 
subject, was eight years old at the time of 
the death of his father, and during his boy- 
hood was apprenticed to learn the trade of 
blacksinithing and engine building. He 
succeeded in becoming a skilled and effi- 
cient mechanic, and until his death in 
1877, was actively connected with the iron 
and steel industry in Pittsburg, Pennsylva- 
nia. He acquired a very considerable com- 
petency and was actively identified with 
local, political and industrial affairs. 

Politically he was successively a Whig 
and Republican. Notwithstanding the fact 
that his opportunities of acquiring an edu- 
cation were very limited, he was a man of 
marked business ability and possessed a rare 
good judgment. 

In March, 1835, he was married to Jane 
Martin, a daughter of Mary Hemphill and 
Robert Martin, of Lisbon, Pennsylvania. 
By this marriage they had four sons and 
six daughters, of which three sons and two 
daughters still survive. Mary E. died of 
fever in the year 1865, contracted while in 
the Christian commission service of the 
Federal army. The Union soldiers have 
since erected a monument over her grave in 
Uniondale cemetery, Allegheny City, and 
the ladies organized and christened a G. A. 
R. Post in her honor. 

Mary Hemphill, maternal great-grand- 



Biographical Sketches. 



r 59 



mother of George J. Humbert, wife of 
Robert Martin, had two sons and two 
daughters, and after the decease of her first 
husband, Robert Martin, she brought her 
family to Pittsburg, and later married John 
Oberly, of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
by whom she had two sons and one daugh- 
ter. The eldest son, Hon. John H. Oberly, 
became a resident of Cairo, Illinois, where 
he established and published a Democratic 
paper, and was for several years railroad 
commissioner of that State. During Presi- 
dent Cleveland's first term he was appointed 
Indian commissioner, and subsequently 
served as a member of the United States 
Civil Service Commission, holding his ap- 
pointment under both the Democratic and 
Republican administrations. 

Before the war of the Rebellion, the 
Oberlys settled on a plantation in the State 
of Arkansas, but Grandmother Oberly, 
being an ardent Unionist, was compelled to 
seek a. section more in sympathy with her 
political and social ideas. Accordingly 
they packed their effects in wagons and 
with her refuge children started for Cairo, 
Illinois. She herself rode on horseback a 
distance of more than two hundred and 
fifty miles, which was a very remarkable 
feat for a woman at the age of sixty. She 
became blind in 1870 and died in 1885, in 
her ninety-fourth year, possessing her facul- 
ties in a wonderful degree to the last. 

The eldest son of George Humbert was 
George W. Humbert, father of our subject. 
He was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
May 19, 1836, secured a good English edu- 
cation in the public schools, and afterwards 
took a course of business instruction. In 
1856 he entered the employ of the Pitts- 
burg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad 
company in Pittsburg, where he remained 
until November, 1864, as assistant general 



freight agent. He was also agent for the 
recovery of lost freight and general baggage 
agent. Subsequent to 1864 he embarked in 
the oil business in Pittsburg and the West 
Indies for a number of years, and then went 
into the livestock business as a member of 
the firm of Donnelly, McNabb & Co., of 
East Liberty. Still later he organized sev- 
eral coal companies in Fayette county, this 
vState, which are now in successful opera- 
tion. 

He was a firm supporter of the public 
schools, and at the first election held in the 
Sixteenth ward, Pittsburg, was elected a 
member of the school board, and by that 
body appointed a member of the central 
board of education. He had the honor of 
being one of the projectors and builders of 
the Pittsburg High school. For a period 
of three years prior to 1893 ne resided in 
Montgomery county. He retired from ac- 
tive business in 1885, and now resides in 
Pittsburg. He was an ardent Republican, 
and in 1856 helped to organize that great 
party. He was a man of marked ability, a 
natural leader in his community, and was 
highly esteemed by all who knew him. In 
1861, at the call of the President for men 
and money to carry on the war of the Re- 
bellion, the government required his ser- 
vices on the railroad, and he was permitted 
to give a large share of his time during this 
exigency in raising troops and money. 
During September of the succeeding year 
he organized a company of the Fifteenth 
regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, of which 
he was elected second lieutenant, and within 
three days after the company was recmited, 
marched to Antietain. His company was 
mustered in for two years and served until 
the close of the war. In June, 1857, he 
married Rachel F. Jackson, a daughter of 
Sarah Stanford and John Jackson, who was 



i6o 



Biographical Sketches. 



born on July 8, 1836, in Lancaster county, 
this State. Her parents were born in Eng- 
land, belonged to a good family and came 
to the' United States in 1826, shortly after 
which they settled in Lancaster county. 
Their family consisted of four sons and 
eight daughters, three sons and one daugh- 
ter born in England, and the others in Lan- 
caster county. John Jackson, maternal 
grandfather, was a good farmer and busi- 
ness man and highly regarded by his neigh- 
bors ; he was a staunch Whig, firm in his 
political convictions, but had many friends 
and supporters in the opposition party. 
After the death of his wife he removed 
with his family to Milton, Pennsylvania, 
but in 1852 removed to a farm in Burrell 
township, Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- 
vania, where he died in the same year at the 
age of sixty-three years. 

George W. Humbert had the following 
named children : George J., Frank J., who 
died in young manhood ; Homer J., Thomas 
J., William J., died in infancy ; Jennie J., 
who died in Pottstown February 1, 1889 ; 
and Emma J. 

George J. Humbert, the eldest son, was 
reared in his native city of Pittsburg, where 
he attended the public and high schools 
until his fifteenth year. He then entered 
the stock yards as assistant to his father and 
was engaged in the live stock business until 
1878. In 1880 he entered the employ of the 
Bessimer Steel company of Pittsburg, as 
time keeper, and six months later became 
assistant general manager of their works at 
Homestead, now known as the Carnegie 
Steel company. He resigned that position 
in 1882, to assume charge of the steel de- 
partment of the Colorado Coal and Iron 
company, at Pueblo, Colorado, where he re- 
mained until the summer of 1885. In 1886 
he connected himself with Schoenberger & 



Company, of Pittsburg, as steel blower, and 
one year later became superintendent of the 
steel department of the Glascow Iron works 
at Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He afterwards 
occupied a similar position at the Bessimer 
steel department of the Chester Rolling 
mills, (now Wellman Steel company) at 
Thurlow, Pennsylvania. He held this po- 
sition for a period of one year, and in May, 
1890, came to Norristown, Pennsylvania, 
where he assisted in the organization of the 
Norristown Steel company and erected the 
works of that company. He was made 
vice president and general manager, and 
has ably and successfully conducted this im- 
portant enterprise until it was merged into 
the American Steel Casting company, which 
latter concern he was mainly interested in 
organizing, being one of the charter mem- 
bers and director. Mr. Humbert is regarded 
as one of the best iron and steel operators in 
this section of the State. 

During all his life, George J. Humbert 
has been an active and enthusiastic Repub- 
lican, and while a resident of Colorado was 
nominated for a seat in the legislature of 
that State, and failed of election only by 
reason of his ineligibility under constitu- 
tional requirements. 

In 1892 he was elected a school director 
of Plymouth township, which office he re- 
tained until his removal from the township. 
He is a member of Curtis Lodge No. 231, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also 
of the Encampment I. O. O. F. He is 
likewise connected with Linwood Lodge No. 
154, Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
and Washington Camp No. 114, Patriotic 
Order Sons of America. 

On July 1, 18S6, Mr. Humbert was mar- 
ried to Clara Yoigt, a native of Pittsburg, 
and a daughter of William Yoigt. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Humbert have been born two 




i/OC-i^s 



? 



^o-«--*_ 



^ UZ 




Biographical Sketches. 



161 



children, one son and one daughter : G. 
Vernon, born at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 
July 14, 1888 ; and Elsie M., born at Nor- 
ristown, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1892. 



THE WILLS FAMILY have lived in 
Eastern Pennsylvania for nearly two 
centuries, the first of the name in this 
country being Michael Wills, who settled 
in Lower Meriou township, Montgomery 
county. He came from the Emerald Isle, 
but the family were of English origin, as 
the name indicates, an ancestor having 
become a colonist in that island, it is sup- 
posed, in Cromwell's time. Oneot Michael 
Wills' sons, also named Michael, had, 
among other children, a son Michael 
Wills, Jr., who married Ann, daughter of 
Andrew and Elizabeth Keyser Wood, well 
known residents of Roxborough, Pa. 

They had fourteen children, nine of whom 
grew to manhood or womanhood, the father 
dying January 15, 1829, and the mother 
April 29, 1832. 

One of the sons, Andrew Wills, born 
June 18, 1798, was the father of Morgan R. 
Wills, the latter also one of fourteen chil- 
dren, nine of whom survive. Andrew 
Wills studied medicine, graduating at the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1825. 

He married Sarah Hannum, November 
12, 1826, and practiced medicine in Chester 
county for forty-six years. He died July 
7, 1871, at Lionville, Pa. 

Morgan Reese Wills was born in West 
Whiteland township,Chester county, Oct. 21, 
1831. In 1847, having received a common 
school training, he entered the office of the 
West Chester feffersonian to learn the trade 
of a printer. Later he came to Norristown, 
where he has since resided with the exeep- 



tion of a few months spent in Springfield, 
Illinois. He worked at his trade in Nor- 
ristown, first on the Register, then owned 
by Samuel D. Patterson. In 1S59, he 
opened a book-store on Main street, com- 
bining job printing with his other busi- 
ness. 

It is through his successful management 
of the Norristown Herald, one of the oldest 
and most influential newspapers in Penn- 
sylvania, that Mr. Wills is most widely 
known. In 1864 he purchased a half interest 
in the paper from Robert Iredell. Several 
changes occurred in the firm, leaving him 
in 1869 sole proprietor of the establishment. 
He erected the building in which the 
Herald 'is now published, enlarging it from 
time to time in the rear, the plant being ex- 
tended until it comprises not only a com- 
plete outfit for the publication of a daily 
newspaper, but an extensive job department 
and book bindery as well. 

Recognizing the necessity for a daily issue 
to keep up with the progress of the times, 
Mr. Wills, on December 20, 1869, began the 
enterprise. The daily edition was a success 
from the beginning, and soon took a high 
rank among the newspapers of the State, 
which it has ever since maintained. It is 
everywhere recognized as one of the leading 
exponents and moulders of public opinion 
on the various topics of the day. 

Mr. Wills is an enterprising and eminently 
successful newspaper manager. He has the 
good judgment required to cater to the 
public taste in regard to news and general 
information, and he takes care that the 
Herald shall be in the front rank of progres- 
sive modern journalism. The paper is a 
model of perfection as regards literary and 
mechanical execution ; it has opinions on 
every party and public question that pre- 
sents itself, and its editor believes in giving 



l62 



Biographical Sketches. 



utterance to them in vigorous and expres- 
sive English. Few papers in the country 
are more widely quoted. 

Mr. Wills is one of the most progressive 
and public spirited citizens of Norristown. 
Liberal in his views, he has aimed con- 
stantly, in the management of his paper, 
and in every other way, to advance the in- 
terests of Norristown, and of Montgomery 
county. 

An active Republican, he has rendered 
the most efficient support to the principles 
of that party, the Herald having been a 
potent factor in the political revolution 
which redeemed the town and county from 
Democratic rule. In the discussion of even' 
public topic of importance, national, state 
and local, Mr. Wills takes an active part, 
which the columns of his paper, local 
and editorial, reflect from day to day. It is 
his aim to make the paper, as far as it is 
possible, an accurate history of the time. 

He believes it to be the province of a daily 
newspaper to serve the interests of the com- 
munity in which it is published, and he 
has faithfully adhered to that idea through- 
out the whole of his journalistic career. 

In his domestic relations, Mr. Wills was 
equally fortunate. September 6, i860, he 
married Mary H., daughter of Daniel H. and 
Mary W. Dager, of Whitemarsh township. 
They had two children, Mary D., wife of 
Harrington Fitzgerald, of the Philadelphia 
Item, and Helen W., wife of J. Leedom 
Jones, of Norristown. The family mansion, 
at the corner of DeKalb and Jacoby streets, 
has long been one of the centers of social 
enjoyment and kindly hospitality in Nor- 
ristown. 

Mrs. Wills was a woman of rare literary 
ability, who found time, in the intervals of 
devotion to household interests, which al- 
ways claimed her attention, to be of much 



assistance to her husband in his profession 
of journalist. A charming and versatile 
writer, her many contributions to the Her- 
ald, as well as her two published volumes, 
" A Summer in Europe," and " A Winter 
in California," bear ample testimony to her 
industry and her fondness for literary pur- 
suits. 

She was well educated. A ready and bril- 
liant talker, as well as an incisive writer, she 
was at home in the social as fully as in the 
literary world. She was an excellent judge 
of books and in her capacity as reviewer ac- 
cumulated a large and valuable library. 
Possessed of a vivid imagination and a cul- 
tivated mind, she wrote with equal facility 
letters of travel, book notices, social and de- 
scriptive articles, short stories and editor- 
ials. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wills have traveled much 
in this country and abroad, a number of 
trips, including a second tour of Europe in 
1892 (the first had been taken in 1875), be- 
ing undertaken for the purpose of benefiting 
her impaired health. She died June 7, 
1895. 



THOMAS J. RAM BO, retired, who for 
several years was an extensive lime- 
stone operator, is a native of Swedesburg, 
this county, where he was born July 24, 
1849. His parents were Nathan and Ann 
(Broades) Rambo, both descended from old 
Pennsylvania families. The subject of this 
sketch, their youngest son, was reared prin- 
cipally at Swedesburg, where he attended 
the public schools until fifteen years of age. 
He then entered William F. Wyer's Mili- 
tary school at West Chester, this State, 
where he took a full course of training, and 
after being graduated he went into the 
limestone business at Swedesburg. Inher- 



Biographical Sketches. 



163 



iting considerable property, lie operated on 
an extensive scale, and having executive 
ability, he rapidly accumulated wealth and 
added to his holdings in various directions. 
He followed the business energetically until 
[890, when he disposed of his limestone 
property to the Pennsylvania Railroad com- 
pany and retired from all active business. 
At that time he removed to Bridgeport, Pa., 
where he has ever since resided. 

Politically he is a staunch Republican, 
and in religion a member and vestryman of 
the Swedes Episcopal church, at Swedes- 
burg. He is also a member of Bridgeport 
Lodge No. 51, Patriotic Order Sons of 
America. 

On the 30th of October, 1890, Mr. Ratnbo 
was united in marriage to Ida M., a daughter 
of John and Charlotte Bickings, of Nor- 
ristown. The Ranibo family is of Swedish 
descent, but have resided in eastern Penn- 
sylvania for many generations. Jonas Ram- 
bo (paternal grandfather) was a life long 
resident of Upper Merion township, this 
county, and owned large tracts of valuable 
land underlaid with fine veins of superior 
limestone. This property passed into the 
hands of the descendant's children, who 
operated limestone quarries at Swedesburg 
for many years. These operations were 
carried on largely by Nathan Ratnbo, father 
of Thomas J. The former, in addition to 
being a wealthy and influential citizen, was 
a man who took a deep interest in political 
and public affairs. He was an old line 
Whig in politics and a member of Swedes 
Episcopal church, in which latter he served 
as vestryman and trustee for many years. 
He died in 1858, at the age of forty-seven, 
having been born on June 27, 1810. He 
married Ann Broades, by whom he had a 
family of seven children, five of whom still 
survive. The two eldest were daughters, 



Eliza and Mary Jane, both now deceased. 
Those living are Rebecca, widow of J. P. H. 
Jones; Emma P., wife of P. P. Merritt ; 
William B., engaged in the lime business ; 
Nathan, retired, a sketch of whom will be 
found on another page of this work ; and 
Thomas J., the subject of the foregoing 
sketch. Mrs. Ann Rambo was born August 
12, 1809, and died July 23, [889, having 
survived her husband for more than thirty 
years. Their remains sleep side by side in 
the cemeterv at old Swedes church. 



J FRANK BOYER, an enterprising and 
• progressive business man of Xorris- 
town, is a son of Michael C. and Mary A. 
(Ziegler) Boyer, and was born March 2, 
1867, at Norristown, this county. Philip 
Boyer, paternal grandfather, was born in 
Frederick township, Montgomery count}'. 
Schooled to the arts of agriculture, he 
took up and pursued that vocation all his 
life, most of which was spent near Salford- 
ville, this county. He was a pious Chris- 
tian gentleman and a member of the Re- 
formed church. He died at the age of sev- 
enty-six years and his remains now peace- 
fully repose in the old Goshenhoppen church 
yard. 

Michael C. Boyer, father, was born in 
Upper Salford township, this county, on 
May 28, 1821. He attended Washington 
Hall Collegiate Institute, obtaining a good 
education and then for a time followed the 
profession of teaching. He was a Democrat 
politically and after leaving the profession 
of teaching, was elected sheriff of Mont- 
gomery county, a position he filled with 
credit and entire satisfaction to his con- 
stituents for one full term of three years. 
After his term of office had expired, Sheriff 



164 



Biographical Sketches. 



Boyer and William Schall formed a partner- 
ship and engaged in the manufacture of 
nails and afterward became intererested in 
the Norris Works at Norristown, an enter- 
prise that employed one hundred and fifty 
hands. He was a man of remarkable in- 
ventive genius, being the author of not less 
than fifty patents, among them and of the 
most important, being Boyer's Hoof Lini- 
ment. For the manufacture of this lini- 
ment, which had a wide reputation and 
possessed many virtues, the Boyer Hoof 
Liniment company was organized, with 
which he remained prominently identified 
until death closed his career, on October 10, 
1 89 1, at the age of seventy-two years. He 
was married but once and his children were 
as follows : Jesse, Katie, Wallace, Horace 
G., Wilson, Howard C, Michael Allen, 
Harry Z., Mary L., J. Frank, and Charles, 
deceased. 

J. Frank Boyer attended the public 
schools of Norristown, and at the age of 
sixteen years he took a position to learn the 
tin and hardware business, with Frank W. 
Wilson of Norristown, and at the age of 
eighteen years he began business on his own 
account. In 1889 he located where he is 
now, on the corner of Main and Green 
streets, where he owns a good business stand 
^sixteen feet wide and one hundred and thirty 
feet deep and three stories high, with an 
annex of thirty-four by fifty feet and two 
stories high. He does a large and prosperous 
plumbing, steam heating and tinning busi- 
ness. He is a progressive and enterprising 
business man and takes a lively interest in 
all matters pertaining to the welfare of his 
borough. He is a director of the Star Build- 
ing and Loan Association and of the Nor- 
ristown Shoe Company, and holds stock in 
a number of other business enterprises of 
the borough. Like his father, he is a Dem- 



ocrat and served for three years a council- 
man from the Fourth ward. November 14, 
1888, he married Annie G., a daughter of 
Patrick Curron, a wholesale liquor dealer of 
Norristown. 



JACOB R. STEINMETZ, retired, is the 
^J eldest son of Jacob and Christiana 
( Bobbins) Steinmetz, and was born at Nor- 
ristown, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1842. 
His paternal great-grandfather, Jacob 
Steinmetz, born 1734, was a resident of 
Philadelphia, where William Steinmetz, 
(grandfather) was born and reared. He 
afterward settled at Montgomery Square, 
this county. For a number of years he 
was engaged in the manufacture of bricks, 
but in later life devoted himself to agricul- 
tural pursuits Politically he was an old 
line Whig, and in religion an Episcopalian. 
He married Mary Billmeyer, of German- 
town, by whom he had four children. He 
wasa self made man of considerable means, 
and died July 8, 1851, at the advanced age 
of seventy years. His son, Jacob Stein- 
metz, (father) was born in 181 1, and grew 
up at Montgomery Square, this county. 
About 1837 he removed to Norristown and 
engaged in the lumber business, which he 
followed for some twelve years, at the mills 
now operated by Body and Livingstone. 
He then settled on a farm adjoining the 
borough of Norristown, at the end of Arch 
street, where he died in 1 881, at the age of 
seventy years. He was a Whig and Re- 
publican in politics, and vestryman of St. 
John's Episcopal church, of Norristown. 
In 1841 he married Christiana Robbins, a 
daughter of Benjamin Robbins, of Phila- 
delphia, and by that union had a family of 
five children : Jacob R., the subject of this 



Biographical Sketches. 



165 



sketch ; Susan, married Samuel A. Bailey, 
and is now deceased ; John B. and George 
H., twins, and Mary Ellen, who died in 
girlhood. 

Mrs. Christiana Steinmetz died in 1888, 
at the age of seventy-one years. 

Jacoh R. Steinmetz has passed his entire 
life in Norristown. He was educated at 
private schools and Elmwood seminary, 
of Norristown, and after leaving school, en- 
gaged in farming with his father. At the 
beginning of the Civil war in 1862, he en- 
listed in Company L, 15th Pennsylvania 
cavalry, and served under General Rosen- 
crans, during his term of enlistment. Mr. 
Steinmetz took part in the Maryland cam- 
paign, prior to the battle of Antietam, and 
then, moving to Louisville, Kentucky, on 
November 9, 1862, reported to the division 
commanded by General Rosencrans, at 
Nashville, Tennessee, December 24, 1862. 
He was engaged in the battles of Stone 
river, Chickamauga, the campaigns of the 
armies of the Cumberland, General Stone- 
man's raids into Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, and also in the pursuit of Jeff. Davis in 
the spring of 1863. He was mustered out 
at Nashville, Tennessee, June 1, 1865. 

Returning to Pennsylvania after the 
close of the war, Mr. Steinmetz became 
collector for Howell Bros., of Philadelphia, 
with whom he remained a number of years. 
He then returned to the farm for some 
little time, and later formed a partnership 
with James Daniels, under the firm name 
of Daniels and Steinmetz, and engaged in 
the construction of freight cars. This en- 
terprise was conducted until 1878, when 
Mr. Steinmetz sold out his interest and re- 
tired from business. 

In politics Mr. Steinmetz has always 
been a Republican, his first vote was cast 
for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew G. Cur- 



tin, in 1864. He is a member of St. John's 
Episcopal church, of Norristown, and of 
Zook Post, No. 11, G. A. R. 

On March 22, 1893, Mr. Steinmetz was 
married to Martha Jane Bickings, daughter 
of John Bickings, of Norristown. Mrs. 
Steinmetz is a member of Christ's (Swedes) 
church, Upper Merion township. 



JRAMBO DeHAVEN, proprietor of 
• the well known DeKalb nurseries, is a 
son of Mark and Hannah DeHaven, and 
was born in Upper Merion township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, June 2, 
1839. The DeHavens are of French line- 
age, and in the early part of the last century, 
February 19, 1745, Andrew DeHaven, one 
of the first of the American line, was born. 
He was a son of William DeHaven, who 
had five children : Margaret, born August 
J 3> J 739; Peter, born January 31, 1741 ; 
Sarah, born September 21, 1743; and An- 
drew, the great-grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch. Andrew DeHaven was a 
native of Whitpain township, this county, 
and was united in marriage with Elizabeth 
McGlathery, by whom he had seven chil- 
dren : Deborah, Elizabeth, Mordecai, 
Peter, Sarah, Nathan and Henry. Mordecai 
(grandfather) resided in Plymouth town- 
ship, was born in the year 1786, and died 
April 5, 1852, at the age of sixty-six years. 
He was a farmer by occupation, and in ad- 
dition to this, was an extensive lime 
dealer. 

He held membership in the old Swedes 
church of Upper Merion township, in 
which he was an active and influential 
member. He married Abigail Rambo, a 
daughter of Nathan Rambo, who was born 
July 8, 1790, and died December 15, 1N74. 



1 66 



Biographical Sketches. 



Both husband and wi.e are buried near the 
old Swedes church. 

His son, Mark DeHaven, was born De- 
cember 10, 1 813. He was brought up on 
a farm and engaged from time to time in 
various pursuits, chief among which were 
those of a lime manufacturer and cattle 
dealer. For many years, beginning in the 
forties, he was a large mine operator in 
Upper Merion township. He also was a 
member of the old Swedes church, and 
with his father, was a member of the second 
troop of Montgomery county cavalry. Dur- 
ing the Philadelphia riots of 1844, ^ ie saw 
considerable active service. He also served 
for many years as township supervisor. 
His death occurred on September 9, 1889, 
when in his seventy-eighth year. In the 
year 1838, Mark DeHaven was married to 
Hannah Rambo, daughter of John and 
Elizabeth Rambo, by Rev. N. Diehl, D. D. 
Elizabeth Rambo, mother of Hannah 
Rambo, was born May 11, 1771, and died 
December 18, 1850. Mrs. DeHaven was 
born September 22, 181 1, and died March 
16, 1890. 

Mr. and Mrs DeHaven were the parents 
of two children : J. Rambo and Rachel. 
The latter was born December 19, 1841, 
and died January 27, 1857. 

J. Rambo DeHaven was reared on the 
farm, attended the common schools, and 
when about twenty-three years of age, em- 
barked in the nursery business, which he 
has followed successfully ever since. He 
made a speciality of fruit, shade and orna- 
mental trees, most of which were grown on 
the farm where his father now resides. He 
is also extensively engaged in farming and 
is a very skillful taxidermist. Mr. De- 
Haven also possesses the natural gifts of an 
artist, and is very skillful in many forms 
of illustrative art, although he never made 



a technical study of art subjects. He has 
filled a number of township and local of- 
fices, and has repeatedly served as judge 
and inspector of elections. He was brought 
up in the faith of the old Swedish church, 
and still adheres to the dogmas of that 
denomination. On account of the donation 
of the present site of the old Swedes church 
by a former member of Mr. DeHaven's 
family, he now possesses as a birthright, a 
portion of the burial ground connected 
with that church. 

The line of descent on Mr. Mr. Dehaven's 
maternal side is Swedish, as the name 
would indicate. The family is one of the 
oldest and best known in Montgomery 
county- 



EDWARD EVERETT LONG, Esq., a 
competent and energetic member of the 
Montgomery county bar, is a son of Solomon 
and Rebecca S. (Sassaman) Long, and was 
born in Upper Providence township, Mont- 
gomery county, on September 11, 1861. 
Mr. Long's ancestors on his father's side are 
of German Lutheran stock and have been 
residents of the county for upward of a hun- 
dred years. On his mother's side he is con- 
nected with the Markley family, a very old 
and prominent family. He is a direct de- 
scendant of Judge Benjamin Markley, who 
was prominent in the history of this county 
in the early part of the present century, and 
whose grandson was the Hon. Benjamin 
Markley Boyer, a member of Congress from 
this district for two terms, 1865 to 1869, and 
a leader at the Montgomery county bar and 
president judge of the Montgomery courts 
from 18S2 till his death in 1886. Henry 
Long, the grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was a native of Marlborough town- 
ship, where he passed his life following the 



Biographical Sketches. 



167 



pursuits of a farmer. Solomon Long was 
born in the same township on January 24, 
1816, and during his early life learned the 
carpenter trade. Later he removed to Up- 
per Providence township and became in- 
terested in farming and droving, and in 
1868 removed to Norristown, where he en- 
gaged in the livery business. He died here 
on November 14, 1870. He was twice mar- 
ried and by his second marriage had four 
children, one daughter and three sons, the 
only one surviving being Edward E. Those 
deceased are Davis R., (died November 19, 
1870, at the age of five years); Ellen B., 
wife of Herbert D. Yocum, (died September 
9, 1886, aged twenty-seven years); and Jacob 
S., (died July 18, 1894,) at the age of thirty 
years. At the time of his death, Jacob S. 
was connected with the International Navi- 
gation company of Philadelphia and New 
York, and was considered a business man 
of excellent promise. He had also acquired 
a reputation as a newspaper writer and dis- 
played marked literary ability. 

Edward E. Long was six years old when 
his father removed to Norristown and but 
nine years old when his father died. He was 
educated in the public schools of Norristown, 
at Ursinus college and at Millersville State 
Normal school. But his opportunities for 
acquiring an education were limited, as at 
the early age of twelve years he was put to 
work and from that time supported himself 
and aided in the support of the rest of the 
family. During his boyhood he was in the 
employ of the Philadelphia and Reading 
railroad company and worked on a farm. 
He, however, had the opportunity of attend- 
ing school during the winter months and as 
he saw the advantages of a good education, 
he lost no opportunity to improve his mind 
by reading and study. After a short term in 
the academical department of Ursinus col- 



lege and a year spent in the Norristown 
High school, he began teaching in the public 
schools at the age of eighteen years, and con- 
tinued in that vocation for four years. For 
the first three years he taught a seven 
month's term which gave him the oppor- 
tunity to spend three months of the first 
year at the Millersville Normal school, and 
during the two following years to spend the 
same time at Ursinus college, enabling him 
to become a junior in the latter institution. 
In 1883 he resolved to enter the profession 
of law and began his reading under the pre- 
ceptorship of Franklin March, Esq., of the 
Norristown 'bar. During the period of his 
studentship he was also a transcriber in the 
office of the recorder of deeds. This alter- 
nation of work and study was combined 
until his admission to the bar on December 
5, 1887. Shortly after his admission he 
opened an office in Norristown and has 
steadily gained a very creditable practice. 
Mr. Long is a Republican in his political 
affiliations and has always taken an active 
part in the political movements of the coun- 
ty and borough. In 1888 he was elected a 
member of town council from the first ward 
but only served in that capacity for one 
year, moving out of the ward at the end of 
that time. While a member of council he 
was ever alert for the best interests of the 
borough and was instrumental in the estab- 
lishment of the first independent board of 
health in the borough, the town council 
prior to this time having constituted the 
only board of health. In 1891 he was elect- 
ed a member of the school board from the 
Tenth ward and served as school director 
for three years, and on January 1, 1894, he 
received the appointment of solicitor and 
clerk for the directors of the poor of Mont- 
gomery county and is still in office. Aside 
from his professional duties Mr. Long has 



1 68 



Biographical Sketches. 



always found time for business activity. 
He has been president of the West Norris- 
town Building and Loan association since 
its organization in 1886, and has been in- 
terested in various business ventures. He 
is a member and was formerly vice-president 
of the Republican Invinciblesof Norristown. 

On April 26, 1887, Mr. Long was united 
in marriage with Mira C. Earnest, daughter 
of Charles and Isabella Crawford Earnest. 
To this union two children have been born : 
Isabella Crawford and Edward Everett. 
Mr. Long's career from the beginning has 
been marked by a patient and untiring ef- 
fort. He is largely a self-made man and has 
won his present enviable standing among 
the citizens of Montgomery county entirely 
through his personal force and energy. He 
has always been known as a careful and 
studious lawyer, ever ready to do all that 
can be clone for a client, fearlessly defending 
his interests, or maintaing all rights given 
to a suitor under the law. In recognition 
of his qualities as a lawyer, he has been ap- 
pointed by the presiding judges a member 
of the board of examiners of the Mont- 
gomery county bar, who pass upon the quali- 
fications of all persons seeking admission to 
the bar. He has been prominently men- 
tioned for the office of District Attorney, 
but has decided not to be a candidate at the 
present time. Should Mr. Long make a 
canvass for the office there is little doubt 
that he would be most favorably received. 

On March 4, 1S95, Mr. Long entered into 
a business co-partnership with George W. 
Rogers, Esq., one of the oldest and most 
prominent members of the Montgomery 
county bar, the firm being known as Rogers 
& Long. Mr. Rogers is an ex-District Attor- 
ney and during a period of over forty years 
has enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. 
Probablv the most celebrated of Mr. Rogers' 



cases was his defense of Blasius Pistorius, 
the Catholic priest who on July 24, 1875, 
shot and killed Isaac Jaquette, a farmer re- 
siding near Norristown. The priest and his 
brother John Pistorius were indicted for 
murder. John was acquitted but Blasius 
was convicted in the first degree and sen- 
tenced to be hanged. The German govern- 
ment became interested in his case, he being 
a German subject although a resident of 
Pennsylvania. The case was taken to the 
Supreme Court and a new trial was granted. 
Mr. Rogers, who had now associated with 
him Colonel James Boyd and Stephen S. 
Remak, Esq., of Philadelphia, obtained a 
change of venue to Philadelphia, where 
Blasius Pistorius was again tried, convicted 
and sentenced to be hanged. The con- 
demned man's counsel aided by the inter- 
cession of the German Consul, succeeded in 
having his sentence commuted to imprison- 
ment for life, and he died in the Eastern 
Penitentiary a few years ago. 

It is the intention of Mr. Rogers to lighten 
his labors toward the evening of his career, 
and he together with his wife and daughter 
have started on a tour of Europe and the 
old world to last for at least a year. Mean- 
while Mr. Long assumes sole charge of the 
firm's business. With the careful attention 
he has always given to matters placed in his 
hands and the success he has already met 
with in his profession, there can be no doubt 
but that a bright and promising future is 
before him. 



JACOB MOLL KNETZ, a retired mer- 
kJ chant of East Greenville, this county, 
is a son of John and Abigail (Moll) Knetz, 
and was born August 6, 1851, at Clayton, 
Berks county, Pennsylvania. 




'-"< 



/*ft7}. d&^ZrrT 



Biographical Sketches. 



169 



The founder of the Knetz family in this 
country was Henry Knetz, grandfather, who 
near the end of the eighteenth century emi- 
grated from Germany to the new world and 
located near Clayton, in Berks county. He 
was a fanner, a Whig, and a member of the 
Lutheran church. He married a Miss 
Boyer, and three children, David, Sally and 
John, were born to them. 

John Knetz, father, was born near Clay- 
ton, where he was reared. He became a 
farmer and drover and cattle dealer. He 
was an ardent Republican, and a consistent, 
devoted and active worker of the Lutheran 
church. His children were as follows: 
Maria, who married Martin Landis ; Jacob 
Moll, subject ; Elizabeth, who wedded An- 
drew Stauffer ; and Sarah, wife of Reuben 
Beidler. John Knetz died November 4, 
1880, at the age of sixty-four years. His 
widow is yet living. 

Jacob Moll Knetz obtained only a com- 
mon school education. Leaving school, he 
remained with his father on the farm until 
thirty years of age, when he took a position 
as clerk in a general store at Clayton, but 
was soon called home to assume the man- 
agement of his father's farms, and remained 
in that capacity for one year after the lat- 
ter's death. In the autumn of 1882 he 
moved on a property he had purchased at 
Last Greenville, this county, where for two 
years he was engaged in the general store 
business. Since closing out these interests 
he has lived a retired merchant. Mr. Knetz 
is a Republican, and for four years, from 
1882 to 1885, inclusive, served as burgess of 
East Greenville, and also served two terms 
as auditor, and as a member of the borough 
council one term. In 1891 he was appointed 
a notary public by Governor Robert E. 
Pattison. Religiously he is a deacon in the 
Pennsburg St. Mark's Lutheran church, 



and takes an active interest in all forms of 
church work. He is a member in high 
standing of the following secret societies : 
Knights of the Golden Eagle, Knights of 
Pythias, Junior Order United American 
Mechanics, and Independent Order of ( )dd 
Fellows. 

On January 13, 1881, Mr. Knetz wedded 
Emma S., a daughter of Joseph Shultz, a 
veterinary surgeon, of Zionsville, Lehigh 
county, this State. John, Jacob, Clarence, 
deceased ; and William Henry Harrison are 
the children born to their union. 



AR. SAYLOR, postmaster at Royers- 
• ford, is a native of Lenhartsville, 
Berks county, where he was born July 3, 
1857. His parents were Dr. Henry A. and 
Lucinda (Reeser) Saylor, the former born 
on the old Saylor homestead in Limerick 
township, this count)', and the latter a na- 
tive o f Berks county. The Saviors are of 
German extraction, and have been residents 
of Montgomery county since 1708, when 
Henry Saylor, paternal great-grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, purchased land 
in what is now Limerick township, and en- 
gaged in farming. He had two children, 
Henry and Susanna. His son Henry Say- 
lor (grandfather), inherited the farm, and 
passed his whole life there, engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. He married Mary A. 
Groves, and was the father of five children : 
Albert G., a sketch of whom appears else- 
where in this volume ; Azariah, who owns 
and resides on the old homestead near Lim- 
erick Square, this county ; Dr. Henry A., 
father of A. R. Saylor ; Susanna, and Ada 
Eliza. He was a Lutheran in religion, a 
Democrat in politics, and died in 1S76, aged 
seventy-six years. Dr. Henry A. Saylor 



172 



Biographical Sketches. 



stated, the Levvin homestead is now the 
site of no small portion of the nourishing 
borough of Royersford. 

William Lewin was married to Rebecca 
Custer, a daughter of Samuel Custer, Feb- 
ruary 8, 1851. To them were born the 
following sons and daughters : Elizabeth, 
who died in infancy ; J. Milton, the subject 
of this sketch ; Sarah, Samuel, Willis, 
George, Mary, Emma, and Abraham. As 
a youth, J. M. Lewin had a cherished de- 
sire to attend college ; but, as his father 
thought a common school education suffi- 
cient, the boy had to content himself with 
such advantages as could be furnished at 
the old Hobson school house. The greater 
part of his boyhood was spent on his 
father's farm. 

April 1, 1873, he entered as an appren- 
tice in the shoemaker shop of John U. 
Bean, Upper Providence township. Hav- 
ing served two years, he opened a shop of 
his own in Royersford, April 1, 1875. There 
being no other shoe store in town at that 
time, Mr. Lewin carried a small line of boots 
and shoes in connection with his trade on 
the bench. Having accumulated a small 
capital in this business, he bought a half 
interest in the general store of Rogers & 
Son. In that business he continued from 
May 27, 1879, to August 1, 1881, when he 
sold out his share of the business to Jones 
Rogers. Mr. Lewin was employed in the 
shipping department of the Buckwalter 
Stove company until September 13, 1883, 
when he again embarked in the shoe busi- 
ness. Having built a new store along the 
main street of the borough, he conducted 
a very successful business until September 
1, 1892, when he disposed of his entire j 
business to F. S. Brown. He then entered 
the firm of the Grander Stove Company, 
purchasing the interest of the late Benja- | 



min Carver. Mr. Lewin was elected treas- 
urer of the above company, a position 
which he still very creditably fills. Mr. 
Lewin's usual energy and activity are 
demonstrated in this business as well as in 
all other positions which he has had the 
honor of filling. The above mentioned 
traits of his character have enabled him to 
contribute largely to the general prosperity 
of Royersford. 

He has been identified with many of the 
leading industries of his town. Among 
these may be mentioned the Royersford 
Iron foundry. He was president of this 
company at the time of the sale of their 
plant to its present owners, Floyd, Wells 
& Company. He helped to organize the 
Penn Glass company, and was one of its 
directors until its purchase by the Diamond 
Glass company. When the Keystone Meter 
company was organized, Mr. Lewin was 
among the founders, and continued as a 
director until the property was transferred 
to the present company of the same name. 
He is still one of the trustees of the old 
company. 

Mr. Lewin was treasurer of the original 
Enterprise Hosiery company, of which he 
was one of the promoters. He, with five 
other gentlemen, organized the Fernwood 
Cemetery company. Of this company he 
is still a director. He is also a director of 
the Industrial Savings bank, chartered 
March 21, 1892. Not only did he help in 
the organization of this bank, but was also 
very active in the founding of the two 
National banks, that is, the " Home " and 
the "National Bank of Royersford." Hav- 
ing helped to organize the Home Water 
company, he was elected one of the direc- 
tors, a position which he resigned at the 
end of the first year. He is an active mem- 
ber of the Humane Fire company, of which 



Biographical Sketches. 



l 73 



he is one of the founders, and was for two 
years their financial secretary. 

He has held the office of secretary in the 
Royersford Building and Loan association 
since organization, May i, 1890. In 1894 
he organized the Liufield Cold Storage 
company, of which he became treasurer. 
Mr. Lewin has held and honorably filled sev- 
eral offices in the borough of Royersford, 
which he helped to incorporate in 1879, 
Judge Ross having confirmed the report of 
the jury to grant the charter, June 14, of 
that year. It was during his administration 
as school director, (a position which he 
filled for nine years), that he strongly advo- 
cated free books and the Smead heating 
and ventilating system. The schools of 
Royersford now have the benefit of both 
these systems. 

In 1885 he was elected assistant assessor. 
February 16, 1892, he was elected burgess 
by an overwhelming majority. He served 
in this capacity one year. It was during 
his administration in the last named office 
that Mr. Lewin did something for which 
the business people of Royersford can feel 
grateful. The Pennsylvania Railroad com- 
pany having asked permission to lay tracks 
on First Avenue, Mr. Lewin called council 
together on the evening of June 14, 1892. 
Ordinance No. 65 was passed, granting the 
railroad company the franchise, and the 
same night he, with about three hundred 
workmen, went to the lower end of the 
borough. When morning dawned the peo- 
ple beheld twenty-three hundred feet of 
track stretching from the lower end of the 
avenue to the Schuylkill bridge. 

Mr. Lewin is quite prominent and very 
active in Masonic circles. He is connected 
with different lodges as follows : Charter 
member of Royersford Lodge, F. & A. M., 
No. 585 ; member of Pgttstown Chapter 



No. 271 ; charter member of Nativity Com- 
mandery No. 71, Pottstown ; member of 
Bloomsburg Consistory ; member of Pales- 
tine Council No. 8, Phoenixville ; and a 
Noble of Rajah Mystic Shrine, Reading. 
He is also connected with the Improved 
Order of Red Men, Towamencin Tribe No. 
99, Royersford. 

In politice Mr. Lewin is an Independent 
voter. He was appointed notary public by 
Governor Pattison on April 8, 1886. This 
position he still fills. Mr. Lewin is an ac- 
tive and consistent member of the Lutheran 
church. As executor of the estate of Wil- 
liam Lewin, he donated the ground upon 
which was erected Grace Evangelical 
Lutheran chapel. He is one of the trus- 
tees of the Lutheran congregation of Roy- 
ersford. 

Mr. Lewin was married to Lizzie Bean, 
daughter of Isaac Bean, Upper Providence, 
February 18, 1875. With her he lived 
happily until her death, July 1, 1894. To 
them were born three sons: William A., 
Isaac E , deceased ; and Lawrence B. Mr. 
Lewin's family life marks one of the 
pleasant features of his career. His eldest 
son, William A., graduated with high 
honors at Fairfield Military academy, June, 
1895. 

His life has been active and useful. 
None stand higher at Royersford than J. 
Milton Lewin, whose career is briefly and 
imperfectly outlined in this sketch. 



CHARLES Z. WEBER, M. D., a lead- 
ing young physician of Norristown, is a 
son of John C. and Anna M. (Casselberry) 
Weber, and a native of Downington, Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, where he was 
born February 2, 1856. The Webers are 



i74 



Biographical Sketches. 



of German extraction, and the family was 
founded in America by Christian and Ap- 
plonia Weber, who shortly after their mar- 
riage in the fatherland came to this country 
with some four hundred Protestant Ger- 
mans, in the sailing- ship Good Will, and 
landed at Philadelphia, September 27, 1727. 
The following year Christian Weber pur- 
chased fifty acres of land from Jacob Hill, 
in what is now Towameucin township, 
Montgomery county, and erected thereon 
a house which is still standing. He died in 
1778, aged eighty-two years, his wife having 
passed away five years earlier in the seven- 
tieth year of her age. Among other child- 
ren they had a son Christian Weber, who 
was born in 1743, married Elizabeth 
Weidner in 1765, and died in 1815 in Le- 
high county. He served as a captain in 
the Revoultionary war, and held a number 
of civil offices. Of his sons, John Weber, 
great-grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was born October 8, 1768, and be- 
came a distinguished politician and states- 
man. In 1807 he was elected a member of 
the State assembly, and three times re- 
elected, serving through the last two 
sessions as speaker. He married Elizabeth 
Reiff, by whom he had a family of five 
children : George, Christian, Mary, John 
and Joseph. The second son, Christian 
Weber, (grandfather) was born August 16, 
1793, and after attaining manhood, married 
Charlotte Casselberry, daughter of William 
and Catharine Casselberry, of Evansburg. 
To their union were born eight children : 
Ann Eliza, Catharine, Rebecca, Elmina, 
William C, John C, Mary and Emma. 
John C. Weber (father) was born January 
11, 1829, grew to manhood on the farm, 
and after reaching his majority, engaged in 
agricultural pursuits on his own account. 
He followed that occupation successfully 



for many years, but since 1880 has been 
engaged in the general produce business 
at Norristown. Politically he is a Republi- 
can, and in church membership a Presby- 
terian, having served as ruling elder in the 
Centennial Presbyterian church, of Jeffer- 
sonville, for more than a quarter of a 
century. He has always taken an active 
part in church work, and for a number of 
years has been superintendent of the Sunday 
school connected with his church. 

In 1853 he married Anna M. Casselberry, 
a daughter of Isaac and Margaret Cassel- 
berry, and by that union had a family of 
four children : Mary Ellen, married George 
W. Carr, now connected officially with the 
Post Office department at Washington, D. 
C; Charles Z., the subject of this sketch; 
Isaac C, married Florence Sullivan, of 
Norristown, where he is now engaged in 
the retail coal trade; and Anna C, residing 
with her father. Mrs. Anna M. Weber died 
in i860, and Mr. Weber afterward married 
Sarah B. Heebner, of Lower Providence, 
this county. 

Dr. Charles Z. Weber, fifth in line of 
descent from the original emigrant, was 
reared principally on his father's farm in 
this county, receiving his primary education 
in the public schools of Norristown, and 
completing his academic studies at Tre- 
mont seminary, which he attended for 
three years. He then engaged in teaching 
in Montgomery county, being thus employed 
for one year at Tylersport and for four 
years at Centre Square. During the last 
three years of this time he was also en- 
gaged in reading medicine, under the 
direction of Joseph K. Weaver, of Norris- 
town. In 1880 he matriculated at the 
Jefferson Medical college, of Philadelphia, 
from which institution he was graduated 
March 30, 1882, with the degree of M. D. 




j^^^L^^^^&, 



Biographical Sketch ks. 



i75 



His devotion as a student while in college 
attracted the attention of his fellow students 
and the faculty, and he was honored with 
the position of quiz-master on physiology 
during the year preceding his graduation, 
and on the latter occasion was awarded the 
Henry C. Chapman prize for the hest thesis 
on a subject pertaining to physiology. Im- 
mediately after receiving his degree, Dr. 
Weber formed a partnership with his former 
precepter, Dr. Joseph K. Weaver, and began 
the practice of medicine at Norristown. 
One year later Dr. Weber opened an office 
on Airy street, near DeKalb, and has 
practiced his profession continuously from 
that to the present time. In 1884 he re- 
moved to his present home and office, Nos. 
15 and 17 Airy street, where he has built 
up an extensive and lucrative general 
practice. 

His residence and office are both hand- 
some brick structures, finished on the 
interior with walnut and beautifully deco- 
rated. With the new brick stable and 
carriage house on the rear of the lots, they 
form a valuable property and a most com- 
modious home. 

Dr. Weber has been a member of the 
Montgomery County Medical society since 
1882, serving as its secretary for six years 
and as its president in 1892. He is also a 
member of the Pennsylvania State Medical 
Society, and of the American Medical 
Association. Being yet an earnest student 
of his profession, he is a constant reader 
and an occasional contributer to leading 
medical journals, and is also the author of 
the article on medicine in the late history of 
Montgomery county. He is a member of 
the staff of visiting physicians to Charity 
hospital, and one of the lecturers to the 
school of nurses, which graduates annually 
from this institution, and has lectured 



elsewhere upon subjects pertaining to his 
profession. He has also occupied the po- 
sition of prison physician by appointment 
for the past six years. 

On October 28, 1884, Dr. Weber was 
united in marriage to Anna Y. Gilbert, a 
daughter of Solomon Gilbert, of Norristown, 
and a graduate from the Norristown High 
school and of the Millersville State Normal 
school. To Dr. and Mrs. Weber have been 
born three children : Charles Gilbert, 
born October 5, 1886, and died January 4, 
1888 ; Jean, born August 3, 1888 ; and John 
Malcolm, born October 22, 1890. In his 
political affiliations, Dr. Weber is a Repub- 
lican, and was a warm admirer of James 
G. Blaine. In religious faith and church 
membership he is a Presbyterian, and is 
also a member of the American Legion of 
Honor. 

He finds diversion from the onerous 
duties of his extensive practice, in the 
management of a large farm adjacent to the 
town. The possession of this tract imparts 
additional interest, from the fact that for 
a period covered by two generations, 
" Kinwood Farm " was the fond home of 
his paternal ancestors. 



REV. JOSEPH H. HENDRICKS, A.M. 
There are a goodly number of persons 
to be found bearing the name of Hendricks 
in many of the States of the American 
Union, possibly the most prominent being 
that of the late Hon. Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks, a United States senator, governor of 
Indiana, and vice president of the United 
States, with bright prospects of becoming 
president of the United States, had his life 
been spared a few years longer. The family 
name was originally Hendricksen, and the 



i 7 6 



Biographical Sketches. 



first settlers in this country of this name, 
came from Holland, and are characterized 
in the often-recited history of the settle- 
ment of Germantown, Pa., as a liberty- 
loving people. The name is also quite con- 
spicuous in the extended German histories 
of the countless martyrdoms of the non- 
resistant Christians in the continent of Eu- 
rope. 

The subject of this sketch is a son of the 
late Abraham H. and Mary Hendricks, and 
was born in Upper Providence, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, December 21, A. D. 
1834, his maternal grandfather being the 
Rev. John Huusicker, and his maternal 
great-grandfather the Rev. Henry (Hein- 
rich) Huusicker, both verv prominent and 
influential Mennonite bishops in their day 
and generation in Eastern Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Hendricks was reared on his father's 
farm, and in the spring of 1851 entered 
Freeland seminary (now Ursinus college), 
and in the fall of 1852 he took charge of a 
public school at Milford Square, Bucks 
comity. During the four consecutive win- 
ters he figured in the role of public school 
teacher, attending boarding school in the 
summer months. In February, 1856, he 
was offered and accepted the position of as- 
sistant teacher in Freeland seminary, then 
a very popular boarding school at which 
there were many young men in attendance 
qualifying themselves to become public 
school teachers, there being but one Nor- 
mal school in the State at that time. From 
the position of assistant teacher in the com- 
mon English branches, in two years he was 
promoted to teach the higher mathematics 
and was also made vice-principal of the in- 
stitution. In the fall of 1858, he married 
Kate, the youngest daughter of the late Rev. 
Abraham Hunsicker, the founder of Free- 
land seminary, and a sister of the Rev- 



Henry A. Hunsicker, the proprietor and 
principal of the Institution. 

It was while the subject of this sketch 
was successfully engaged in the pleasant 
and profitable duties of teacher and vice- 
principal, that, at a meeting of the Chris- 
tian Society, at Freeland, now Collegeville, 
held in A. D. i860, he was, according to 
the usages of the Mennonite church, elected 
on trial to the office of the Gospel Minister. 
As was expected, he at once began to at- 
tend to some of the duties of the gospel 
ministry as best he could along with his 
school work, although under very serious 
disadvantages, but having succeeded fairly 
well, by the direction of the said Christian 
Society, he was on June 25, 1861, ordained 
to the office of a Minister of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ, invested with all the powers 
usually belonging to that office, by the lay- 
ing on of hands, the Revs. Abraham Hun- 
sicker, Israel Beidler, Abraham Grater and 
Henry A. Hunsicker, officiating. 

The Christian Society materialized and 
was incorporated in the Spring A. D. 1855, 
and was composed of the above named 
ministers and about forty adherents who 
had been disowned and disfellowshipped by 
a branch of the Mennonite church of which 
they had all been members, because of their 
so charged too liberal views of Christian 
doctrine, church fellowship, education, and 
kindred subjects. The society built for 
itself in Freeland (now Collegeville), in 
1854 and 1855, what is styled the "Christian 
Meeting House," and the same was opened 
in the Spring of the latter year for public 
worship. The Christian Society, through 
the stated preachings of the Gospel, during 
the first half dozen years of its existence, 
made substantial progress and seemed clear- 
ly to indicate that it had an honorable place 
and an important mission to fill in the com- 



Biographical Sketches. 



'77 



munity. It was, therefore, wisely determined 
to arrange for a more perfect church or- 
ganization, by the preparation of a disci- 
pline, election of a church council, pastor, etc. 
In February, 1862, the subject of this 
sketch was elected pastor of the Christian 
Society, the other ministerial brethren for 
good and sufficient reasons, declining to ac- 
cept the pastorate, and on the first Sunday 
in April, 1862, he was installed as pastor, 
Rev. Israel Beidler preaching the sermon and 
delivering the charge to the congregation, 
and Rev. Henry A. Huusicker delivering 
the charge to the pastor. Prior to 1862, 
the brethren who had so faithfully preached 
in the " Christian Meeting House" received 
no pecuniary compensation for their ser- 
vices. During the first two years of Mr. 
Hendricks' pastorate, he continued his re- 
lation with Freeland seminary as teacher 
and vice-principal, but in entering upon the 
third year, he wholly severed his relations 
with it, A. H. Fetterolf, now president of 
Girard college, becoming his successor. 
During the next three years of the pastorate, 
Mr. Hendricks cultivated his father-in-law's 
farm adjoining the church property, the con- 
gregation in the meantime being educated 
in the way of contributing with commenda- 
ble liberality, towards the support of the 
gospel. In February, 1867, he bought his 
father's property near the church and at 
once moved thereon, where he has lived 
ever since. 

To give a sketch of Mr. Hendricks' life 
work, is to give a history of what is now 
Trinity Reformed church, Collegeville, Pa., 
the two being closely and indissolubly inter- 
related. He is now in the thirty-fourth year 
of the pastorate. He has been actively con- 
nected with and engaged in the Sunday 
school during all its past history, com- 
mencing in the spring of 1856. For twenty- 



eight consecutive years he was superin- 
tendent. During the thirty-nine years of its 
existence he has been teaching and leading 
the singing. During the pastorate, the 
church has been continually "enlarging the 
place of her tent, lengthening her cords and 
strengthening her stakes." The church 
building has been very materially enlarged, 
improved and beautified; the church yard 
and cemetery grounds also extended to 
twice their original size. A very creditable 
church has also during the pastorate been 
founded, well organized and built up at 
Skippackville. The Collegeville church 
owns and controls a fine chapel at Iron- 
bridge, used for Sunday school and church 
purposes. 

The original Christian society, subsequent- 
ly Trinity Christian church, remained in- 
dependent of Ecclesiastical connection with 
other churches, until 1888, when, after all 
necessary and proper steps in the premises 
had been taken, it became connected with 
the Reformed (German) church of the 
United States. In 1892 the Skippackville 
church was also formally made a part of the 
same denomination. The Collegeville 
charge, as it is made up of Trinity church, 
Collegeville ; Trinity church, Skippack- 
ville ; and Ironbridge chapel, Rahn's Sta- 
tion ; and with its three Christian Endeavor 
societies, its three Sunday schools, and its 
other auxiliary church societies, is a very 
influential charge, and has grown to its 
present proportions and prominence from a 
very small beginning, under the pastorate 
of the subject of this sketch. In its earlier 
history, the Collegeville church took ad- 
vanced views on the subjects of African 
slavery, intemperance and the education of 
the masses. The pastor was fortunate in 
having a constituency of generous and large- 
hearted people who seemed equal to any 



i 7 8 



Biographical Sketches. 



reasonable demand made upon them. The 
present consistory of the church is composed 
of the following, viz ; Prof. J. S. Wein- 
berger, A. M., LL. D., Frank M. Hobson, 
Isaiah H. Detwiler, R.J. Casselberry, 'Sqnire 
John S. Hnnsicker, A. D. Bechtel, Captain 
H. H. Fetterolf, F. G. Hobson, Esq., and 
M. T. Hnnsicker. 

Ursinus college is located right in the. 
heart of the parish of the Collegeville 
church, and its professors and a large num- 
ber of its students are regular attendants at 
public worship, thus giving an intellectual 
tone to the congregation. A number of the 
members of the chnrch are either directors 
or graduates of the college. 

The subject of this sketch while lacking 
the substantial advantages to be gained from 
a college and seminary education, which 
lack he always greatly deplored, has always 
been a liberal supporter and patron of Ur- 
simis college, being for many years one of 
its directors and a member of three of its 
leading committees. His personal interest 
in higher education is further shown by the 
fact of his having three children and two 
sons-in-law as graduates of the institution. 

Mr. Hendricks enjoys the distinction of 
having served the same charge longer than 
any other living pastor in Montgomery 
county, and ont of over eight hundred and 
fifty funerals at which he was asked to offi- 
ciate, he has never missed any on account 
of sickness, and has only missed in a third 
of a century three church services on ac- 
count of any preventing bodily sickness ; 
and in all these years, has had but one brief 
"pastor's vacation," as the church's location 
and constituency make it specially unde- 
sirable not to have it open every Sabbath 
for public worship. 

The late Moses Auge wrote for the gen- 
eral public of Mr. Hendricks eight years 






ago, that he is "greatly beloved by his own 
congregation, and is much in demand out- 
side of his own churches, especially to of- 
ficiate at funerals. He is a fluent and for- 
cible preacher, speaking entirely ex tempore, 
in a rapid, earnest and convincing manner, 
impressing every one with the absolute con- 
viction of the truth of what he is saying." 
Mr. Hendricks has delivered numerous ad- 
dresses at Sunday school picnics, public 
school commencements, national Thanks- 
giving and Decoration days, and to the G. 
A. R. Posts, for which he has received 
words and testimonials of high appreciation. 

Mr. Hendricks and his wife are both in 
the enjovment of good physical health, and 
have four children living, viz : Ella M., 
married to F. G. Hobson, Esq., of College- 
ville, a lawyer at the Norristown bar, and 
treasurer and trust officer of the Norristown 
Title, Trust and Safe Deposit company ; 
Bertha, married to the Rev. Charles E. 
Wehler, pastor of St. Paul's Reformed 
church, Manheim, Lancaster county, Pa.; 
Abraham H., whose wife is the daughter of 
Addison T. Miller, of Limerick, residing at 
Pottstown, is a lawyer, holding the office of 
borough solicitor of Pottstown, and is a 
prominent candidate for district attorney of 
the county ; Sara C., unmarried and resid- 
ing with her parents, a cultured singer, the 
leading soprano singer in the Sunday school, 
church, etc., of her native village, and has 
been elected teacher of voice culture at Ur- 
sinus college. 

Mrs. Hendricks' mother, the relict of the 
late Rev. Abraham Hunsicker, is still living, 
enjoys good health, and has the use of her 
bodily and mental powers to a high degree, 
although born November 16, 1798, and now 
almost ninety-seven years of age. 

Although Mr. Hendricks did not go 
through the curriculum of a college course, 




JJmr i^rfpiwfe 



Biographical Sketches. 



i/9 



yet, June 22, 1S81, the board of directors of 
Ursinus college, upon the recommendation 
of its faculty, conferred on him "the honor- 
ary degree of Master of Arts, for his personal 
worth and merits as a scholar." 



HON. HENRY W. KRATZ, a member 
of the house of representatives of 
Pennsylvania, is a son of Valentine and 
Mar)- (Weikel) Kratz, and was born in Per- 
kiomen township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, July 31, 1834. The name of 
Kratz would indicate its German origin 
and its frequent occurrence on the records 
of the county for over a century is evidence 
of the early settlement of the emigrant 
Kratz, and the respectability and individual 
worth of his numerous descendants through 
successive generations down to the present 
time. Valentine Kratz came from Ger- 
many and settled at an early day in what 
is now Montgomery county, where his son 
Valentine was born, reared and died. Val- 
entine, the younger, was the son of Isaac 
Kratz, the grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch. Isaac Kratz was a farmer, and 
removed from Perkiomen to Upper Provi- 
dence township, where he died, aged eighty- 
one years. He was a Mennonite and a Re- 
publican, and wedded Catharine Hunsicker, 
by whom he had eight children : Valentine, 
William, Isaac, Rebecca Godshall, Catha- 
rine Rittenhouse and Mary Bean, Elizabeth 
Young and Ann Cassel. Valentine Kratz, 
f father) was born October 10, 18 10, in Per- 
kiomen township, and died at Trappe in 
1891. He was a shoemaker by trade, con- 
ducting a shop at the Trappe for many 
years and later on became a fanner. He 
was a Republican in politics, and a mem- 
ber of the Reformed church, and wedded 



Mary Weikel, who is a daughter of Henry 
Weikel, and still survives her husband, 
being now (1895) in the eighty-sixth year 
of her age. 

To Valentine and Mary Kratz were born 
five children : Hon. Henry W., Catharine, 
bom March 6, 1837, died September 7, 
1841 ; Sarah, born May 3, 1840, died Au- 
gust 24, 1 84 1 ; Dora, born September 27, 
died March 16, 1845 ; and Elizabeth, born 
April 2, 1846, and died February 8, 1859. 

Henry W. Kratz, at six years of age, was 
taken by his parents to the Trappe, in Up- 
per Providence township, where he resided 
up to 1889, in which year he removed to 
his present residence at Norristown. He 
attended the common schools and then en- 
tered Washington Hall Collegiate institute, 
where he received a thorough English and 
partial classical education. His first em- 
ployment was teaching, which he followed 
continuously for eighteen years in his own 
and adjoining townships. During the 
earlier years of his teaching, Mr. Kratz 
took up surveying and conveyancing, which 
he followed largely from 1862 to 1882, and 
since his removal to Norristown he has 
been engaged in conveyancing and in the 
real estate and insurance business. His 
political career dates back to the same year 
(1862), when he turned from professional 
to business life. He served from 1862 to 
1882, as justice of the peace, was trans- 
scribing and message clerk of the State 
senate during the session of 1866-7, held 
the office of recorder of deeds from 1882 to 
1885, and in 1894 was elected as a member 
of the house of representatives of Penn- 
sylvania. In business he became as promi- 
nent as he was in political affairs, and in 
1874 helped organize the National bank of 
Schwenksville, of which he was a director 
until 1891, when he was elected to the 



i8o 



Biographical Sketches. 



office of president, which position he still 
holds. He has served as a manager in 
different insurance, bridge and turnpike 
companies, is treasurer of the Times Pub- 
lishing company at Norristown, and was a 
member of the State Board of Agriculture 
from 1887 to 1893. 

When he retired from teaching he did 
not lose his interest in educational matters, 
and since 1868 has been officially con- 
nected with the board of trustees of Ursi- 
nus college, of which he has served as 
president since 1873. 

On May 26, 1857, Mr. Kratz married 
Myra Bean, a daughter of William Bean, 
and their children are: Mary T. , wife of 
Augustus Bomberger ; Kate B., wife of 
Horace T. Royer ; Harry E., who married 
Mary Royer, and now holds a position in 
the office of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
company at Philadelphia ; and Irwin B. 
and Jane, who are both deceased. 

Mrs. Kratz died October 17, 1888, aged 
sixty years, and on February 17, 1892, Mr. 
Kratz wedded Emily Todd, of Philadel- 
phia, who was born October 20, 1835. She 
is a daughter of Hon. John Todd, who was 
a native and resident of Montgomery 
county. Hon. John Todd was of Scotch 
descent. He was born in Upper Provi- 
dence township, May 25, 1779, and died 
July 2, 1862. He was a farmer and Presby- 
terian, and served as sheriff for two terms 
and member of the legislature for one 
term. His children were : Dr. John, of 
Pottstown ; Dr. Samuel, of Boyertown ; 
Brooke, a resident of Pottstown ; William, 
a resident of Norristown. Mrs. Emily 
Kratz and Christiana Royer, whose hus- 
band, the late Horace Royer, was a State 
senator in 1866 and 1867, are both deceased. 

Henry W. Kratz is a member of St. 
Luke's Reformed church, of which he has 



been a trustee for fifteen years, and of 
whose choir he has been the leader for 
twenty-five years. He is a member of 
Warren Lodge No. 310, Free and Accepted 
Masons ; Norristown Chapter No. 190, 
Royal Arch Masons ; and Hutchinson 
Commandery No. 32, Knights Templar. 
He is also a member of the Montgomery 
County Historical society. In politics Mr. 
Kratz has always been a Republican He 
served for two terms as chairman of the 
Republican county committee, as a mem- 
ber of the house of representatives of Penn- 
sylvania, and he has always carefully 
guarded the interes's of his constituents. 
During the house session of 1895, he was 
a member of the committee on banks, in- 
surance, education and library, and served 
efficientlv. 



THOMAS B. EVANS, ex-burgess of 
Norristown, and editor and proprietor 
of the National Defender, of the same 
place, is a son of Francis B. and the late 
Martha (Pluck) Evans, and was born Febru- 
ary 12, 1 85 1, near Fairview, Lower Provi- 
dence township, Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania. 

His great-grandfather was a native of 
the principality of Wales, whence he emi- 
grated to this country and settled in 
Montgomery county. George Evans, 
grandfather, was born in that county, and 
followed the avocations of a farmer in 
Lower Providence township, where he 
died. His children were : George, Andrew, 
Thomas and Francis B. Francis B. Evans, 
father, was born in Lower Providence 
township, this county, in the year 1828. 
He has followed, during his career, a 
number of industrial pursuits in the county 






Biographical Sketches. 



iSi 



and now resides at Centre Square, in Whit-- 
pain township. He is a member of the Re- 
formed church, and of Blooming Rose Cas- 
tle, No. 44, Knights of the Mystic Chain. 

His marriage to Martha Pluck, daughter 
of Jesse Pluck, of Whitpain, was blessed in 
the birth of the following children : 
Thomas B., Anna Rebecca, Sarah Jane, 
George W., Mary Elizabeth, deceased ; 
Margaret McCann, deceased ; and Harriet. 

Thomas B. Evans received his scholastic 
training and education in the township and 
Norristown public schools. He worked 
upon the farm until fifteen years of age, 
when he entered upon an apprenticeship to 
the trade of a printer, in the composing 
rooms of the National Defender, at Norris- 
town. After serving three years and 
thoroughly mastering the details of the 
" Art preservative of all arts ", he followed 
it as a journeyman for a time in some of 
the leading offices of Philadelphia, and 
then for six months ran a job printing 
business on his own account, on the corner 
of Tenth and Ridge Avenue, in Philadel- 
phia. He then sold out and came to Nor- 
ristown as foreman for S. B. Helffenstein, 
at that time proprietor and publisher of 
the Defender. Mr. Evans remained in 
that capacity until January, 1893, when, 
upon the death of Mr. Helffenstein, he 
became half owner of the paper, which he 
has since published, the widow of the late 
S. B. Helffenstein retaining half interest. 
The National Defender is Democratic in 
political policy, has a wide circulation in 
the county, is newsy and spicy, and wields 
a potent influence in the political affairs of 
the county. Mr. Evans is a Democrat in 
politics and is prominent and influential in 
the councils of his party. In 1890 he was 
the nominee of his party for the office of 
burgess of Norristown, and, although his 



party is eight hundred in the minority in 
that borough, yet he was elected by one 
hundred and thirty majority, a fact attesting 
in an eminent degree, to his popularity 
with those who know him best. In the 
fraternal world he stands high and is de- 
servedly popular ; he is a member of Nor- 
ristown Lodge No. 32, Knights of Pythias; 
Consonance Chamber No. 3, Knights of 
Friendship ; Blooming Rose Castle No. 
44, Knights of the Mystic Chain ; Lynwood 
Lodge No. 154, A. O, U. W.; Norris Circle 
No. 3, of the B. U. H.; and Norristown 
Conclave, No. 125, I. O. H. He is an of- 
ficer in the church organization of the 
Trinity Lutheran church, and is a director 
of the Second Building and Loan associa- 
tion at Norristown. 

On December 17, 1873, he married Anna 
C, a daughter of Jonathan Helffenstein, 
and two children bless their union : Addie 
B., and Lavinia M. 



WILLIAM A. SCHULTZ, who owns 
the old Schultz homestead in Wor- 
cester township, is a son of Samuel and 
Susanna (Anders) Schultz, and was born in 
Lower Providence township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1838. 
Samuel Schultz was of German descent, 
and his parents were residents of Mont- 
gomery county. He was born in Upper 
Hanover township, Montgomery county, 
and died October 21, 1883. In early life he 
learned the trade of cigar maker, which he 
never followed regularly. Being more in- 
clined toward agricultural pursuits, he gave 
his time principally to the management 
and tilling of his farm. He was a zealous 
member of the Schwenkfelter church of 
Lower District, in which he had held the 



182 



Biographical Sketches. 



office of deacon for many years. He was 
prosperous as a fanner and in his business 
affairs, and married Susanna Anders. To 
their union were born five children, two 
sons and three daughters : William A., 
Sarah, now dead ; Susanna, wife of David 
Kriebel , Amanda, who married William 
H. Seipt ; and Samuel A., now deceased. 
Mrs. Schultz was a daughter of Abraham 
Anders. She was born October 2, 1815, in 
Worcester township, and passed away in 
the sixty-ninth year of her age. 

William A. Schultz passed his youthful 
days on the home where he has resided ever 
since. He was married. Reared to habits 
of industry and proper economy, and in- 
heriting his father's taste for agricultural 
pursuits, it was but natural that when he 
left the common schools he should turn his 
attention to farming. He has met with 
good success as a farmer. His farm of 
ninety-five acres is good fanning and graz- 
ing land, and lies in a neighborhood where 
school and church and market are con- 
venient. Within the last few years Mr. 
Schultz has made investments outside of 
land and beyond farming, and which have 
yielded fair returns. At the present time 
he is serving as a director of the First 
National bank of Lansdale, of which he 
has been a stockholder for several years. 
He is a Republican in politics, and has 
served several times as assistant assessor in 
the important triennial assessments of 
Worcester township. He has also served 
several times as an election inspector at his 
voting polls. 

On October 18, 1859, Mr. Schultz mar- 
ried Maria Heebner, a member of the old 
Heebner family of this county, and a 
daughter of Anthony S. and Lidia (Krauss) 
Heebner, of Worcester township. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Schultz have been born seven 



children : Mary Ann, who married Abra- 
ham K. Drisher ; Harrison, now dead ; 
Emma, wife of George Kriebel ; Amanda, 
married Isaiah S. Anders ; Amos, who 
married Lizzie Reiner ; Katie, and Samuel. 
Mr. Schultz and his wife and children are 
members of the Schwenkfelter church, in 
which he is a deacon. Mr. Schultz is 
president of the Schwenckfelter church 
committee, and has always taken a special 
interest in all kinds of church work. Maria, 
wife of William A. Schultz, died February 
1, 1889. 



MT. CRESSMAN, now engaged in the 
• wholesale and retail cigar mauufac- 
ing business, was born at Zieglersville, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, No- 
vember 6, 1839, and is a son of Jesse and 
LaAnna Cressman. The Cressman family 
is of German descent. Grandfather Cress- 
man resided near Tylersport, this county, 
where he died at an advanced age. Their 
children were Mrs. Reiter, Mrs. Nace, Mrs. 
Donnehaver, and Jesse (father), who died 
at the age of seventy-three years. Jesse 
Cressman was a shoemaker and learned 
his trade in Philadelphia, but afterwards 
removed to Zieglersville, where he re- 
mained until his death. He was a Demo- 
crat in politics, and a member of the Luth- 
eran church. He reared a family of eleven 
children: Henry, deceased ; William, Jacob, 
John, Jesse, Hannah, Paul, Kate, Mary, 
deceased ; Elizabeth, deceased ; and Sarah, 
now deceased. 

M. T. Cressman, after receiving his edu- 
cation in the common schools, became an 
apprentice to the cigar manufacturing busi- 
ness, which occupation he has followed 
since 1854. In i860, he removed to Nor- 
ristown and in 1875 he became engaged in 



Biographical Sketches. 



183 



both a wholesale and retail business. On 
December 24, 1863, he married a daughter 
of Aaron Erb, who resided at Norristown 
at the time of his death. This union has 
been blessed with four children : Mary L., 
who is the wife of George T. Bult, a resi- 
dent of Norristown ; Lizzie B., who mar- 
ried Henry Park, a stenographer, of Phila- 
delphia ; Carrie ; Ella B., who married W. 
M. King, a draughtsman, who resides in 
Norristown. 

Mr. Cressman is a strong Democrat and 
takes an active part in the interests of the 
Evangelical church, of which he is a mem- 
ber and trustee. He is also a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
Curtis Lodge No. 239 ; a member of the 
Junior Order of American Mechanics, Royal 
Council No. 37 ; and a member of the 
Knights of the Golden Eagle, Montgomery 
Castle No. 34. 



DR. JOHN R. BAER, a rising and pop- 
ular physician of Montgomery county, 
now located at Sassamanville, is a son of 
Benjamin and Catharine (Bucherj Baer, and 
was born May 3, 1868, at Topton, Berks 
county, Pennsylvania. The old world home 
of the ancesters of Dr. Baer was among the 
Rhineland provinces of Germany, whence 
they came several generations ago to the 
United States, settling in eastern Penn- 
sylvania. His paternal grandfather, 
Charles Baer, was a distinguished citizen of 
Berks county, living at the time of his 
death in 1895, in retirement at Fleetwood, 
Berks county. His children were : George, 
Jonathan, William, Benjamin, Henry, Eliza- 
beth, Hettie and Amanda. 

Benjamin C. Baer (father), was born July 
13, 1837, in Long Swamp township, Berks 



county. He was reared upon the paternal 
acres, attended the public schools and then 
for a time was engaged as a teacher in the 
same. He then took a position as clerk in 
a mercantile establishment, was station 
agent at Topton for a time and then went 
into mercantile pursuits on his own account 
along the lines of coal, grain and lumber. 
Later he engaged in the mining and ship- 
ping of iron-ore and as a wholesale dealer 
and shipper of coal. He was a Democrat 
politically and took a very active part for 
the success of his party, serving ten years as 
a member of the election board, a number 
of years as a member of the town council of 
Topton, school director at various times, 
and in 1880 was elected justice of the peace 
of that borough, which office he filled with 
efficiency and credit until he resigned in 
1884. In every position in which he was 
placed he displayed good judgment, un- 
usual business ability and a conscientious 
disposition to serve the people. Hence in 
1884 he was elected a member of the Penn- 
sylvania house of representatives, a posi- 
tion his business experience rendered him 
eminently competent to fill. His marriage 
with Catharine Bucher resulted in the birth 
of five sons and two daughters : Charles C, 
deceased; B. Frank, George H., John R., 
Katie L. , Carrie C. and N. Fred. 

Dr. Baer received his preliminary educa- 
tion in the Topton public schools, Kutz- 
town State Normal school and under pri- 
vate tutors in Philadelphia. Having re- 
solved to study medicine, he entered Jeffer- 
son Medical college, from which he gradu- 
ated in the class of 1893. The year prior to 
his graduation, he was assistant demon- 
strator of chemistry in his Alma Mater, 
and also during the year prior to his gradua- 
tion was assistant medical clinician at the 
German hospital of that city. In 1893 he 



1 84 



Biographical Sketches. 



came to Sassamanville and entered vigor- 
ously on the practice of the profession for 
which he had made such ample preparation 
and although in the practice but two years, 
has built up a large clientele. His educa- 
tion has not stopped with his common and 
normal school training and technical prep- 
aration for his profession but has been kept 
up by general reading and study, especially 
in the languages, so that he now ranks as 
one of the finest linguists of the county, 
speaking with ease and fluency five differ- 
ent languages and has contributed articles 
of literary merit to various journals of the 
profession. He is a member of Washington 
Camp No. 474, P. O. S. of A., and of the 
Reformed church. On October 14, 1893, 
he married Elizabeth D., a daughter of H. 
H. Remminger, proprietor of the Congo 
hotel at Congo, this county. One child, 
Evelyn May, blesses this union. 



BENJAMIN F. LEIDY, cashier of the 
Farmers' National Bank, at Penns- 
burg, is a son of Josiah W. and Caroline 
(Cope) Leidy, and was born August 30, 
1852, in Hilltown township, Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania. 

He is of German lineage, his great-grand- 
father was Henry Leidy, and his grand- 
father was George Leidy, who lived near 
Line Lexington, in Hilltown township, 
Bucks county, where he was a farmer by 
avocation. He married a lady by the name 
of Wambold, and lived in the township of 
his nativity all his life. 

Josiah W. Leidy was born in Hilltown 
township, on the old Leidy homestead, 
in 1816, and died in the same township on 
September 12, 1892, in the seventy-seventh 
year of his age. He was reared upon his 



father's farm, where he remained until the 
death of the latter in 1832. After receiving 
such education as the schools of his town- 
ship afforded, he commenced teaching and 
followed it several years — this and farming 
were the pursuits of his life. 

He was an active Democrat all his life, 
and upon two occasions his party showed 
its confidence in him by electing him to 
office, first as a member of the board of 
county commissioners, in 1862, and second 
as clerk of the Orphans' Court, in 1881, 
serving three years in each office to the 
entire satisfaction of the public. He was 
a man of good judgment and many strong 
qualities of character, that made him an 
exceptionably desirable public servant. He 
was an active official of the Reformed 
church, holding the office of deacon, elder, 
etc., and always took a commendable inter- 
est in every phase of church work. He 
was not only prominent in the political 
and religious circles, but in the industrial 
world as well. He was president of the 
Telford and County Line Turnpike coin- 
pan) - , treasurer of the Hilltown and Sellers- 
ville Turnpike company, and Manager of 
the Line Lexington Fire Insurance com- 
pany. 

In 1843 he married Caroline, a daughter 
of George Cope, and they became the par- 
ents of the following children : Mary, who 
wedded Samuel W. Leidy, both are now 
deceased ; Edwin C, a teacher and justice 
of the peace at Telford, Bucks county ; 
Benjamin F., subject ; and Lydia, the wife 
of H. S. Beidler, a member of the large 
flouring mill firm of Swartley Bros. & Co., 
at Doylestown, Bucks county. 

Benjamin F. Leidy received his education 
in the township schools and in the Carvers- 
ville academy. He then took up the pro- 
fession of teaching, and followed it for a 



Biographical Sketches. 



185 



term of seventeen years, holding at the 
time he gave up the profession, the State's 
commission to teach in any of the public 
schools of the commonwealth — a State cer- 
tificate. In 1S85 he was elected cashier of 
the Fanners' National bank of Peunsburg, 
a position he has held to the present time. 
Mr. Leidy is a Democrat, politically, a 
member of Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, I. 
O. O. F., and of the Reformed church, be- 
ing an ardent and active member, serving 
as deacon, and in connection with his 
church work, he has served ten years as 
superintendent of the Sabbath schools. 

On February 20, 1875, he married Miss 
Annie E. Strassburger, a daughter of 
Reuben Y. Strassburger, a lumber dealer of 
Schwenksville, this county. One child, 
Robert Clement, blesses this marital union. 



WILLIAM A. WELKER, a prosperous 
merchant and highly respected citi- 
zen of Red Hill, this county, is a son of 
John and Maria (Roth) Welker, and was 
born in Marlborough township, this county, 
in 1840. The Welkers, of German extrac- 
tion, were among the early pioneer settlers 
of what is now Upper Montgomery county, 
their settling there was co-existent with 
the possession of that region by the Indians. 
The paternal grandfather of William A. 
Welker was John Welker, who was a farmer 
and lived near what is known as Red Hill, 
in Upper Hanover township, this count}-, 
all his life. He lived in an age when Jef- 
ferson and Jackson were the idols of their 
party, and among their worshippers and ad- 
mirers — because of the principles they rep- 
resented — was John Welker. He was one of 
the early supporters of the Goshenhoppen 
Reformed church near East Greenville. 



He married Rebecca Reiter, and their chil- 
dren were as follows : John, father ; George, 
Lovina, and one that died in infancy. 

John Welker (father), was born in Upper 
Hanover township, in 1815, and died Au- 
gust 24, i860. He learned the trade of a 
blacksmith when a young man, and during 
his earh- life followed it for a number of 
years, when he purchased a farm and de- 
voted his attention essentially to the pursuits 
of agriculture. He resided at the time of 
his death in Upper Hanover township upon 
the farm now owned by William A. Welker. 
He was an active man in business, political 
and religious circles, an ardent Democrat 
and devout member of the Reformed church. 
His children were but two in number : Wil- 
liam A., and Henry J. 

Henry J. Welker, son of John and Maria 
Welker, was born November 29, 1850, in 
Upper Hanover township, Montgomery 
county, Pa. He began to teach public 
school at the age of sixteen and taught six 
years in Marlborough township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pa., and at Telford, Pa. 
He prepared for college at Mt. Pleasant semi- 
nary-, Boyertown, Pa., and entered Ursinus 
college, graduating in 1876. He pursued 
a theological course in the Ursinus school of 
theology, was licensed to preach the gospel 
by Goshenhoppen classis, and ordained to 
the holy ministry by Tohickon classis as a 
regular minister of the Reformed church. 
He served the Springfield charge, Bucks 
county, Pa., for seven years with satis- 
factory results. In 1884 he was called 
to the Tulpehocken charge, partly in 
Lebanon and Berks counties. This charge 
was at first composed of five congregations, 
but he succeeded in- having it divided in 
1891. He is now serving two of the oldest 
congregations in the Reformed church in 
this county, Tulpehocken and Kemerting's. 



1 86 



Biographical Sketches. 



He has also lately been instrumental in or- 
ganizing a congregation and building a 
church at Avon, Pa., which he is supplying 
in connection with his regular charge. 

William A. Welker received his mental 
training and education in the public schools 
of Upper Hanover township and in a nor- 
mal and classical school at Quakertown, 
Bucks county, where he won first prize — 
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary — for meri- 
torious work accomplished. Leaving school, 
he was engaged for thirteen years in teach- 
ing during the winter months and farming 
during the summer. Owning since the old 
homestead farm of fifty-eight acres, at what 
has been known as Welker's station, on the 
Perkiomen railroad. In 1874 he purchased 
the farm upon which he now resides at Red 
Hill, containing fifty acres and comprising 
a residence and good store property. Since 
occupying this property he has con- 
ducted a general mercantile business, the 
first five years in partnership with M. K. 
Gilbert, but since then on his own account, 
and does a large and successful business. In 
addition to his mercantile business, Mr. 
Welker is prominently identified with a 
number of other industrial enterprises. He 
has been a director of the Goshenhoppen 
and Green Lane Turnpike company for 
twenty-six years and secretary for three 
years ; manager of the Perkiomen and Sum- 
neytown Turnpike company for twenty-one 
years, and has been the agent for twenty 
years of the Perkiomen Mutual Fire and 
Storm Insurance company for the district of 
Upper Hanover township. He also was 
acting assistant postmaster at Red Hill, 
Montgomery county, Pa., for over seventeen 
years, and on February 1, 1893, by Hon. 
John Wanamaker, postmaster general, was 
appointed to that office, which he still holds. 

Mr. Welker is a Democrat politically, 



but believing the use of intoxicating drinks 
is an evil threatening not only the pros- 
perity, but the very perpetuity of the nation, 
he is heartily in sympathy with every move 
which has for its object the regulating of 
this curse. In 1868 Mr. Welker was com- 
missioned a justice of the peace of this place 
by Governor Gear) 7 , and recommissioned by 
Governor Hartranft, serving two terms or 
ten years in all. Mr. Welker is a member 
of the Reformed church, and has served as 
secretary of the church organization at 
Pennsburg, Pa., for twenty-five years, and 
as deacon for twelve years, always taking 
an active part in every form of church 
work and in ever}' move or measure which 
in his judgment had as its object the good 
of the community, either spiritual or mate- 
rial. On February 2, 1861, he married 
Angeline, a daughter of John Heebner, and 
five children bless this marriage relation : 
John Allen, deceased ; George M., who is 
in the mercantile business with his father. 
He married Anna Pfleiger (formerly written 
Pfluger), and two children, Melvin G., and 
Grover L., were born to them ; Alice 
L., the third child, is a teacher by profes- 
sion, a graduate of the class of 1888, of the 
Kutztown State normal school ; Harvey 
A., graduated from Ursinus college at Col- 
legeville, this county, in the class of 1893, 
taught school one term and then entered 
the New York Theological seminary, and 
is assistant at a mission station of that city. 
His wife's maiden name was Anna Stauffer ; 
William H. is at home, engaged in the 
store. 

Mr. Welker has always been an active 
Sunday-school worker, serving for nearly 
thirty years as superintendent of the Sab- 
bath school at Pennsburg. He possesses 
the confidence of the community in which 
he lives, who regard him not onlv as a man 



Biographical Sketches. 



187 



of strict integrity and probity, but as a man 
of rare good judgment and business ability, 
and he is frequently called upon to act in 
the confidence relations of assignee, execu- 
tor, and guardian. He is a useful and hon- 
ored man of the community. 



JOSEPH M. HILLES. A good represen- 
tative of the younger business men of 
Norristown, is the subject of this sketch, Jo- 
seph M. Hilles, a merchant and leading car- 
riage dealer of the firm of Hilles & Taggart, 
at ii5DeKalb street. He is a son of Ben- 
jamin L. and Elizabeth (Foulke) Hilles, and 
was born June 13, 1870, at Ambler, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. 

The Hilles family comes from a long; line 
of Welsh Quaker lineancy, the emigrant of 
whom transplanted the name with the same 
motives that were at the foundations of the 
founding of the Society on our soil ; tradi- 
tion or history reveals little authentic of the 
earlier history of the family in this country. 
David Hilles, grandfather, was for many years 
a business man of Norristown, a Republi- 
can in his political allegiance, and a mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends. He married 
Sarah Lee Lightfoot, and had four chil- 
dren : Benjamin L., father ; William, Susan, 
and Phoebe. 

Benjamin L. Hilles (father), was born at 
Maiden Creek, Berks county, Pennsylvania; 
afterwards he removed with his parents to 
Montgomery county, where he received his 
education in the public and select schools 
of Norristown, and was reared to manhood. 
He has resided here ever since, and is 
at present associated with the firm of Cas- 
well & Moore, extensive merchants, at 
Phcenixville, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 
He is a staunch Republican, but never 



sought political favor, taking only such part 
in politics as every good citizen is expected 
to take. Mr. Hilles kept up his religious 
tradition of the family in his adherence to 
the Society of Friends. 

His marriage to Elizabeth Foulke Moore, 
February 23, 1869, was blessed with one 
child, Joseph M., the subject of this sketch. 
Samuel Moore, maternal grandfather of Jo- 
seph M. Hilles, was a farmer of near Valley 
Forge, Upper Merion township, this county. 
He married Ann, daughter of Joseph 
Foulke, of Gwynedd, this county, who for 
a number of years conducted a popular 
boarding school for boys at his home. 

Samuel Moore latterly retired from the 
farm and active business pursuits and re- 
moved thence to Philadelphia, where he re- 
sided up to his death. Elizabeth Foulke, 
mother of the subject of this sketch, was 
one of a family of four children, two boys 
and two girls : Richard, deceased ; Henry 
Clay, deceased ; Hannah, who became the 
wife of Edward Hollingsworth, and resides 
in Maryland ; Elizabeth, mother of subject, 
attended the public schools of her native 
township and afterwards furthered her 
studies at Hilborn Boarding school at Ab- 
bingtou, Montgomery county. She is a zeal- 
ous and devout member of the Society of 
Friends, and a regular attendant at the 
meeting at Norristown. 

We will now come back to the subject 
proper of this biographical notice, Joseph 
M. Hilles, who received his preliminary 
training in the Valley Friends' school, Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, and subsequently 
attended the Friends' Central High school, 
Philadelphia, where he completed his edu- 
cational training. Upon leaving school he 
launched into the produce business in the 
Farmers' market at Norristown. Here he 
conducted a successful business up to 1891, 



1 88 



Biographical Sketches. 



at which time he associated with him Mr. 
Joseph Taggart, operating under the trad- 
ing name of Hilles & Taggart, and estab- 
lished what is now the leading carriage em- 
porium in Norristown. They located at 
115 DeKalb street, where they have erected 
a large salesroom with increased facilities 
for accommodating their large and con- 
stantly growing trade. Mr. Hilles is a birth- 
right member and advocate of the Society 
of Friends and a regular attendant at its 
meetings at Norristown. 



GEORGE R. ROEBUCK, superinten- 
dent of the Metropolitan Life Insur- 
ance company at Norristown, is a son of 
Joseph and Martha (Bates) Roebuck and 
was born in 1846 at Ellard, near Hudders- 
fields, Yorkshire, England. The parents 
of Mr. Roebuck, dying when he was quite 
young, he was early thrown upon his own 
resources and did not have many advan- 
tages for securing educational training, 
most of it being such as he was able to get 
by attendance upon the night schools. 
When but a mere boy he was employed in 
and about the mines of his native country 
until seventeen years of age, when he 
learned the trade of a weaver which he fol- 
lowed in his native country until 1871. 
Upon the latter date he came to the United 
States with a friend and soon secured em- 
ployment as a weaver in the Woolen Mills 
of Schofield, at Manayunk, which position 
he held five years, and then engaged in the 
green grocery business at Manayunk for 
three years. He then took the initiation 
step that led him into the business in 
which he is now so very successfully en- 
gaged. 

He began soliciting for a life insurance 



company. He followed this line of busi- 
ness six months when he was promoted to 
assistant superintendent at Manayunk, 
which position he filled up to March, 1881, 
when he was made assistant superintendent 
of the Prudential Life Insurance company, 
at Norristown, remaining with that com- 
pany but a short time. He took a similar 
position with the Metropolitan Company, 
at Norristown, carefully guarding the in- 
terests of that firm in that capacity until 
1887. Upon the latter date, because of the 
fidelity and efficiency he had displayed in 
every detail of the business, he was pro- 
moted to the position he now holds. His 
position is a most important one, his ter- 
ritory comprising the following counties : 
Berks, Bucks, Montgomery and Chester. 
These are populous and wealthy counties, 
and contain a population that does a vast 
amount of insuring, and to supervise the 
work of which requires the display of more 
than ordinary execution, ability and force. 

He has in his employ and under his 
direct supervision, an army of sixty-five 
agents. 

Mr. Roebuck is a Republican in political 
principles, and a member of the Oak street 
Methodist Episcopal church ; he has served 
the church organization as trustee and 
steward and at the present time is superin- 
tendent of the Sabbath school, and has 
always taken an active and commendable 
interest in every phase of church work. 
He is also a member of the Order of Sons 
of St. George (was the first president of 
the order held in Manayunk), and the Ex- 
celsior Building and Loan Association. 

July 29, 1873, he married Anna Kinder, 
and four children bless their union: Joseph, 
Edward, George and William Arthur, de- 
ceased. The life of Mr. Roebuck is a 
striking illustration of what a man can 



Biographical Sketches. 



i8g 



accomplish by perseverance and indomit- 
able will. His record is an exemplification 
of that aphorism : " There is always room 
at the top." 



YK7 ILLIAM F. SMITH, a present jus- 
™ * tice of the peace of Conshohocken, 
is a son of Aaron and Sarah W. (Wilkinson) 
Smith, and was born at Eldrige Hill, 
Gloucester county, New Jersey, July 27, 
1840. Aaron Smith was a native of Med- 
ford, New Jersey, in which State he resided 
until his death, at eighty-three years of 
age. He married Sarah W. Wilkinson, 
and their children were : Mary G., of 
Germantown ; James, dead; Es her A., 
William F. , (subject) and Norris W., who 
is employed in the Northern Central rail- 
road station, in the city of Baltimore, 
Maryland. Mrs. Smith, who died Jnly 17, 
1892, aged eighty-three years, was a daugh- 
ter of Josiah Wilkinson, who was a native 
and lifelong resident of Willistown and 
Goshen township, Chester county. Mr. 
Wilkinson served in the United States 
navy under Commodore Decatur, and was 
on the Constitution when it fought some 
of its hardest battles. He was a Whig and 
Friend, and his remains lie in the Goshen 
Friends burying ground. He was six feet 
two inches in height, of fine personal ap- 
pearance, and made a fine naval record for 
efficiency and bravery. Mr. Wilkinson 
married for his first wife, Annie Wayne, a 
half sister of General Anthony Wayne, and 
after her death wedded Mary Scullion, 
by whom he had thirteen children, the 
second of whom was Mrs. Sarah W. Smith. 
William F. Smith was so situated in 
boyhood that he received but eighteen 
months schooling in all, and at twelve 



years of age went to work on a farm in 
East Goshen township, Chester county, 
where he worked for some time. He then 
learned the trade of house painter, at West 
Chester, this State, and found steady em- 
ployment at that trade up to 1880, except- 
ing the time he served in the Union Army. 
Mr. Smith has resided since 1867 at Con- 
shohocken, where he has served continu- 
ously as justice of the peace since July i, 
1880, and as burgess, 1879, 1890 and 1892. 
He was one of the first when the late Civil 
war commenced, to offer his services to the 
government. He enlisted on April 19, 
1861, in company G, Second Pennsylvania 
Infantry, but in the same year was dis- 
charged at Chambersburg, this State, on 
account of sickness. After recovering his 
health to some extent, he re-enlisted on 
September 20, 1861, joining Co. H, Ninety- 
Seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, and served 
until November 15, 1862, when he was dis- 
charged on the regimental surgeon's 
certificate for physical disability, and de- 
barred from any future re-enlistment. 

William F. Smith has always been a 
Republican in political affairs, and believes 
in the faith and practice of the Society of 
Friends. 

He is a member of Fritz Lodge, No. 
420, Free and Accepted Masons ; Consho- 
hocken Conclave No 233, Heptasophs ; 
Washita Tribe No. 53, Improved Order of 
Red Men; Montgomery Lodge No. 17, 
Knights of Birmingham ; Washington 
Camp No. 221, Patriotic Order Sons of 
America ; and George Smith Post No. 79, 
Grand Army of the Republic, of which he 
is senior vice commander. 

The Smith family is of English, Irish 
and Scotch descent. Burgess Smith's 
grandfather, John Smith, lived near Mt. 
Holly, New Jersey, and served as a quarter- 



190 



Biographical Sketches. 



master in Washington's arm}-. He was a 
man of means and furnished supplies to 
the American army when it lay near Mon- 
mouth. He married a Miss Crawford, 
who lived to be ninety-two years of age. 



JOHN D. WEBER, general merchant at 
Centre Point, and postmaster of Wor- 
cester, is a son of George M. and Matilda 
(Davis) Weber, and was born in Worcester 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, December 12, 1S59. George M. Weber 
is of German descent, and was born and 
reared in Worcester township, where he has 
always resided. He is a farmer by occupa- 
tion, and a school teacher by profession, 
having taught several years. He has also 
served for some years as a member of the 
township school board. He is a Democrat 
in politics, and married Matilda Davis, 
whose father, Henry Davis, was a resident 
of Worcester. Mr. and Mrs. Weber have 
four children : Annie, wife of Theodore 
Bassett; Frank P., John D., subject; and 
Mahlon B. 

John D. Weber attended the common 
schools of his native township until he was 
sixteen years of age, and then commenced 
life for himself as a clerk in the general 
mercantile store of H. M. Zeigler, of Cen- 
ter Point. He spent four years with Mr. 
Zeigler, and then went to West Point sta- 
tion, where he served as a clerk for two 
years. At the end of that time he returned 
to Center Point, and accepted a position in 
the store of W. H. Baker, which he soon re- 
signed to enter the general mercantile es- 
tablishment of S. W. Hendricks. In a few 
months after entering Mr. Hendricks' em- 
ploy he was admitted as a partner in the 
business under the firm name of Hendricks 



& Weber. The partnership continued up 
to the spring of 1894, when he purchased 
Mr. Hendricks' interest in the store, and 
since then has conducted the business for 
himself. He keeps a full assortment of all 
kinds of general merchandise, and makes a 
specialty of any line of goods for which 
there is a particular or general demand in 
his community. He has met with success 
in his line of business and has a good pa- 
tronage. 

On April 10, 1883, Mr. Weber married 
Ida J. Beaver, who was a daughter of Dr. 
William Beaver, of Centre Point, and died 
February 14, 1891. After her death Mr. 
Weber again married on August 16, 1892, 
wedding Emma K. Brecht, daughter of 
John E. and Sarah K. (Kriebel) Brecht, of 
Worcester township. By his first marriage 
Mr. Weber had two children : George Se- 
bing, and Samuel, who died, and one child 
by his second marriage, Sarah B. 

In politics John D. Weber is a Democrat. 
He is a good business man, but no politi- 
cian. He and his wife both are members 
of the Reformed church. 



JOHN DAVIS, M. D, who has been "in 
continuous practice at Pottstown for 
a third of a century, is a son of Aaron 
and Hannah (Woodward) Davis, and was 
born January 19, 1833, near West Chester, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania. The Davis 
family is of English origin and rank among 
the oldest settlers of Chester county, while 
on the maternal side Dr. Davis' ancestors 
were of Welsh extraction. Aaron Davis 
(father), was a prominent Chester county 
farmer, a Republican in politics, and a non- 
sectarian in religious belief and church 
membership. He died in 1867, aged sixty- 



Biographical Sketches. 



191 



three years. In 1832 he married Hannah 
Woodward, a daughter of Jacob Woodward, 
of Chester county, and to them was born a 
family of five children, four sons and one 
daughter, only three of whom now survive. 
Mrs. Davis is still living, being now well 
advanced in the 88th year of her age. 

Dr. John Davis spent his early years on 
the farm, and acquired a good English edu- 
cation in the public schools and by private 
study. He engaged in teaching for several 
years, and was also connected with the 
mercantile business in Chester county until 
about 1858, at which time he began the 
study of medicine. After careful prepara- 
tion he matriculated at the Electic Medical 
college, of Philadelphia, where he remained 
until 1S62, when he was graduated with the 
degree of M. D. Dr. Davis soon afterward 
began the practice of his profession at Potts- 
town, Pennsylvania, and has ever since de- 
voted his time and attention to the healing 
art in that city. He has now been in the 
professional harness for more than thirty- 
three years, and in length of service out- 
ranks every other physician of the place. 
His practice extends over much of Mont- 
gomery and Chester counties. 

On August 26, 1858, Dr. Davis was wed- 
ded to Sarah A. Hoopes, a daughter of 
Enos Hoopes, of Chester county, and they 
had three children : Helen M., a graduate 
of the Women's Medical college, of Phila- 
delphia, who married Dr. Alfred Mullhaupt, 
of Elk county, this State, and is practicing 
medicine with her husband ; Mary, and 
Anna, both of whom died in infancy. Mrs. 
Sarah Davis died September 26, 1864, aged 
thirty years. On March 15, 1866, Dr. Davis 
was married again, his second wife being 
Elizabeth Messimer, a daughter of James 
Messimer, of Pottstown. To this union 
was born six children, five of whom died in 



childhood. The only one who reached 
maturity is Dr. William J. Davis, a young 
practicing physician of Pottstown, who 
graduated from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1889. 

Dr. John Davis is a Prohibitionist in poli- 
tics, and a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, which he has served as trus- 
tee for several years and as steward for 
nearly the third of a century. His profes- 
sional career has been one of merited success, 
and he is a cultured Christian gentleman. 



JOHN FRY, the well known hat mer- 
chant and secret society man of Norris- 
town, is the only son of John and Mary 
(Gibbs) Fry, and was born in this borough 
in 1855. The family is of German extrac- 
tion, and have resided in Norristown for 
more than a century. The paternal grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch bore the 
same name, John Fry, and lived here all his 
life. One of his sons, named for himself, 
was John Pry (father), who was also born 
and reared in the borough of Norristown. 
He was long identified with secret societies, 
and for many years had charge of the hall 
belonging to the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows in Norristown. He was the first 
organizer of the Red Men in this part of 
Pennsylvania, and was the first grand 
sachem of the first lodge of that order es- 
tablished here. He was also a member of 
the Masonic order, and much of his time 
was devoted to secret society work, in which 
he bore an active part for many years. He 
married Mary Gibbs, to which union was 
born a family of four children, one son and 
three daughters : Mariah G., Sarah E., John 
and Maggie J. The father died in 1869, 
aged sixty-five, and the mother passed from 
earth in 1882, at the age of sixty-three. 



192 



Biographical Sketches. 



John Fry, their only son, was reared in 
his native borough of Norristown, and ob- 
tained his education in the public schools. 
After leaving school he engaged in house 
painting and followed that occupation for a 
dozen years. He then embarked in the hat 
business at Norristown, which he conducted 
until 1887, when he accepted the position 
of tax collector for Montgomery county. 
After one term in this office he returned to 
the hat trade and has successfully con- 
ducted the latter business to the present 
time. His store is located on Main street, 
and he has built up a fine trade, which ex- 
tends to all parts of the surrounding country. 

Politically Mr. Fry has always adhered to 
the Democratic party, but has been liberal 
and broad minded in his views, and inclined 
to independence in local politics. In church 
relations he is a Baptist, and has served as 
librarian of the Sunday-school connected 
with his church. He is a member of Mont- 
gomery Lodge No. 57, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows ; Charity Lodge No. 190, 
Free and Accepted Masons ; and of the Im- 
proved Order of Red Men, of Norristown, 
and is also past grand sachem of the latter 
order in Pennsylvania. He has always 
taken an active interest in secret society or- 
ganizations, and is widely known in con- 
nection with the various orders in which he 
holds membership. 

Mr. Fry was united in marriage with Mag- 
gie F. Ashurrs, to whom have been born two 
children, both sons: John and James A. 



ISAAC M. SCHELLINGER, president 
1 of the Diamond Glass company of 
Royersford, is a native of the city of Phila- 
delphia, where he was born December 9, 
1863. The family from which he is de- 



scended is one of the oldest in New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania, their settlements here 
antedating by many years the arrival of 
William Penn in the new world. 

Cornelius Schellinger, paternal great- 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was a resident of New Jersey, who settled 
in Philadelphia and acquired title to landed 
property there by a grant from King 
Charles II, through Lord Lovelace, then 
governor of the province, which is now the 
state of Pennsylvania, in 1682. He was 
one of the founders of the old Swedes 
church located at the corner of Front and 
Christian streets, that city, which is now 
owned and used by the Episcopalians. 
His son of the same name (great-grand- 
father) was one of the seventy-eight repre- 
sentatives of the people of New Jersey who 
voted to ratify the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence in 1776. One of the sons of the 
latter, Aaron Schellinger (grandfather) 
served as a soldier in the war of the revolu- 
tion, and also took part as a drill master 
and recruiting officer in the war of 1812. 
Aaron Schellinger married Emily Bennett, 
and had a family of nine children, one of 
whom was Jeremiah B. Shellinger (father), 
who was born at Cape May city, New Jer- 
sey, in 1830. After attaining manhood he 
engaged in the lumber business, and mar- 
ried Louisa B Merritt, also a native of Cape 
May, and a daughter of Captain Isaac P. 
Merritt. They reared a family of three 
children, of whom two still survive. 

Isaac M. Schellinger spent his boyhood 
in Philadelphia, where he was prepared for 
college, and in 1877 entered the academy of 
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, from which insti- 
tution he was graduated in June, 1882. In 
the fall of 1886, he associated himself with 
A. A. Murray, Charles Raiser, William 
Ralston and John Hill, and purchased the 



Biographical Sketches. 



»93 



Penn Glass works at Royersford, which 
then consisted of one furnace. They or- 
ganized under the name of the Diamond 
Glass company, Mr. Schellinger being 
elected president, which office he has ever 
since occupied. They enlarged the works 
by constructing three additional glass fur- 
naces and erected several brick buildings, 
and now employ nearly three hundred work- 
men. Thus from a comparatively small 
beginning, these gentlemen have built up 
one of the most important industrial enter- 
prises in Montgomery county, and much of 
the success is due to the ability, energy and 
sound business judgment of its president. 
In addition to his interests in the Diamond 
Glass company, Mr. Shellinger is a director 
of the Home National bank of Royersford, 
president of the Arctic Refrigerator com- 
pany of Linfield, president of the Royers- 
ford Building and Loan association, and 
director of the Industrial Savings bank of 
Royersford. 

On May 7, 1888, Mr. Schellinger was 
married to Jennie L. Farrow, a daughter of 
William and Ada Farrow, of Cape May, 
New Jersey. In politics he is a Republican 
and protectionist, and in religious belief 
adheres to the Presbyterian church. He is 
a Free and Accepted Mason, and has ser- 
ved as master of his lodge. He is likewise 
a Knight of the Golden Eagle and a mem- 
ber of the Improved Order of Red Men. 



SAMUEL J. HARTZELL, a baker at 
Green Lane, this county, is a son of 
David W. and Mary Ann (Snyder) Hartzell, 
and was born December 5, 1868, at Anise, 
New Hanover township, this county. He 
attended the common schools of the town- 
ship and obtained an elementary education. 



Leaving school he learned the trade of a 
blacksmith and followed it as a means of 
securing a livelihood three years at Here- 
fordville and Geryville, in Berks county, 
Pennsylvania. He then learned the baker's 
trade at Schwenksville, where he followed 
it for two years, and at Collegeville, this 
county, for an equal length of time. He 
came to Green Lane in 1892, and founded 
his present business, purchasing building, 
residence and bakery combined. 

Mr. Hartzell has paid strict attention to 
business, and his desire has been to please 
his customers, and as a result of this he has 
built up a good business. Politically he is 
a believer in the principles of the Demo- 
cratic party, with which he has always 
voted, and is a devoted member of the Re- 
formed church at Sumneytown. 

On February 27, 1891, he married Louisa 
Kohl, and one child, Isaac Henry, blesses 
this marriage union. 



WILLIAM McKINZIE, A. M., M. D., 
a well established physician of West 
Conshohocken, is a son of Hugh and Rose 
(Todd) McKinzie, and was born in county 
Antrim, Ireland, November 14, 1841. Hugh 
McKinsie, his father, came to America in 
1843. He was a farmer by occupation and 
resided successively at Port Kennedy, Cedar 
Grove, Spring Mill and Philadelphia. 
He was a Whig and subseqently a Repub- 
lican. He reared a family of two children : 
Dr. William and John T., a business man 
of West Conshohocken. He died at Phila- 
delphia, Pa., October 4, 1887, in the eighty- 
ninth year of his age. Mrs. McKinzie died 
March 17, 1866, in the forty-ninth year of 
her age. 
Dr- William McKinzie was reared in Penn- 



13 



i 9 4 



Biographical Sketches. 



sylvania, and received his elementary 
education in the common schools. He 
was prepared for college under a private 
tutor, and then entered Lafayette college, 
of Easton, Pennsylvania, from which well 
known educational institution he was 
graduated in the class of 1866, with the 
degree of A. B. Leaving college he taught 
in the collegiate institution of Newton, 
New Jersey, during 1866-67, anc ^ tne next 
year became principal of West Jersey 
Academy, at Bridgeton, N. J. , which posi- 
tion he resigned in 1869, on account of ill 
health. In the last named year he received 
his degree of A. M. from Lafayette college, 
and entered the Medical department of the 
University of Pennsylvania, from which he 
was graduated in 1871. Immediately after 
graduation he located at Conshohocken. 
He has built up a good practice and has 
made a success of his chosen profession. 

Dr. McKinzie is a Republican politically. 
He has served as a member of council, was 
the first Republican burgess of West Con- 
shohocken, and served for eight years as 
postmaster of that place, under President 
Arthur and Harrison. He is a member of 
the American Academy of Medicine, which 
only admits members having the degree of 
A. M. He is a member and past master of 
Fritz Lodge No 420, Free and Accepted 
Masons, of Conshohocken. He is a Pres- 
byterian in religious belief, and has been a 
member for thirty-four years of the First 
Presbyterian church, of Conshohocken. 
He is the present treasurer of Conshohocken 
Presbyterian church. 

On June 21, 1881, Dr. McKinzie married 
Alice R. Durling, whose father, Jonathan 
Durliug, was a dry goods merchant of 
Easton, Pennsylvania. Their union has 
been blessed with one child, a daughter, 
named Maud. 



BENJAMIN GERY, a merchant of East 
Greenville, is a son of John and Catha- 
rine (Graber) Gery, and was born August 
20, 1826, in Herford township, Berks county, 
Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather 
was a native of Switzerland, and came to 
the United States and located, it is thought, 
in Upper Hanover township, this county, 
where he followed farming. 

Jacob Gery, grandfather, was born in 
Upper Hanover township, this county, grew 
to manhood in his native township and for 
a time followed farming, but later engaged 
in the manufacture of tiles for roofing pur- 
poses. He was a disciple of the Jacksonian 
Democracy, and a believer in the sectarian 
principles of Reformed Luther, and was an 
active church worker, and was a member of 
the old State militia. He was twice mar- 
ried. To his first wife were born eight 
children. 

John Gery (father), was born in Upper 
Hanover township, passed his early life in 
the avocation of farming and later operated 
a linseed oil mill, and still later kept a hotel 
at Milford township, in Bucks county, at a 
place known as Geryville, a village named 
for Jesse Gery, brother of the subject of this 
sketch. He was a Democrat, and a mem- 
ber also of the Reformed church, in which 
he held the offices of elder, deacon, etc. To 
his marriage relation with Catharine Graber 
were born twelve children : Reuben, Jesse, 
Elizabeth, Julia Rader, Sallie, Maria, 
Gideon, Benjamin, subject ; Anna, Kate, 
Lydia, and Susanna. 

Benjamin Gen's intellectual scholastic 
training was obtained in the Washington 
Hall seminary at Trappe, in this county. 
His first work on an individual line of ac- 
tion was as a huckster, buying agricultural 
products throughout the country and dis- 
posing of the same in the Philadelphia 



Biographical Sketches. 



*95 



markets. This line of commerce he car- 
ried on for about a quarter of a century, when 
in [883, he took up farming and pursued it 
until 1888, when he came to East Green- 
ville, and became a member of the firm of 
N. K. Gery & Company, lumber, coal, flour, 
feed and grain dealers. Mr. Gery, as were 
his ancestors, is of the Democratic faith, 
and has held the offices of councilman and 
of school director in the borough of East 
Greenville. The precepts of the Reformed 
church are in harmony with his ideas of 
orthodox dogma, and he is an active worker 
and church official in the church organiza- 
tion of that sect at the New Goshenhoppen. 
He married on February 15, 1853, Lavina 
Krauss, a daughter of Anthony Krauss, a 
machinist at Kraussdale, Lehigh county, 
Pennsylvania, and the following named 
children bless their union : James, deceased ; 
Nevin, Sarah, deceased ; Hannah, John, 
Howard B., deceased ; Frank, Clement, La- 
vinnia, Charles, and Ella. 



WILLIAM SLEMMER, of Norristown, 
who extensively engaged in the oil 
business, is a son of Adam and Margaretta 
Slemmer, and was born in New Hanover 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, on January 15, 1820. He received 
his education in the old academy and in the 
High schools of Norristown. He remained 
with his father, in the printing office of the 
Norristoivn Register, until the latter sold 
the establishment, when William became 
editor and general manager of the Norris- 
town Register. In 1851 he received the 
appointment as a clerk in the post-office 
department, in which capacity he served 
until the breaking out of the Civil war. 
At this time he became interested in the 



oil business, in which he has been engaged 
ever since. In partnership with his brothers 
he purchased some oil territory near Titus- 
ville, this State, and also on the Tarr farm, 
Venango county, on which they put down 
several wells and afterwards removed to 
where he now resides. Mr. Slemmer is a 
member of St. John's Episcopal church, 
and also a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, Montgomery Lodge 
No. 57. 

On January 15, 1845, Mr. Slemmer 
married Hannah Craft, who died in 1890, 
at the age of seventy-one years. To their 
union were born three children : William 
H., who is engaged in commercial business 
in Philadelphia ; Margaret, who died in in- 
fancy ; and Mary B., widow of the late 
Frank Miller, a merchant of Norristown. 



DAVID S. KERN, a merchant of Penns- 
burg, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, is a son of Thomas and Sarah (Schuler) 
Kern, and was born December 16, 1846, 
near Shimersville, Upper Milford township, 
Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. He was 
educated in the common schools and in 
Fort Washington academy. Leaving school, 
he took a clerkship in a general store at 
Shimersville, where he remained several 
years and four years at Macungie, and then 
went upon the road for two years as a sales- 
man for Dr. Henry Geigerand Company, of 
Philadelphia. In 1871 he embarked in the 
mercantile business at Pennsburg, continu- 
ing in that line for a period of six years. 
At the end of that time he closed out his 
general mercantile business and confined 
himself to the sewing machine and carpet 
trade, to which he added, in 1883, a piano 
and organ agency, which lines with the 



196 



Biographical Sketches. 



exception of carpets, he carries to the 
present time. 

Mr. Kern is a Republican, and served 
one term under Harrison's administration as 
postmaster of Pennsburg. He is a director 
in the Fanner's National bank, and thor- 
oughly identified with the material and so- 
cial interests of the borough in which he 
lives. He is a member of St. Mark's Luth- 
eran chnrch, and has served it fonr years as 
deacon, and ten years as treasurer. 

The marriage of Mr. Kern and Sallie J. 
Danner, a daughter of David Danner, of 
Lehigh county, has resulted in the birth of 
one child, a daughter, Minnie Jane, wife of 
Dr. J. P. Hillegass, now a practicing physi- 
cian at No. 1617 West Dauphin street, Phila- 
delphia. 



ISAAC LANDIS, a leading contractor and 
business man of Norristown, was born in 
Harleysville, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, December 13, 1843. He is a son of 
Isaac and Hettie (Haldeman) Landis. The 
ancestors of Mr. Landis on both the mater- 
nal and paternal side have been residents of 
the State of Pennsylvania for more than 
two hundred years. The original settle- 
ment was made near Germantown, and re- 
sulted from the emigration of two brothers, 
who came from the Kingdom of Prussia, 
Germany. From these two emigrating an- 
cestors the Landis family in Pennsylvania 
sprang. Grandfather George Landis was a 
native of Bucks county, this State ; was a 
farmer by occupation, and is buried in the 
county of his birth. His son, Isaac Landis, 
sr., father of this subject, is still living at an 
advanced age. In early life he was inden- 
tured to learn the trade of stone mason, but 
later in life gave up his trade and pursued 
the occupation of farming. 



Isaac Landis, jr., was brought up in this 
county and lived here until he attained the 
age of twenty-one years, at which time he 
removed to the State of Ohio, where he re- 
mained for a period of three years. At the 
expiration of this time he returned to Nor- 
ristown and carried on the trade of stone 
mason, which he had at an earlier period 
learned with his father. After a period of 
ten years he started in the stone business, 
furnishing and contracting for rough and 
prepared building stone. This naturally 
led to the business of a contractor, which 
Mr. Landis from this time forward adopted. 
He rapidly extended his business in various 
directions and soon became a leading and 
enterprising business man. 

Mr. Landis is a Republican in politics, 
and was formerly actively identified with 
all the interests of that party. He has 
served as a member of the borough council, 
takes a lively interest in all matters pertain- 
ing to municipal improvement, and is an 
ardent member of the Evangelical church. 
During the late Civil war he was a member 
of Company I, 43rd Pennsylvania militia, 
and was present at the battle of Gettysburg. 
His enlistment lasted three months, after 
which he returned to civic life. 

Mr. Landis was married on October 17, 
1872, to Matilda Heyberry, of Norristown. 
To this union has been born five children : 
Win. G., John, James G-, Carrie, and Man*. 

In the summer of 1895 Mr. Landis made 
a trip to Europe, visiting not only the prin- 
cipal countries and capitals of the continent, 
but also extending his visit to the Holy 
Land. He kept a faithful journal of his 
travels, from which has been gleaned many 
facts of interest, showing that he made a 
thorough tour of that part of the globe, 
which forms the principal topics of the Old 
and New Testament. 




£/>c^£^£ 



c~ 




<s^Ls 



Biographical Sketches. 



197 



Mr. Landis was accompanied by Messrs. 
M. Geiger, S. B. Fisher and G. W. March 
on his tour. He sailed from New York on 
January 29, 1895, on the steamer Fursl Bis- 
marck, of the Hamburg-American line, 
bound for the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. 
Safely passing through a severe storm, they 
touched at the Azore Islands, the Madeira 
Islands, and Gibralter, the great English 
military station, all of which they thor- 
oughly inspected. On Sunday, February 
10th, they arrived at Algiers, a beautiful 
and picturesque city, and remained one day. 
On the nth they sailed for Genoa, and 
among other interesting points, visited the 
home of Columbus, which is still standing. 
Five days later they left for Nice, France, 
and then visited Monte Carlo, the world 
notorious gambling resort. The next stop 
was at the Island of Malta, the island where 
Paul, the Apostle, is alleged to have been 
shipwrecked while on his way to Rome. 
On February 21st they arrived at Alexan- 
dria, Egypt, where they bid a final farewell 
to the steamer Furst Bismarck, on which 
they had lived twenty-four days. In this 
historic city they remained one day, and 
among other man}- strange scenes and cus- 
toms, witnessed a Mohammedan funeral. 
That night they went to Cairo, and spent 
the next day in viewing the points of in- 
terest, such as a Mohammedan Temple, Jo- 
seph's prison and Joseph's Well, the tombs 
of the Egyptian kings, and the place where 
Jesus was supposed to have been kept in 
hiding when escaping from Herod's wrath. 
All these historic places are in old Cairo. 
The island where Pharoah's Palace was sup- 
posed to be located, was next visited, and 
the place where Moses was found in the bull- 
rushes was also viewed. While here the 
tourists saw the Khedive taking a carriage 
ride. One of the novel attractions visited 



was an ostrich farm, where 1300 birds are 
kept. The second day was spent at the 
Egyptian museum and the pyramids and 
sphinx. The destroyed city of Memphis 
was visited on the 26th. Here were seen 
pyramids made by the children of Israel 
out of clay and straw, the tombs of the 
sacred bulls and other historic objects. 

Palestine was the next place to be visited, 
and the little party of Americans started on 
the 27th, and the next day at noon arrived 
at Joppa. The tour of Palestine was very 
thorough and not a single historic spot or 
point of ancient interest was omitted in the 
itinerary. At Joppa they saw the house of 
Simon, the Tanner, and went on the roof 
where Peter had the vision of the sheet let 
down from Heaven. The tomb of Darcas, 
who was raised from the dead by Peter, and 
other places were viewed, and on March 1st 
they left for Jerusalem, passing through the 
countries of Dan, Judah and Benjamin, and 
crossing the plains of Sharon, which are 
twenty miles wide and very beautiful. At 
Ramah they ascended the tower, from the 
top of which Mount Carmel was seen. The 
valley of Ajalon, where Joshua commanded 
the moon to stand still, was crossed, and 
then was reached the town of Kirjath 
Jearim, where the arc of God remained for 
twenty years. On the way, Ain Kaaim, 
the birthplace of John, the Baptist ; the 
valley where David killed Goliath and Am- 
maus, where Christ met two of his disciples 
after the resurrection, were passed in turn 
and duly inspected. Jerusalem was readied 
that evening, and the next day a trip was 
made to the Dead Sea and the river Jordan. 
They left the city by the Damascus Gate 
and crossed the brook Kidron, and on the 
route passed the Garden of Gethsemane, 
around the Mount of Olives and Bethany, 
the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. 



198 



Biographical Sketches. 



At the Dead Sea the sites of Sodom and 
Gomorrah were viewed, as was also the 
mount where Moses viewed the promised 
land. They stopped at that place on the 
hanks of the Jordan where John is said to 
have baptised Jesus. Gilgal, where Joshua's 
soldiers encamped, was also visited. Dur- 
ing the stay in Jerusalem tours were made 
to Jericho, or its site, and the famous spring, 
the site where Herod's palace stood, Mt. 
Nebo, the castle of Macharus, where John 
was beheaded, the place where Elijah was 
fed by the raven, the tomb of Lazarus, and 
the home of Man- and Martha and Simon, 
the Leper, at Bethany. The Mt. of Olives 
was also visited, and furnished plenty of 
food for thought. The tomb of the Virgin 
Man- ; David's Tower ; the Armenian 
Convent ; the Chapel of St. James ; the 
Palace of Caiaphas, and the place where 
Jesus was imprisoned ; the room where the 
Last Supper was eaten ; the Temple Area ; 
Robinson's Arch, the wailing place of the 
Jews, where they weep and pray for deliver- 
ance ; the Mosque of Omah ; the site of 
Solomon's Temple on Mt. Mariah ; the 
Pools of Bethesda ; the Church of St. Anne 
and the Latin school for boys ; the Ameri- 
can House ; the Ecce Homo Arch are among 
some of the attractive points visited by this 
band of American pilgrims. The Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre, on the site of the 
crucifixion, was one of the most interesting- 
places viewed. Here is seen the stone of 
unction on which Jesus was laid after being 
taken from the cross, while in the centre of 
the church is the Holy Sepulchre and the 
stone that closed it. The cleft rock, in 
which the cross was planted on Mount 
Calvary, is also here, and everything is 
sacredly preserved for the edification of 
Christian travelers. Solomon's stone quar- 
ries ; the Hill of Evil Counsel ; the tomb 



of Rachel ; Solomon's Pools are seen near 
Bethlehem. 

In the city of the Nativity of Christ, 
there are many places of Biblical interest, 
and all were visited by the travelers. 
Among these are the Church of the Nativity, 
which marks the birthplace of Christ ; the 
Church of St. Catharine, and the Chapel of 
St. Helena, and all contain numerous relics 
and historic objects. The Well of Bethle- 
hem, and the place where the angels ap- 
peared to the shepherds were seen, and then 
the dangerous and rough road to Damascus 
was safely passed. This road is two hun- 
dred miles long, and they felt well paid for 
the risk they ran in taking that route, for 
they passed many points of interest, such 
as the King's tomb over Mount Noab ; the 
Greek Convent in Romalah ; Bethel, Jo- 
seph's Well ; Joseph's Tomb ; Nablons and 
the Samaritan Synagogue ; the site of the 
City of Samaria and the Plains of Dothon, 
where Joseph was put in the pit by his 
brothers. On the way to Nazareth, the city 
of Nain, where Christ raised the widow's 
son, and other towns and points of Bible 
history were inspected. They remained at 
Nazareth over Sunday and visited the sites 
of the Annunciation and Joseph's work- 
shop, and other places, and left on Monday 
for the lake of Galilee, on the way passing 
through the city of Canaan and the city of 
Gath-Hepher, Jonah's home. The Mount 
of Beautitude, where Christ preached the 
Sermon of the Mount, was next visited, and 
then the city of Tiberias, on the banks of 
the lake of Galilee. The next day they 
went by boat to the destroyed city of Caper- 
naum, where Christ performed many mira- 
cles, and then to Bethsaida, the home of 
Andrew and Peter, still famous as a fishing 
town. From here the home of Mar)- Mag- 
dalene, Magdala, was seen. After seeing 



Biographical Sketches. 



199 



all that was worthy of note, the tourists re- 
sumed their way to Damascus, where they 
arrived on March 15. Here was seen the 
place where Paul was let clown in the 
basket, and the homes of Ananias and No- 
main, the leper. On leaving Damascus, the 
route led to Beyroot, on the Mediterranean, 
which was reached on March 17th, amid a 
heavy snow storm. From here the Ameri- 
cans turned their faces toward home, on the 
way visiting Athens, Patras, Phrineas, Italy, 
Naples, Pompeii, Rome, Florence, Venice, 
Vienna, Berlin, Frankford, Menis, Cologne, 
Brussels, Paris, and London. On Saturday, 
April 20th, the party set sail from South- 
ampton, and arrived at home exactly one 
week later, Saturday, April 27th, having 
made a grand tour in four months. 



ALBRECHT KNEULE, the editor and 
proprietor of the Norristown daily and 
weekly Register, the Perkiomen J 'alley 
Press and the Pennsburg Baiiern Frcund, 
was born in Esslingen, Kingdom of Wuert- 
temberg, Germany, on March 1, 1832, his 
parents being Adam and Fredericke Kneule. 
After a good school education he entered, 
in 1845, an apprenticeship of four years in 
the printing establishment of the Esslingcr 
Zeilung, after which he worked as com- 
positor in Gotha's large printing house in 
Stuttgart and later on a French newspaper 
at Berne, Switzerland. 

In the fall of the year 1851 Mr. Kneule 
emigrated to America, and on February 13, 
1852, secured a position in the Neutralist 
office, Skippackville, Montgomery county, 
where he worked as compositor and press- 
man until the spring of 1857. In April, 
1857, he established a new German paper at 
Pennsburg, in the upper part of Mont- 



gomery county, under the title of Pennsburg 
Democrat, and in July, 1858, accepted an 
offer from the proprietors of the Bauern 
Freund, published then at Sumueytown, to 
combine the papers, and published them 
under the name of Bauern Freund and 
Democrat until 1865, when he bought out 
the interest of the former proprietors of the 
Bauern Freund, and carried on the business 
on his own account up to the present time. 
The Bauern Freund, after the consolidation 
of the two papers in 1858, had a circulation 
of about nine hundred, which was brought 
up by Mr. Kneule in a few years to three 
thousand and has been kept at that figure 
up to the present time. 

Mr. Kneule also founded the Perkiomen 
Valley Press, a weekly English paper, the 
initial number of which was issued January 
10, 1874, at Pennsburg, which paper has yet 
a fair circulation in the upper part of the 
county. In September of 1878, he bought 
out the Norristown Register establishment 
at Norristown, and on March 1, 1880, at the 
beginning of the Hancock campaign, under 
the firm name of A. Kneule & Son, com- 
menced the publication of the Daily Reg- 
ister, an undertaking which was considered 
by many a very doubtful experiment, and 
which it proved to be for several years, but 
by endurance, industry and careful atten- 
tion was finally made a success. The 
Daily Register is considered to-day one of 
the most popular newspapers in Norristown 
and Montgomery county. 

Mr. Kneule has been not only the mana- 
ger of the leading Democratic papers in 
Montgomery county for the past thirty- 
eight years, but he has also always taken a 
personal active part in politics and made 
public speeches for all the Democratic can- 
didates for president from Breckinbridge in 
i860 to Grover Cleveland in 1892. 



200 



Biographical Sketches. 



In May, 1881, Mr. Kneule moved from 
Pennsburg to Norristown, where he has re- 
sided ever since. On July 25, 1894, he was 
appointed, by President Cleveland, as post- 
master at Norristown. He is a member of 
the Norristown German Evangelical Luth- 
eran church, Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, and 
Pennsburg Encampment No. 234, Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows ; of Greenville 
Lodge No. 232, Knights of Pythias ; of 
Lynwood Lodge No. 154, Ancient Order of 
United Workmen ; and has been president 
of the Norristown Maennerchor from 1891 
to 1894. He has served as a member of the 
Democratic State and county committees, 
and was a school director at Pennsburg for 
nine years. He never had any desire for 
political office, preferring his line of journal- 
istic labor. 

In November, 1855, Mr. Kneule married 
Louise Kraft, daughter of Michael Kraft of 
this county. They have five children, all 
married : Edwin K., a member of the firm of 
A. Kneule & Son, publishers of the Daily 
Register, who is married to Lillian Nason 
Harding ; Henry, manager of his father's 
papers at Pennsburg, married to Mary Kolb, 
and have one son and three daughters ; 
Albert K., foreman in the Register office, 
married to Matilda Wagner, and have one 
daughter; George W. , holding a position 
in the Register office, married to Anna 
Eckert, and have one son and one daughter ; 
and Man-, married Harry Dreshman, has 
one son and two daughters. 

Albrecht Kneule has been the architect 
of his own good fortune in his adopted land, 
and a just and very truthful compliment 
was paid to him some years ago by a former 
biographer who said : " The life of this 
German emigrant, who has been taught in 
German schools and printing offices, to 
aspire to something more than a plodding 



soldier, shows the possibilities of free Ameri- 
can citizenship. From the humble printer 
of 1852, by strict attention to a chosen pur- 
suit, he has become the principal proprietor 
of three widely circulated newspapers, the 
Register, the Perkiomen I'alley Press and 
the Bauern Frewta"." 



SAMUEL COATS, the inventor of some 
important and valuable steam machin- 
ery, is a son of Lindsay and Priscilla 
(Fisher) Coats, and was born just beyond 
the Bridgeport, borough line, in Upper 
Merion township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, June 1, 1841. He received 
his education at Tremont seminary when 
under the charge of Rev. Samuel Aaron 
and Prof. John W. Loch. He completed 
the seminary course at eighteen years of 
age, and then entered the employ of Sup- 
plee & Co., of Columbia, Pennsylvania, 
with whom he learned engineering. His 
first service as an engineer was at a rolling 
mill, and afterwards had charge of the 
general machinery of John Beard's exten- 
sive marble yard at Philadelphia, where he 
operated the first steam hoisting machine 
used in this country. Leaving Mr. Beard's 
employ, he became superintendent of 
machinery for the Knickerbocker Ice 
company of Philadelphia and Norristown, 
and after a continuous service of ten years, 
he returned to the home farm of eightv- 
three acres just beyond the borough limits 
of Bridgeport. At the end of three years, 
in 1887, he quit fanning and removed to 
Bridgeport, where, in December, 1891, he 
established his present machine shops on 
Fourth street. He does a general machine, 
plumbing, gas and steam fitting business, 
and builds and repairs bicycles. Mr. Coats 



Biographical Sketches. 



201 



has devoted considerable time to the study 
of steam machinery with beneficial re- 
sults. He invented the improved electric 
moterwith long stroke, which he neglected 
to patent until a Boston manufacturing 
company took up his idea and patented it. 
He is the inventor and patentee of an auto- 
matic fire escape for horses and cattle, which 
unhalters all stock and opens the doors of 
a stable in case of fire. This fire escape 
is now in use in Philadelphia, where 
Henderson & Bro. have their large stables 
provided with it. He is the inventor and 
patentee of a double thrashing machine, 
and Coats' variable pressure steam damper 
regulator, which regulates the pressure of 
steam in fifteen seconds. The object of 
the regulator is to use less coal and give 
more steam, while it gives a more regular 
heat in a building. It was used during the 
last winter in different places and gave 
good satisfaction. He has served as super- 
intendent of the Bridgeport water works 
since their erection in 1892. 

On February 27, 1868, Mr. Coats married 
El izabethKean,a daughter of Alexander and 
Rebecca (Supplee) Kean, of Upper Merion. 
Mr. and Mrs. Coats had eleven children, of 
whom the following named are still living: 
Alexander K., Priscilla, Melcenea S., Bessie, 
Rebecca K. and Florence. 

In politics Samuel Coats is a Democrat. 
He was appointed justice of the peace at 
Bridgeport, by Governor Pattison in 1892, to 
fill out the time of George Thomas, and at 
the ensuing election, was elected for a full 
term. He served as treasurer and super- 
visor of Upper Merion township, and after 
serving two successive terms as mayor of 
Bridgeport, declined a third term of the 
mayoralty, which was tendered him there 
by the citizens of the place. Mr. Coats, 
during the late Civil war, enlisted in Co. 



I, Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania infantry, on 
June 29, 1863, and served nine months, 
being promoted after enlistment to fife- 
major of the regiment. He is a member of 
the Swede Episcopal church of Bridgeport, 
and a past commander of Smith Post, No. 
79, Grand Army of the Republic. 



EDWARD F. BRITT, a prominent citi- 
zen of West Conshohocken, and the 
proprietor of a large dyeing establishment 
in Philadelphia, is a son of Benjamin and 
Leonora (Nooman) Britt, and was born at 
Guelph, Wellington county, province of 
Ontario, Dominion of Canada. The 
Britt family is of English lineage, and 
Edward Britt, paternal grandfather of 
Edward F. Britt, was born in County Tip- 
perary, Ireland, where he carried on linen 
weaving for many years. He married 
Mary Wright, and to their union was born 
a family of twelve children. Benjamin 
Britt, the youngest child, became a shoe 
manufacturer, and, in 1835, emigrated with 
his wife and one child to Guelph, Canada. 
There he followed the shoe business up to 
the time of his death in 1856. He was a 
man of fair education, good judgment and 
business ability. He married Leonora Noo- 
man, and to their union were born two 
sons and three daughters : Catharine, who 
wedded John Shea, and is now deceased; 
Dennis, deceased; Sarah, wife of Michael 
Kelly, of Carthage, Missouri ; Edward F., 
(subject); and Mary, wife of James B. Hal- 
lohan, an electrician of Chicago, Illinois. 

Edward F. Britt received a good English 
education at his native place, and learned 
the trade of a dyer, which he followed in 
the States of Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsyl- 
vania, for several years. He then, in 1871, 



202 



Biographical Sketches. 



came to West Conshohocken, where he 
served as overseer of the dye department of 
George Bullock & Company's woolen mills 
for twelve years. At the end of that time, 
in 1883, he formed a partnership with 
James M. Kennedy, under the firm name of 
Kennedy and Britt, and they embarked in 
the dyeing business at the corner of Nassau 
and Jefferson streets, Philadelphia. In 
1889 Mr. Kennedy died, and Mr. Britt pur- 
chased his interest in the dye works from 
the heirs. Mr. Britt has conducted the 
business successfully ever since. His dye- 
ing-room is thirty-five by ninety feet, his 
finishing-room sixty-five by one hundred 
and sixty-five feet, and an ell building, 
used for various purposes, is forty-five by 
fifty feet in dimensions. When running 
full he employs forty men. He does a 
general dyeing and finishing business, tak- 
ing the goods direct from the factories and 
mills, and, after dyeing and finishing them, 
shipping according to directions. 

On March 5, 1867, at Fitchburg, Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Britt married Mary A. Kelly, 
a daughter of James Kelly, of Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts. To their union have been 
born eight children : Edward D., Benja- 
man F., Dr. Albert J., George (deceased), 
Charles C, William K., Rosa A., and 
Walter F. Dr. Albert J., a graduate of 
Jefferson Medical college, was resident 
physician of Charity hospital, at Noris- 
town, for a short time, and is now located at 
No. 1232 North Fifth street, Philadelphia. 

Mr. Britt has served as burgess of his 
borough for four terms Active in every- 
thing of local interest that will benefit 
West Conshohocken, he has probably given 
most attention to educational affairs. He 
has served for twenty-one years as a 
member of the school board, being president 
for several terms, and at the last election 



was unanimously elected, having been 
made the nominee of both parties. Mr. 
Britt is a member of the Roman Catholic 
church, and the Workmen's Building and 
Loan association, of which latter he is now 
president. 



ISAAC ROBERTS, the efficient cashier 
1 of the Tradesmen's National bank, of 
Conshohocken, is a son of Isaac, sr., and 
Ruth (Conrad) Roberts, and was born at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 1, 1854. The Roberts fam- 
ily is of Welsh origin and ranks as one of 
the oldest and most highly respected families 
of Montgomery county. We quote the fol- 
lowing ancestral record of Mr. Roberts which 
is full of interest. 

" Isaac Roberts, born second month, first 
day, 1854, is a son of Isaac Roberts, born 
sixth month, twenty-sixth day, 1814, and 
Ruth Conrad Roberts, married 1837. His 
father was the son of John Roberts, born 
ninth month, eighth day, 1769, and Rachel 
Shoemaker Roberts, married 1801. This 
John Roberts was the son of Joseph Roberts, 
born ninth month, eleventh day, 1729, and 
Hannah Reese Roberts, married 1727. This 
Joseph Roberts was the sou of Aaron Roberts, 
born in Wales about 1682, and Sarah Long- 
worthy Roberts, married 1727. This Aaron 
Roberts was the son of Ellis Roberts (or 
Robert Ellis), who came to Pennsylvania 
from Wales in 1690, with his wife Ellen and 
seven children and settled near Radnor, 
Lower Merion township, Montgomery coun- 
ty." 

Isaac Roberts, sr., was born at Norristown, 
June 26, 1814, and received his education in 
private schools. He served as a clerk for 
some time in a store near Phoenixville, 
Chester county, owned by Charles Adamson, 



Biographical Sketches. 



203 



and then engaged in the general mercantile 
business at Norristown, where he also in- 
terested himself in real estate. The great 
financial panic of 1857 overtook him with 
large holdings of real estate in different parts 
of the county and he suffered heavy losses 
during that period of business depression. 
After that panic he confined his efforts to 
conducting a real estate agency at Norris- 
town, which he operated up to the time of 
his death, which occurred on the seventh 
month, thirteenth day, 1866. He was an 
old line Whig and a radical Abolitionist, 
being a delegate to the first national con- 
vention of the Republican party, which met 
at Pittsburg in 1856, and nominated John 
C. Fremont for the presidency. He was 
also connected with the Underground rail- 
road. He was a member of the Society of 
Friends, and married Ruth Conrad, who was 
a daughter of Samuel Conrad, of Upper 
Dublin, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
and died on the eleventh month, thirteenth 
da}', 1889, at the age of seventy-five years. 
Of the nine children born to them, but two 
are living: Isaac, subject ; and Lucretia M., 
wife of Robert D. Smith, of Philadelphia. 
Isaac Roberts received his education in 
the Norristown High school and at fifteen 
years of age became a clerk for Evan D. 
Jones & Co., of Conshohocken, and after- 
wards served as clerk and book-keeper for 
two years for John J. Lytle, of Seventh and 
Spring Garden streets, Philadelphia ; and 
as a clerk for ten years in the private bank- 
ing house of J. Morton Albertson, of Nor- 
ristown. Leaving Mr. Albertson's employ 
he served for eight years as teller in the 
First National bank of Conshohocken, and 
was holding that position when the Trades- 
mens' National bank of the same place was 
plundered by the cashier, in 1889. This 
robbery was of such size as to necessitate 



the re-organization of the bank, and in No- 
vember, 1889, Mr. Roberts was elected 
cashier, a position which he has held with 
credit ever since. 

On June 12, 1894, Mr. Roberts was united 
in marriao-e with Ruth K. Thomas, a dauffh- 
ter of Joseph W. and Mary P. Thomas, of 
Chester county, where Mr. Thomas is en- 
gaged extensively in the fruit tree nursery 
business. 

In politics, Isaac Roberts is an ardent and 
active Prohibitionist, and during the Amend- 
ment campaign, served as secretary of the 
Prohibition county committee. He is an 
able public speaker and has sustained him- 
self in political discussion and debates 
against some of the best speakers in the 
State. He is a member of the Society of 
Friends, and assisted to organize the Young 
Friends Association, of Philadelphia. Mr. 
Roberts is courteous, affable and accomo- 
dating to all with whom he comes in con- 
tact, and ranks as a true gentleman and use- 
fid citizen in whose life record can be found 
no trace of dishonor, and no instance of a 
mean or discreditable action. 



REV. WILLIAM B. FOX, a popular 
minister of Sumneytown, in charge 
of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church 
of that place, is a son of Jones and Susan 
(Beidman) Fox, was born October 20, 1837, 
in what is now the village of Congo, in 
Douglas township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Rev. 
Fox, on the paternal side of the family, 
was Anthony Fox, who, in all probability, 
was a native of Chester county, this State, 
whence he emigrated to Douglas township, 
this county. He was a Democrat and 
devout member of the Lutheran church. 



204 



Biographical Sketches. 



His children were as follows : Rebecca, 
Susan, Jones (father), Lydia, Jacob, who 
served in the War of 1812, through which 
service he contracted a disease that led to 
his death ; James, Judith, who married 
James Bardman, and Reuben. Anthony 
Fox was born in 1763 and died in 1843. 
Jones Fox (father) was born on the home- 
stead in the village of Congo, Douglas 
township, on April 10, 1800. He took up 
the pursuits of agriculture as a means of 
securing a livelihood, was a Democrat in 
political principle and a strict member of 
the Lutheran church in religious faith, 
holding office in the same during most of 
his life. His marriage with Susan Beidman 
resulted in the birth of four sons and one 
daughter ; the daughter died in infancy. 
The sons were : Franklin, Reuben, Josiah 
and William B., subject. 

Rev. William B. Fox obtained his pre- 
paratory education in Freeland seminary, 
now Ursinus college, and afterward at- 
tended Frederick institute, completing his 
professional education in the Lutheran 
seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 
from which institution he graduated in 

1862. He was ordained to the ministry in 

1863, and received his first charge at 
Berwick, Columbia county, this State, 
where he remained six years, and in Sep- 
tember, 1868, came to Sumneytown, this 
County, where he has ever since been in 
charge of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran 
church. His pastoral duties, however, 
have not been confined to that church, but 
he has served his Divine Master as pastor 
of St. Mark's church at Pennsburg, Sassa- 
mauville church at Sassamanville, and 
Keeler's church at Frederick, in Frederick 
township. Zealously has he labored in all 
these charges since 1868, and has had the 
supreme pleasure of seeing them grow and 



prosper and the cause of the Master 
flourish. 

On June 6, 1864, Rev. Fox and Lizzie, 
daughter of Win. Mack, were united in 
marriage, and five children have blessed 
this union : Forest M., deceased ; Alverta 
May, Anna Susan, wife of Ezra Allabach, 
who is a resident of Lansdale ; Sallie E., 
wife of John Rahn, a merchant of Sassa- 
manville ; and William B., at home. 

Rev. Fox has been a constant and devoted 
worker in his chosen field, and he can now 
look upon a long professional career with 
the sweet pleasure that comes only to a life 
well spent. He is eminently popular in 
the community in which he lives, and 
highly respected by all who know him. 
He is affable in manner, kind in his dis- 
position, and is possessed of that charity 
and nobility of character that makes for 
God and Righteousness. 



EMPSON K. HAINES, a man of fine 
mechanical ability and a prosperous 
farmer of Plymouth township, is a son of 
Empson and Rachel (Buzby) Haines, and 
was born in Salem county, New Jersey, 
May 10, 1829. His paternal grandfather, 
Benjamin Haines, was a native of Burling- 
ton county, New Jersey, and followed farm- 
ing as an occupation. He was a Friend, 
and his son, Empson Haines, was the father 
of the subject of this sketch. Empson 
Haines was reared on a farm, and received 
his education in the ordinary schools of the 
neighborhood. He learned the trade of 
carpenter, and followed carpentering, con- 
tracting and building up to 1870, when he 
engaged in farming in Burlington county, 
that State, where he died September 27, 
1878, when in the eighty-second year of his 



Biographical Sketches. 



205 



age. He was a member of the Society of 
Friends, and had served his township as a 
member of its school board, and also had 
held the office of assessor continuously for 
over twenty years. He married Rachel 
Buzby, a daughter of Joseph Buzby, and to 
them were born six sons and six daughters. 

Empson K. Haines was reared ou his 
father's New Jersey farm, and received his 
education in the common schools of Bur- 
lington county, New Jersey, and Norristown 
academy, when under the management of 
the celebrated Rev. Samuel Aaron. Leav- 
ing school, he was employed in agricultural 
pursuits in New Jersey until 1867, in which 
year he rented a farm at Chestnut Hill, this 
State, on which he remained three years. 
He then bought his present farm in Ply- 
mouth township, where he has been enga- 
ged ever since in farming and stock raising. 

Mr. Haines is a natural mechanic, and al- 
though he never served a day's apprentice- 
ship to any mechanical trade, yet can do all 
kinds of carpentering and wheelwright 
work. He is a Republican in politics, and 
Friend in religion, being a member of Ply- 
mouth meeting, of which his wife and 
children are members. He cares nothing 
for political offices or public positions, and 
when offered local office has always declined 
to accept. His farm of seventy acres of 
good farming and grazing land lies within 
one and a half miles of Norristown, and 
under his skillful management has been 
made very productive. 

On May 12, 1864, Empson K. Haines was 
united in marriage with Elizabeth Ivins, 
daughter of Joseph Ivins, of near Burling- 
ton, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Haines 
have two children, a son and a daughter : 
Roland I., a practicing physician, of Cam- 
den, New Jersey ; and Louella, now attend- 
ing school in Philadelphia, this State. 



JRUFUS BARR, an experienced and 
• leading druggist of West Consho- 
hocken, is a son of Charles and Mary Ann 
(Fulton) Barr, and was born in Newtown 
township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, 
January 1, 1854. In early Colonial days, 
seven brothers by the name of Barr, came 
from Germany to this country, and one of 
them is the immigrant ancestor of the Barr 
family of Delaware county. Charles Barr, 
the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
born in 1805, in Newtown township, Dela- 
ware county, received a good common Eng- 
lish education, and owned a farm of two 
hundred acres, which he cultivated until 
1866. It that year he removed to Chester 
city, in his native county, where he was ex- 
tensively engaged in the flour and feed 
business until 1873, when his mill was 
burned. He then retired from active busi- 
ness, and resided at Chester city up to the 
time of his death, February 23, 1873. He 
was a Democrat, and a member of Maple 
Presbyterian church. He was very popular 
in his township, where he served as super- 
visor and school director, and was always 
elected, although the opposition party had 
a large majority at his voting polls. He 
married Mary Ann Fulton, a daughter of 
Robert Fulton, a native of Ireland, and a 
near relative of Robert Fulton, the cele- 
brated inventor. The family consisted of 
nine children, four sons and five daughters : 
Lewis G., deceased ; Hannah Mather, Eliza 
E. Rhoads, Margaret M. Yerkes, C. Rush, 
Susannah, deceased ; Mary K. Yerkes, J. 
Rufus, subject ; and Lewis Casper, who 
died at eighteen years of age. 

J. Rufus Barr received his education in 
the public schools of Chester, and when he 
left school, at seventeen years of age, he was 
the recipient of a certificate of proficiency. 
Leaving school, he served as a clerk in 



2o6 



Biographical Sketches. 



drug stores in Chester city, Lynwood, and 
Rockdale, Delaware county, up to 1880. 
During this period, in 1871, he entered the 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, from 
which he was graduated in 1876. In 1880 
he removed to Conshohocken and served as 
a clerk in Reddington & MacKinzie's drug 
store for five years, excepting one year spent 
in a Philadelphia drug store. He thor- 
oughly understands his business, and has a 
good trade. Mr. Barr is a Democrat in 
politics, held the post-office during Cleve- 
land's first term, and is again postmaster 
by President Cleveland's appointment. He 
is a member of the First Presbyterian 
church at Norristown, and has always been 
one of the most active and enthusiastic of 
church workers. In addition to the amount 
of church work that he does, he is a faith- 
ful and untiring laborer in the Sunday- 
school cause. As assistant superintendent 
of Mount Pleasant Union Sunday-school for 
the last ten years, Mr. Barr has not missed 
over one Sunday on an average each year, 
and then only when it was an impossibility 
to attend. He is a member of the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows, and Washing- 
ton Camp, Patriotic Order Sons of America. 
In June, 1877, Mr. Barr married Maria B. 
Williams, a daughter of John B. Williams, 
of Chester city, this State. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Barr have been born the following 
children : Louetta K., Florence F., Ger- 
trude B., Lizzie, Mar)', Charles, deceased ; 
C. Rush, Ellen Jane, Samuel F., deceased ; 
and Ruth. 



CHARLES A. KNEULE, postmaster at 
Pennsburg, this county, is a son of 
Theodore and Mary A. (Brenninger) Kneule, 
and was born April 6, 1862, near Reading, 
in Muhlenberg township, Berks county, 



Pennsylvania. His father was born in 
Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1834, but came 
in 1854, when a young man, to the United 
States. He first took up his residence in 
Salfordville, this county, but remained there 
only a short time, when he removed to 
Berks county, where he married and lived 
for a time. Then after a short stay in Le- 
high county, came in 1869, to Pennsburg, 
where he has ever since resided. He learned 
the tailor trade in the Fatherland, and has 
pursued it as a life vocation. For a time he 
ran a mercantile clothing business in Penns- 
burg, and for the last sixteen years has been 
engaged in the manufacture of clothes, at 
times on a rather extended scale, manufac- 
turing as many as three thousand pieces a 
week. He is a Democrat in political affinity, 
and a member of the Lutheran church, 
whilst fraternally he belongs to Pennsburg 
Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. F.; Pennsburg En- 
campment No. 234, of the I. O. O. F. He 
has been twice married ; first time to Mary 
E. Brenninger, a daughter of Trichler Bren- 
ninger, and three children were born to 
their union, as follows : Tusnelda, wife of 
John Kimes, a resident of Philadelphia ; 
Annie Keinert, a resident of Philadelphia ; 
and Charles A. Mrs. Mary A. Kneule died 
in September, 1875, at the age of forty- 
three years, and Mr. Kneule married as his 
second wife Caroline Hindennach, of Phila- 
delphia. Four children were born to this 
union. They were : Carrie, Eugene, Fred- 
die and Theodore, who died young. 

Charles A. Kneule had the advantage of 
but a limited education. His elementary 
education was obtained in the common 
schools of Pennsburg, after which he at- 
tended for a time Perkiomen academy. 
Leaving school, he learned the trade of a 
barber, and plied it in Pennsburg and Phila- 
delphia as a journeyman until 1879, when 



Biographical Sketches. 



207 



he purchased a shop in Peunsburg, which 
he has conducted ever since. In matters 
political Mr. Kneule has always been an 
active, influential, unswerving Democrat. 
He has served as a member of the De- 
mocratic standing committee for several 
years, and on July 8, 1893, was appointed 
postmaster of Pennsburg, the position he is 
now filling with credit to himself and with 
satisfaction to all concerned. In 1892 he 
was a delegate to the State convention that 
met at Harrisburg, and was selected as 
chairman of the Montgomery county dele- 
gation. In the fraternal world he stands 
deservedly high, belonging to a number of 
lodges well known for their missions of wis- 
dom, benevolence and charity. Among 
them are Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, I. O. 
O. F. ; Pennsburg Encampment No. 234, 
of the I. O. O. F., of which he is a past 
patriarch and the present treasurer ; Perkio- 
men Lodge No. 595, F. and A. M., of which 
he, with nine others, were the organizers, 
and of which he was the first representative to 
the Grand Lodge ; Nativity Commaudery 
No. 71, Knight Templars ; Pottstown Chap- 
ter No. 271, R. A. M. ; East Greenville 
Lodge No. 32, Knights of Pythias, of which 
he is past chancellor. 

On April 3, 1883, he married Lucy M., a 
daughter of Charles and Angeline Roeder, 
and four children have been born to their 
union : Twins, that died in infancy ; Her- 
bert Theodore, and Charles Roeder. 



HON. HENRY RIEHLE BROWN 
was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
December 15, 1844; was educated in public 
and private schools ; and removed with his 
parents to Plymouth township, Montgom- 
ery county, September8, 1859. 



In September, 1862, when the rebels 
made their first raid into Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Brown went to Harrisburg with a 
number of others from Norristown, and 
there assisted in organizing a company of 
infantry, which afterwards became Co. D. 
of the nth regiment of Pennsylvania 
militia, of which company he was elected 
a sergeant. On September 16, when 
less than eighteen years old, he was elected 
and commissioned 1st lieutenant of this 
company, and served with it during the 
emergency, in the Cumberland valley of 
Pennsylvania, and in the vicinity of Ha- 
gerstown, Maryland ; the command being, 
on the afternoon of the 16th and the 17th 
of September, within hearing of the battle 
of Antietam, but was not engaged. 

When the rebels'again invaded Pennsyl- 
vania, in June, 1863, Mr. Brown left 
Norristown for Harrisburg, June 16th, 
and on the 19th was elected 1st lieutenant 
of a company of infantry ; but there being 
not a sufficient number of recruits to 
muster as a company, the organization 
was disbanded, and on June 29th, Mr. 
Brown, with others of the company, en- 
listed in Capt. Samuel W. Comly's Wis- 
sahickon cavalry company, which was 
mustered into the United States service in 
the department of the Susquehanna, to 
serve during the emergency, and was 
attached to the 20th regiment of Penn- 
sylvania cavalry. On June, 17, Mr. Brown 
was promoted to corporal ; on the 20th to 
sergeant ; and a few days later to sergeant 
major of the regiment. The 20th regi- 
ment was composed of seven companies 
recruited for six months service, and five 
companies of emergency militia. They 
were at first employed in scouting and 
picket duty along the fords of the Susque- 
hanna, in the vicinity of Harrisburg, and 



2o8 



Biographical Sketches. 



the various roads leading towards Carlisle, 
York and Morrisville. On the 7th of July, 
the regiment left Camp Couch, near Har- 
risburg, and marched by the Cumberland 
valley to Greencastle, whence it was sent 
upon scouting duty into Maryland, and in 
conjunction with three companies of the 
first New York cavalry, followed upon 
the footsteps of Lee's army to Hagerstown, 
near which place, a portion of the com- 
mand engaged the rebels' rear guard, and 
captured a few prisoners and horses. - 
From Greencastle the regiment marched 
to Falling Waters, where it picketed the 
fords of the Potomac, then much swollen 
by recent rains. The emergency com- 
panies returned to Harrisburg, and were 
discharged in Camp Curtin, July 30, 1863. 
On November 3, 1863, Mr. Brown began 
to read law in the office of ex-Judge Hon. 
Daniel M. Smyser, in Norristown, and 
while pursuing his studies, lived with his 
parents in Plymouth township. He was 
admitted to the bar of Montgomery county 
November 13, 1866 ; moved to Philadelphia 
December 19 ; was admitted to the bar of 
Philadelphia, December 22, and began the 
practice of his profession there January 1, 
1867. He returned to Norristown to live 
in April following, but continued to 
practice in Philadelphia until June, 1871, 
when he left the bar. Becoming inter- 
ested in several patents, he devoted 
much time and attention to their develop- 
ment and introduction. Desiring to dis- 
pose of a patent right on the Pacific Coast, 
he sailed from New York for San Fran- 
cisco, via the Isthmus of Panama, on 
November 7, 1874, and remained in Cali- 
fornia nearly two years. In March, 1876, 
he became connected with the office of the 
comptroller of the currency, as special 
bank examiner, his first assignment being 



to make a special examination of the 
National Gold Bank and Trust Co., of San 
Francisco. Subsequently he was ordered to 
report at Washington, where he arrived 
in September of the same year. On 
September 28th, he was sent to Wichita, 
Kansas, to take charge, as receiver, of a 
National bank there. Some months later 
he resigned, and in March 1877, resumed 
the practice of his profession in Norristown, 
and has since been so employed. On April 
19, 1877, he was appointed notary public, and 
served until February 18, 1881, when, hav- 
ing been elected a member of the house of 
representatives, he resigned as notary 
public. In the autumn of 1877, he first 
became active in politics, on the Republi- 
can side, and in the campaign of the fol- 
lowing year, first appeared on the stump. 
On January 2, 1880, he was elected secre- 
tary of the Union Republican club, of 
Montgomery count)-, and served until 
January 24, 1884, when the club was dis- 
banded. At a special election, held Febru- 
ary 15, 1881, to fill a vacancy caused by the 
death of Wallace J. Boyd, Mr. Brown was 
elected a member of the Pennsylvania 
house of representatives, for Montgomery 
county, by a majority of 531 over Mahlon 
S. Sellers; was sworn in February 18th, 
and served on the following named com- 
mittees of that body, viz: constitutional re- 
form, ways and means, judiciary general, 
library, and federal relations. He was 
nominated by acclamation in 1882 for the 
same office, but was defeated, as were all 
Republicans on the ticket that year. He 
was elected secretary of the Republican 
county committee of Montgomery county, 
December 4, 1882, and served until Sep- 
tember 16, 1885, when he declined a re- 
election. 

At the organization of the Montgomery 



Biographical Sketches. 



2ni) 



county bar association, April 6, 1885, he 
was elected treasurer, and is still serving 
in that capacity. At the general election, 
November 2, 1886, he was elected senator 
for the 1 2th senatorial district, composed 
of Montgomery county, by a majority of 
724 over Philip Super, Esq., and served 
during the session of 1887 on the following 
committees of that body, viz : constitution- 
al reform, chairman ; centennial affairs, 
chairman ; canals and inland navigation ; 
and vice and immorality. And in the 
session of 1889 on the following committees, 
viz : constitutional reform, chairman ; 
centennial affairs, secretary ; judiciary, 
local secretary ; judiciary, special ; con- 
gressional appropriation ; insurance, and 
new counties and county seats. 

On August 23, 1887, he was elected 
treasurer of the Republican county com- 
mittee, and is still serving as such. On 
March 15, 1893, he was appointed solicitor 
to the county commissioners of Montgom- 
ery county, and is still serving. On May 
14, 1894, he was elected a member of the 
Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revo- 
lution, in right of his grandfather, Cap- 
tain William Brown of the Pennsylvania 
navy. 

He has been a member of St. John's 
Episcopal Church in Norristown since 
1865, and served as vestryman of said 
church from January 8, 1878 to October 
24, 1890 ; and as warden from March 18, 

1879, to October 24, 1890, and as treasurer 
from May 3, 1886 to October 24, 1890, re- 
signing on the last named day. He was 
married in said church on February 10, 

1880, to Alice, fourth and youngest daugh- 
ter of Alfred and Wilhelmine E. Hurst, of 
Norristown. They have two children, viz : 
Grace Bradford Brown, and Rawle Hurst 
Brown. 



On August 5, 1895, he became associated 
with Hon. Charles Hunsicker, in the prac- 
tice of the law. 



EDWARD THOMAS, a prominent busi- 
ness man of Norristown, was born Feb- 
ruary 2, 1814, in Flintshire, Wales, and is a 
son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Steiventer) 
Thomas. He was educated in the public 
schools of Philadelphia, and learned the 
trade of a carpenter and followed it as a 
journeyman in Frankford a number of years 
before going into business on his own ac- 
count. He then began a contracting and 
building business in Frankford, where he 
was actively and successfully engaged in that 
line up to the time of his comparative re- 
tirement, a period of about thirty-three 
years. The life of Edward Thomas has 
truly been an active and industrious one. 
His motto has been, " Whatever is worth 
doing at all is worth doing well," which 
coupled with energy, enterprise, persever- 
ance and economy, has enabled him to ac- 
cumulate a very handsome fortune, owning 
much valuable real estate in the borough. 
The fortune which he has made has been 
the result solely of his own unaided efforts. 
In addition to his individual real estate in- 
terests, he is interested in the Norristown 
Land company and at one time owned a 
part of the land upon which is now located 
Riverside cemetery. Politically, he is a 
Prohibitionist, and whilst he is no sense 
radical, yet he firmly believes that the liquor 
evil can most effectually be regulated 
bv judicious legislation. He has been a 
member of the Methodist Episcopol church 
for the long period of sixty-four years, serv- 
ing as class leader, exhorter, trustee and 
steward and always evincing a commendable 



2IO 



Biographical Sketches. 



interest in whatever form of church work 
he might be engaged. 

On March 30, 1837, Mr. Thomas married 
Ann Hall, a daughter of David Hall, and 
they were the parents of four children : 
Lydia, Enoch, Emma and William. All 
died in early childhood but William, who 
is a book-keeper and a resident of Norris- 
town. Mrs. Thomas was born in England 
on September 21, 1813, and died October 
8, 1892. 

Edward Tbomas stands deservedly high 
in the community in which he lives. As a 
business man, as an active church worker 
and as a citizen his record is above re- 
proach. 



JOHN E. FINLEY, senior member of the 
grocery firm of J. E. & S. Finley, of 
Norristown, is a native of this borough, 
where he was born October 21, 1846. He is 
the third son and fourth child of John S. 
and Phoebe (Rhodes) Finley, and has re- 
sided in Norristown all his life. After ob- 
taining a good education, at the age of six- 
teen, he assumed charge of a stationary 
engine connected with Schall's Iron works, 
at Norristown, Pa., and ran it successfully 
for a period of eight years. He then learned 
the trade of machinist, and worked at that 
business for two years. In 1876 he became 
connected with the Alan Wood Company's 
rolling mill, in the capacity of stationary 
engineer, and remained in that position for 
some ten years. He then embarked in the 
grocery business, in partnership with his 
brother, Samuel Finley, under the firm 
name of Finley Brothers, and has continued 
in the prosecution of that enterprise to the 
present time. They have built up a very 
nice trade. 

Politicallv, Mr. Finlev is an adherent of 



the Republican party, and a firm believer in 
the policy of protection to American indus- 
try. In religion he is a member and elder 
of the Central Presbyterian church of Nor- 
ristown. He is also a member of Gratitude 
Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
of Conshohocken, and of the Patriotic Order 
Sons of America, at Norristown. 

On October 16, 1883, Mr. Finley was mar- 
ried to Eliza Graham, a daughter of James 
and Eliza Graham, of County Tyrone. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Finley have been born two 
children, both sons : Elwood and Mark. 

John S. Finley (father) was born at Penns- 
neck, New Jersey, in 1813. When quite 
young he went to Delaware county, Penn- 
sylvania, and soon afterwards came to Nor- 
ristown. Here he entered the McCrudy 
mills, when Norristown was only a small 
village, and continued to reside here until 
his death in 1891, when in the seventy- 
eighth year of his age. He was a machinist 
by trade and worked with Moore S: Hooven, 
the latter had charge of Schall's rolling 
mill for a number of years. Politically he 
was a Jacksonian Democrat. In religion he 
was a devoted member of the Baptist church. 
He married Phoebe Rhodes, in 1838, and by 
that union had a family of eight children : 
David, Ruth, Charles, John E., the subject 
of this sketch ; Samuel, a member of the 
firm of Finley Brothers ; William A., whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this work ; 
James, and Albert. Mrs. Phoebe Finley 
died in 1879, aged sixty-two years. 



CYRUS Q. GULDIN, president of the 
Ringing Rocks Electric Railway com- 
pany, is a son of Horace N. and Elizabeth 
M. (Eshbach) Guldin, and was born at New 
Berlinville, Berks county, Pennsylvania, 





«</ . /~ChAst/dL*sv>^_j 



Biographical Sketches. 



211 



May 25, i860. He secured a good English 
education in the public schools of his na- 
tive count\', and afterward learned the trade 
of wheelwright. About 1879 he came to 
Pottstown, Montgomery county, where he 
followed his trade for a time and sub- 
sequently entered the employ of the Key- 
stone Agricultural works. Still later on he 
worked in the pattern shops of the Potts- 
town Iron company and the bridge works 
of Cofrode & Saylor. During this time his 
attention was turned toward real estate in- 
vestments, which proved very profitable. 
In partnership with his father, Horace N. 
Ouldin, he purchased a tract of land in the 
western part of Pottstown, which is now 
known as " Guldin's Addition," and pro- 
ceeded to lay it out into town lots. This 
venture was a fortunate one, and the enter- 
prising owners soon reaped a golden harvest 
by their business foresight and sound judg- 
ment, demonstrating anew that " nothing 
succeeds like success." 

In 1887 Mr. C. Q. Guldin opened a real 
estate, insurance and conveyancing office in 
Pottstown, and continued the business for 
some time. In 1888 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the town council for three years, 
being elected in a Democratic ward, although 
he had always been a Republican. At the 
close of his term in the council, he was 
elected, in 1891, to the office of chief bur- 
gess of Pottstown, by a majority of one hun- 
dred and seventy, receiving the largest vote 
ever polled for a Republican candidate in 
this city, which usually gives a Democratic 
majority of more than four hundred. In the 
discharge of his duties as burgess, Mr. 
Guldin proved himself an efficient and 
painstaking official. He is president of the 
board of trade in Pottstown, and as such has 
been actively identified with every move- 
ment to establish new industries here and 



advance the interests of the town generally. 
In doing this he has contributed freely of 
his own means, and devoted much time and 
labor to interesting others in such enter- 
prises as would benefit the town and give 
employment to her citizens, and in whatever 
undertaking he embarked, is always an un- 
tiring worker. In 1894 he was a prominent 
candidate for the Republican nomination 
for State senator from this district. 

On March 2, 1881, Mr. Guldin was mar- 
ried to Lillie Butz, a daughter of George 
W. Butz, of Pottstown. They have one 
child, a daughter named Lizzie. Both are 
members of the Lutheran church, and Mr. 
Guldin is also a member of the church 
council. He is a Knight Templar Mason, 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and of the Junior Order of Amer- 
ican Mechanics. 



ANDREW S. LEEDOM, a merchant of 
West Conshohocken, is a son of John 
and Susanna M (Steel) Leedom, and was 
born in Radnor township, Delaware county, 
Pennsylvania, September 13, 1840. Of 
Scotch origin, his immigrant ancestor to 
the new world came from Scotland and 
settled in Pennsylvania, and his paternal 
grandfather, Isaac Leedom, was a farmer 
of Radnor township, in Delaware county, 
where he was twice married, and reared in 
all a family of thirteen children. One of 
these children was John Leedom (father), 
who was born in 1799, and died January 
12, i860, aged sixty-one years. He was a 
fanner, a Friend and a Whig. He wed- 
ded Susannah M. Steel, whose father was 
Andrew Steel, of West-town. Susannah 
M. Leedom died February 20, 1882, when 
in the seventy-sixth year of her age. Mr. 



212 



Biographical Sketches. 



and Mrs. Leedom had a family of seven 
children : Silas J., Mary, wife of John 
Jones, of Norristown ; Isaac, John, jr., Ann 
Eliza, now dead ; Andrew S., subject ; and 
Sallie K., wife of John Pugh. 

Andrew S. Leedom was reared on the 
home farm, received his education in the 
common schools of his native township, 
and the Gulf school, and then entered 
Crittenden's Commercial college, of Phila- 
delphia, from which he was graduated at 
the close of his course. Returning home 
he followed farming until 1861, when he en- 
listed for three months in Company D, 
Fourth Pennsylvania infantry. At the 
close of his term he enlisted in 
Company I, Fifty-first Pennsylvania in- 
fantry, and participated in the following 
battles : Roanoke Island, New Berne, 
Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Moun- 
tain, Antietam and Fredricksburg, where a 
minnie ball dislocated his left wrist. This 
wound proved so serious that he was sent 
to a Philadelphia hospital, from which he 
was discharged on May 9, 1863, as disabled 
for military service. He had served eigh- 
teen months on his second term of en- 
listment. When he returned home he 
took a second commercial course. He 
then became a clerk in the general mer- 
cantile store of William Davis, jr., at 
West Conshohocken station, whom he 
bought out in 1864. He continued at the 
station for three years and then purchased 
ground, and built his present general 
merchantile establishment on Front street. 
He has a large patronage, and besides 
merchandising is engaged in a number of 
other business enterprises. 

On February 26, 1874, Mr. Leedom mar- 
ried Sarah E. Saylor, a daughter of Richard 
A. Saylor, a former teacher and merchant 
of West Conshohocken. 



In politics Mr. Leedom has always sup- 
ported the principles and measures of the 
Republican party. He is also a member of 
the Hicksite branch of the Society of 
Friends, and belongs to the Plymouth meet- 
ing of that division. He is a charter mem- 
ber and one of the chief organizers of Fritz 
Lodge No. 420, Free and Accepted Masons, 
of Conshohocken. 



PATRICK CURREN, a prominent bu- 
siness man of Norristown, is a son 
of Patrick and Bridget (Kell) Curren, and 
was born November 19, 1833, at Girardville, 
Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. 

Patrick Curren, father, was born in 
County Caven, Ireland, but emigrated to 
this country about February 3, 1827. F° r 
a time he lived in New York city, but 
later went into Schuylkill county, and was 
engaged in public works in that and Berks 
county and Montgomery county. His 
children were four in number : three sons 
and one daughter. 

Patrick Curren had the advantages of 
but a common school education, and at the 
early age of ten years, secured work in a 
cotton mill where he remained seven years, 
then for a short time worked in a brick 
yard. He then for nineteen years followed 
boating on the Schuylkill canal, between 
Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, 
and the cities of the Atlantic seaboard. 
Shortly after relinquishing the boating 
business, he was engaged for a time in the 
distilling business in Philadelphia. Soon 
after the close of the late Civil war, he em- 
barked in the wholesale liquor business in 
Norristown, where he has remained ever 
since. He does not confine his operations 
however to the liquor business, but is in- 



• 



» 




fpa^t'e/^ %^^t^^ 



Biographic al Skkt< hes. 






terested in a number of othei enterprise* of 
Norristown thai are the measur< of the 
towns progress and prosperity. Among 
them are the following: The Norristown 

Woolen mill, the Norristown Water com* 

pany, the- Norristown Gas company, Adam 
Scheidt Brewing company, Albertson Trust 
and Safe Di posit company, Citizens' Street 
Railway company, American Steel Plant 
at Norristown, the Montgomery hotel, the 
Bunting Liquor house of Philadelphia, a 
distillery at Louisville, Kentucky, and owns 
a line stock farm of fifty-six acres just out- 
side- the borough limits of Norristown, and 
takes a special delight in the breeding and 
raising of fancy stock. 

Politically Mr. Currcn is a Democrat, 
and is a councilman from the fifth ward of 
the borough of Norristown. In 1866 lie 
married Rose, a daughter of James Sheri- 
dan, a native of Ireland, who lived to be 
ninety-six years of age. The children that 
bless this marital alliance are as follows: 
Mary, deceased; Annie, wife of J. Prank 
Rover, of Norristown; Julia, at home; 
Francis, Edward P., Sarah, deceased ; Jane 

and Joseph. 

Edward P. Curren, son of Patrick Curren, 
was born January 28, 1870, at Norristown. 
He was educated and graduated in 1886, 
in the parochial schools of Norristown, and 
Turnout Seminary. Leaving school he- 
was engaged with his father until 1893, 
when lie was made secretary of the Adam 
Scheidt Brewing company, the position lie- 
now holds. He is interested in the Schuyl- 
kill Valley Traction company, and also 
the Consumers' Ice company, of Norris- 
town, 

Mr. Curren is largely a self-mark- man, 
practical in his views, and lias contributed 
not a little to the business enterprise and 
impetus of Norristown. He is proverbial 



for his honesty, fail dealing, and absolute 
reliability, while as a citizen I dfa I 

to the demands of good ( itizenship. 

On November 28, 1893, he married 
Louisa Emers, a daughter of Robert 
Emers, of Philadelphia, and one child, 

Pauline, b 1 heir union. 



FRANCIS II. LUBBE, oneof the old. i 
business men of Conshohoeken, is the 

I child of Herman and Catharine 
(Klinman) Lubbe, and was born at the vil- 
lage of Steinbeck, in the province of West- 
phalia, Prussia, April 9, 1820. Herman 
Lubbe was a farmer b\ occupation, served 

lot a certain length of time in the Prussian 

heavy cavalry, and died at his native village 

in 1847, at forty-eight years of age. He 

member of the Evangelical Lutheran 

church, and married Catharine Klinman, 
who died at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1869, 
aged seventy-three years, They had < 
children: Francis H., Henry, Herman, 
Catharine, Anna, Christina, Casper, Eliza- 
beth and three who died young. Of these 
children, Francis H., Herman and Anna 
came to this country with their niotl, 
Francis II. Lubbe received his education 

in the excellent schools of Prussia, and at 
twenty-eight years of age came to this 
country in quest of further knowledge in 
regard to Republican government He lo- 
cated at Bridgeport, and, in 1853, rem 
to Conshohoeken, where he has resided ever 
since. He followed contracting and build- 
ing up to 1878, when he engaged in the 
real estate and conveyancing business. He 
has been ted for man; ears with 

most of the different building and loan 
eiations of this borough and is interested in 
lectric Light, th< Gas and the V. 



214 



Biographical Sketches. 



companies, of Conshohocken. He is a Re- 
publican in politics, served as notary public 
for fifteen years, was borough treasurer from 
1874 to 1878, and is now serving on his 
fifth consecutive term as treasurer. He is a 
charter member and the oldest deacon in 
years of service in the Conshohocken Baptist 
church, and the treasurer from its organi- 
zation in 1870, and has always been an 
active, energetic and enthusiastic advocate 
of the cause of temperance. He traveled 
for a period of seven years over the greater 
part of Europe for the purpose of acquiring 
knowledge. 

On March 10, 1853, Mr. Lubbe was united 
in marriage with Anna L- Custer, a daughter 
of John Custer, of Perry county. They had 
five children, of whom the two eldest died in 
infancy, while the three younger that grew 
to maturity were : Charles C, and Wil- 
mer F., who are both dead, and Ella E., 
wife of David H. Ross, an attorney-at-law. 

Charles C. Lubbe was graduated from the 
University of Pennsylvania, and then en- 
tered the United States Naval academy at 
Annapolis, Maryland, from which he was 
graduated as No. 4 in a large class in June, 
1879. He was a young officer of bright 
promise and lost his life on August 4, 1879, 
in attempting to rescue a drowning man at 
Atlantic City, where he was awaiting or- 
ders for active duty. 

Wilmer F. Lubbe was graduated in civil 
engineering from the University of Penn- 
sylvania, took a post graduate course in 
electrical engineering, and in 1886, was em- 
ployed by the Westiughouse company as a 
construction engineer. He erected the Con- 
shohocken Electric Light plant and died 
February 6, 1889, while erecting, at Bristol, 
this State, his tenth electrical light plant, 
and was also superintendent of the Con- 
shohocken Electric Light company. 



DR. C. Q. HILLEGAS, D. D. S., a 
skilled and popular dentist of Penns- 
burg, this county, is a sou of John G. and 
Catharine (Zeigler) Hillegas, and was born 
June 29, 1870, in Upper Hanover township, 
this county. 

The genealogical record of Dr. C. O. Hille- 
gas, appears in full in the sketch of his father, 
which appears elsewhere He was edu- 
cated in the public schools of Upper Hano- 
ver township and in Perkiomen seminary at 
Pennsburg, under the tutilage of Professor 
C. S. Weand. At the early age of sixteen 
he entered the Philadelphia Dental college, 
from which he graduated in 1889, at the age 
of eighteen years, receiving the degree of 
Doctor of Dental Surgery. During the last 
year at the dental college he took the 
course of the Medico-Chirurgical cpllege, 
with the exception of the last year, being 
then in the Senior class, it being his inten- 
tion at that time to complete the coiirse, 
but he abandoned the idea and located at 
his home in Upper Hanover township, and 
began the practice of dentistry. After one 
year he removed to Pennsburg, where he 
has since practiced, and has built up an 
enviable repiitation as a skilled workman, 
and counts among his clientele many of the 
most representative families of this section 
of the county. 

Mr. Hillegas is a Democrat and a 
member of the New Goshenhoppen Re- 
formed church, and is a teacher in the Sab- 
bath school. 

On September 8, 1891, he married Ella, 
a daughter of William Siegfried, deceased, 
of Monterey, Berks county, this State. One 
child blesses this union. 

Both in his professional and social rela- 
tions Dr. Hillegas is uniformly liked. He 
is a young man of promise, steadfast pur- 
pose and strict fidelity, and in his bearing 




.(*■_ .t- 





Biographical Sketches. 



215 



manifests the instincts and training of a 
cultured mind. He is eminently deserving 
of the position he occupies among the citi- 
zens of Pennsburg. 



WILLIAM H. BUCK, justice of the 
peace and a large farmer of Marlbor- 
ough township, this county, is a son of 
Charles and Christiana (Royer) Buck, and 
was born December 31, 1847, m Upp er Han- 
over township, Montgomery county, Penns- 
ylvania. The family is of German origin, 
(the earlier name being written Bock, after 
the German), but they have been residents of 
Montgomery county for several generations. 
Hispaternal great-grandfather was Peter 
Buck, a blacksmith by trade, and at one time 
lived at Green Lane, this county ; latterly 
at Long Swamp, Berks county, where he 
died. 

Jacob Buck, grandfather, was born in this 
county June 3, 1794, but spent the early 
part of his life at Long Swamp, Berks 
county, Pa., where he married. In 1822 he 
moved to Hereford township, in said county, 
and thence, in 1823, to Sumneytown, 
where he died on August 18, 1856. 
His avocation was that of a blacksmith, his 
political principles were Democratic, and 
his religious faith was that of the German 
Reformed church. He married Anna 
Schmeck, and eight children were born to 
their union : Charles, father, Daniel, Henry, 
Jacob, James, Carmilla, now deceased, was 
the wife of Reuben Geyer ; Maria, and 
Caroline, who died when qtiite young. 

Charles Buck (father), was born August 
3, 1820, in Long Swamp township, Berks 
county, learned the trade of blacksmithing 
with his father, and followed it from 1835 
to 1862, from 1S39 to 1842 at Reading and 



Exeter. In 1842 he went to Hillegasville, 
(now Red Hill), Montgomery county, where 
he also served as State and count}' tax col- 
lector for Upper Hanover township for sev- 
eral years. In 1862 he purchased the farm 
upon which he now lives, near Green Lane, 
(where for nine years he followed farming), 
and has resided there ever since. He is a 
staunch believer in the principles of the 
Democratic party, to which he has always 
given his hearty support, and has served his 
district as school director for one term. 

On January 28, 1844, he wedded Christiana 
Royer, a daughter of Henry Royer, and his 
wife Elizabeth, (born Fryer), and they be- 
came the parents of three children : Wil- 
liam Henry, Charles, a miller and huckster 
at Boyertown, Berks county, Pa. ; and Ellen, 
the wife of Herman S. Hillegas, of Penns- 
burg, this county. 

William H. Buck, by hard and persistent 
study, obtained a good common school edu- 
cation, and being desirous of further broad- 
ening his mental culture, when seventeen 
years of age he entered Washington Hall 
boarding school at Trappe, this county. 
Leaving school he was for a number of years 
engaged in the profession of teaching. Hav- 
ing learned the trade of a miller, he for one 
year successfully operated the Macoby 
Valley mill, in Upper Hanover township, 
fromApril, 1867, to April, 1868. Having 
married in 1870, in April, 1871, he took 
his father's farm, near Green Lane station, 
where he now resides. The farm consists 
of nearly one hundred acres, is nicely and 
conveniently located, well watered, and in 
fertility is among the best in that fertile val- 
ley. Since 1871 he has, with some 
effect, followed the pursuits of an agricul- 
turist, of late making a specialty in the line 
of poultry, potatoes and garden fruits. 

Mr. Buck is a staunch Democrat, and is 



2l6 



Biographical Sketches. 



prominent and influential in the councils of 
the Democratic party. In 1876 he was 
elected a justice of the peace of Marlbor- 
ough township, and has served continuously 
in that office to the present time, by re-elect- 
ion fromitime to time. Being strongly in fav- 
or of popular education, he was elected a 
member of the Marlborough school board 
at the spring election of 1881. Upon the or- 
ganization of the board of directors in the 
following June, he was elected its secretary, 
and has held both offices continuously to 
this time. In 1884 Mr. Buck was one of 
the nominees of the Democratic party for 
the State legislature, receiving ii,oii votes, 
but went down with the rest of the legisla- 
tive ticket, due to the Blaine tide sweeping 
over the county. 

Fraternally he is a member of Penns- 
burg Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. F., and passed 
through all the chairs, having been its sec- 
retary for a number of years ; also being on 
important committees when that lodge 
built their magnificent hall. He was also a 
charter member of Adams Grange No. 64, 
Patrons of Husbandry, and took an active 
part during the yo's in breaking down the 
monopolizing tendencies of farming ma- 
chinery and implement manufacturers, and 
the excessive fees paid their agents, also 
against the sewing machine monopoly, 
which Jiad itself then ramified in every part 
of our country. 

Religiously he is a member of the New 
Goshenhoppen Reformed church, of which 
he is one of the elders, was a delegate of 
Goshenhoppen classis, to the Eastern synod 
at Harrisburg in 1894, and again is a dele- 
gate elder of said classis to said synod to 
meet at Shamokin, Pa., next October. He 
has always taken an active part in church 
work, and is highly respected and esteemed 
by everybody. 



On December 24, 1870, he married Amelia 
Brey, second daughter of Jonas Brey, a 
farmer and shoemaker at Klinesville, this 
county, and ten children have been born to 
this union. They are as follows : Cora La- 
viuia, wife of Henry T. Grubb ; Horace M., 
a teacher by profession ; William C, Jacob 
N., John C, deceased ; Richard M., Katie, 
and Frank ; Amelia C. and Wallace, (twin 
born), died in infancy. Mrs. Buck died on 
December 21, 1882, and on February 28, 
1885, Mr. Buck married as his second wife, 
Mrs. Jennie G. King, widow of Mil- 
ton King, third child and only daughter of 
Henry D. Wile and Catharine Ann, his 
wite, (born Godschall), of Franconia town- 
ship, this county. Five children bless this 
union : Warren, Minerva, Thurman, Anna, 
and Lillian. 

Mr. Buck is rather corpulent, as his en- 
graving shows, but hale and hearty. He 
always enjoys the presence of all of his in- 
teresting family and his host of friends. 
With him and his good wife the latch string 
is always out for all decent people, and 
nobody is expected to leave the portals of 
the old homestead hungry or thirsty as long 
as wheat grows and the clouds bring- rain. 



JESSE WORTH EVANS, one of the 
enterprising and successful business 
men of Pottstown, is a son of Captain 
Jesse B. and Mary Ann (Senders) Evans, 
and was born December 31, 1S50, in Lim- 
erick township, this county. His father 
was also a native of Montgomery count} - , 
who for many years was engaged in the 
manufacture of pumps in Limerick town- 
ship. He served as captain in the State 
militia and took an active part in public 
affairs. In 1827 ^ ie married Mary Ann Sou- 



Biographical Sketches. 



217 



ders, a native of Philadelphia. By that 
union he had a family of eleven children, 
of whom the subject of this sketch is the 
youngest. Jesse B. Evans died in 1858, at 
the age of sixty-one years, and his wife 
passed away in 1878, in the seventy-third 
year of her age. 

Jesse Worth Evans was reared in his na- 
tive county, obtaining his education in the 
public schools. At the age of fourteen he 
came to Pottstown as clerk in the gen- 
eral store of M. B. Casselberry, and re- 
mained in that capacity for four years. In 
1869 he purchased the butchering business 
of Mr. Casselberry, and successfully con- 
ducted that enterprise until 1871, when he 
sold out and engaged in the livery business 
at Pottstown. For eleven years he owned 
and operated a general livery business here, 
and was the first man to run cabs to the 
Reading depot. In 18S1 Mr. Evans em- 
barked in the retail tobacco trade, and soon 
afterward added the manufacture of cigars, 
and began a general jobbing business in 
tobacco. Like his previous ventures, this 
enterprise prospered in his hands, and in 
1890 he commenced dealing largely in leaf 
tobacco as well as in the manufactured ar- 
ticle. His trade now covers from eight to 
ten States, and in the aggregate is exten- 
sive and lucrative. In 1893 ne erected the 
large and commodious brick warehouse now 
in use. It is forty-five by one hundred and 
fifty feet in dimensions, three stories high 
and supplied with all modern improvements. 
This structure is a valuable addition to the 
growing city of Pottstown, and is justly re- 
garded as one of the best and most com- 
plete warehouses in Eastern Pennsylva- 
nia. 

In addition to his success in private busi- 
ness, Mr. Evans has shown great public 
spirit and done much to advance the mate- 



rial interests and prosperity of Pottstown. 
He is a member of the board of trade, and 
has been instrumental in inducing several 
of the substantial industries of the town to 
locate here. At all times he has taken an 
active part in every enterprise which had 
for its object the improvement and develop- 
ment of the city. For three years he served 
as trustee of the Bringhurst Trust fund, 
and was a member of the original commit- 
tee which was instrumental in having the 
sanitary law of 1893 passed at Harris- 
burg. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Evans has 
always been a Democrat. In 1887 he was 
elected a member of the city council, his 
majority being the largest ever given to any 
man from the west ward. After serving one 
full term he was re-elected to the council in 
1890, and in 1892 was nominated and elected 
burgess of Pottstown. He at once resigned 
his seat in the council to accept the latter 
office, which he administered with such ac- 
ceptability, that in 1893 he was re-elected 
to the same office, thus serving two fidl 
terms. While acting as mayor, Mr. Evans 
appointed the first board of health for Potts- 
town, and was the last burgess to preside 
over the borough council, as under the 
present law the council elects its presiding 
officer. 

Mr. Evans is a Free and Accepted Mason, 
a Knight Templar, and a member of Wash- 
ington Camp No. 92, Patriotic Order Sons 
of America. He is also connected with the 
Junior Order of United American Mechanics. 

On August 13, 1870, the subject of this 
sketch was united in marriage to Ella J. 
Reifsnyder, a daughter of John and Caro- 
line Reifsnyder, of Pottstown, Pa. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Evans have been born seven chil- 
dren : Charles, died in infancy ; John 
Brooke, L. Gertrude, Man- E., Jesse R., 



2l8 



Biographical Sketches. 



Ralph H., and Carrie F. Mr. Evans is a 
member of the Reformed church of Potts- 
town, as is his wife. They are both very 
popular in social circles. 



EDWARD J. CAINE, manager and sup- 
erintendent of brick work in the con- 
struction and repair department of the Alan 
Wood & Co. iron works and rolling mills 
of Coushohocken, is a son of Thomas and 
Angelina (Marier) Caine. He was born at 
Swanton Falls, in the State of Vermont, 
June i, 1838. The Caines were originally 
from England and their first home in the 
new world was in New York, from which 
colony and afterward State, they went into 
different sections of the union. John Caine 
(grandfather) was born in Detroit, Michigan, 
and coming east, resided successively at 
Swanton Falls, Vermont ; Troy, New York ; 
and Reading, Pennsylvania. He served in 
one or more of the Indian wars, was a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
died at Reading, Pennsylvania. He mar- 
ried Jane Newton, and to their union was 
born fourteen children : John, Jane, Mar- 
garet, Thomas, Melinda, Caroline, M. Hath- 
away, Elizabeth, Richard, William, George, 
Emma and Robert. Mr. Caine died in Jul}', 
1850, at eighty-three years of age, while 
his widow lived to reach her ninety-second 
year, dying October, 1856. Thomas Caine, 
one of their elder sons, was born at St. Al- 
bans, Vermont, about the year 1803, and 
followed bricklaying as a trade. He was 
also a contractor and builder, and built 
several rolling mills and gas works. He 
came to Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1849, an< ^ 
six years later went to Ludiugton, Michi- 
gan, where he died about 1878. He was a 
Democrat, served in the latter part of the 



war of 1821, and after going to Michigan, 
held the offices of justice of the peace and 
county commissioner. He was an active 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and wedded Angelina Marier, a native of 
France, a daughter of Madey Marier. Mrs. 
Caine died in August, 1877, aged seventy- 
four years. Mr. and Mrs. Caine had three 
children, a son and two daughters : Rachel 
Glassmyer, Edward (subject), and Louise 
Caswell. 

Edward Caine received his education in 
the Reading Public schools and at Farnham 
school, of Beverly, New Jersey. He learned 
the trade of bricklaying with his father, and 
in order to be a skilled workman, he went 
to Philadelphia as an apprentice for two and 
one half years, under a noted bricklayer and 
contractor. Fully completing and master- 
ing all kinds of brick work, he engaged in 
business for himself, and in 1869, entered 
the employ of Alan Wood & Co., 01 Cou- 
shohocken. He built the present rolling 
mill for the company in 1873, and since 
then has had charge of all the bricklaying 
in connection with their great works. 

On January 1, 1863, Mr. Caine married 
Ellen Gourick, of Easton. To their union 
have been born five children : Stella, Ed- 
ward, with the Lippincott shoe firm, of Phila- 
delphia, who married Ellen Graver, by 
whom he had one child, Helen ; Alan C, 
with a paper house of Philadelphia ; Aron- 
ettaA., deceased; and Bertram. 

Mr. Caine is a Republican politically. 
He is now a member of the town council 
from the Fifth ward, having served pre- 
viously one term from the Second ward. 
He is a member of the Republican League 
of Conshohocken, and Fritz Lodge No. 420, 
Free and Accepted Masons of Conshohocken. 
He served as a Union soldier in the late 
Civil war, enlisting in Company F, nine- 



Biographical Sketches. 



219 



teenth Pennsylvania infantry on April 12, 
1861. His company was stationed succes- 
sively at Hampton Roads, Fortress Monroe, 
Annapolis and Baltimore, and he was dis- 
charged on August 20, i86i,at the expira- 
tion of the regiment's term of service. 



AMBROSE DETTRE, a man of educa- 
tion and business ability, and one of 
the largest real estate dealers of Norris- 
town and Montgomery county, is a son of 
John H. and Mary (Boyer) Dettre, and was 
born at Norritonville, Norritou township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, May 
27, 1847. He is of German descent, and 
was reared at . Norristown. He received 
his education in Ursinus college, at Col- 
legeville, and Lafayette college, at Easton, 
Northampton county, and then taught 
school, which profession he soon aban- 
doned, to engage in business pursuits. 
After being variously employed, he opened, 
in 1882, his present real estate office, at 55 
East Main street, Norristown. He also 
embarked in the general insurance business 
and in conveyancing. Success has attended 
his efforts in every line of his business 
operations. He transacts a large amount 
of real estate business, represents several 
of the leading life, fire and accidental in- 
surance companies, and does quite a large 
conveyancing business. He makes a spec- 
ialty of real estate transactions, and handles 
houses, lots, farms, and other valuable 
pieces of property at Norristown and other 
places in the county. Mr. Dettre is a 
pleasant gentleman, of standing, character, 
and education, who discharges the duties 
of life earnestly and faithfully. He is a 
Republican politically. 

On July 12, 1S71, Ambrose Dettre was 



united in marriage with Linda W. Loeser, 
a daughter of James Loeser, of Philadel- 
phia. Their union has been blessed with 
three children, two sons and a daughter : 
Alice May, wife of E. Styer, who is engaged 
in the real estate business at Norristown ; 
R. Ronald, and Linn A. 

The Dettre family is noted for longevity 
as well as for the substantial qualities of the 
honest and honorable German race of which 
they are members. Christian Dettre (grand- 
father), lived near the celebrated " Barley 
Sheaf" hotel, in Norriton township, where 
he followed farming. He was a Democrat, 
and a German Baptist, and lacked but two 
mile stones of reaching the century point 
on the pathway of life. He was born 1778, 
and died 1874. He married Mary Hallman, 
whose life journey was but little over half 
of his, she dying September 22, 1822, when 
in the fifty-fourth year of her age. They 
reared a family of three sons and two 
daughters : John H., (father) ; Christian, of 
Philadelphia, who is living a retired life ; 
Mar}-, Ambrose, Thompson, of Philadel- 
phia. 

John H. Dettre was born August 10, 1810, 
in Norriton township, where he grew to 
manhood on the farm, and received the or- 
dinary education that farmer's sons ob- 
tained in that day. His life was devoted 
principally to farming. Late in life he 
came to Norristown, where he died Feb- 
ruary 8, 1892, at eighty-two years of age. 
He was a Republican, and an active mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church. He was an 
Odd Fellow, and in early life was a member 
of one of the old time militia companies 
then so numerous in Pennsylvania. 

John H. Dettre married Mary Boyer, who 
was born September 20, 1816, and is a 
daughter of George Boyer, of Norristown. 
To them were born six sons and four 



220 



Biographical Sketches. 



daughters : Augustus, born 1834, and serv- 
ing in the auditor's department of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad company ; Hen- 
rietta, born November 21, 1836, and wife 
of Jacob Custer, a farmer of Worcester 
township; Catharine, born November 21, 
1838, and is the widow of Henry Miller ; 
Boyer, born February 14, 1840, and died in 
Macon, Georgia ; John, born March 30, 
1842, and now owns one of the largest dry 
goods and grocery houses of Phcenixville, 
Chester county ; Mary D., born April 1, 
1844, who married George W. Neimon, ex- 
recorder of deeds of this county, and now 
a resident of Philadelphia ; Ambrose, the 
subject of this sketch ; Lewis, born Au- 
gust 18, 1850, and now a resident purchas- 
ing agent in Clarion county of the Standard 
Oil company ; Ella, born January 22, 1853, 
and died at eleven years of age , and Amos, 
born April 4, 1856, who now holds a posi- 
tion in the office of the Union Electric 
Street Railway company, of Philadelphia. 



SAMUEL GORDON SMYTH, a remark- 
ably active business man and resident 
of West Conshohocken, is a son of Jonathan 
and Elizabeth (Ritchie) Smyth, and was 
born at Penn's Manor, Bucks county, Penn- 
sylvania, July 24, 1859. The name of 
Smyth and the family is of Scotch-English 
origin. 

About the year 1650, the Smyths, who 
were Protestants, where compelled by re- 
ligious persecution, to flee from Cumber- 
land, England, into Scotland, where they 
remained for a time, but subsequently com- 
ing over into Ireland during the " planta- 
tion " of Ulster by King James. They 
settled at Annoy, County Antrim, while 
the branch that remained in England es- 



poused the dominant religion and in times 
past became distinguished in the military 
and naval affairs of Great Britain. The 
Puritan stock that came to Ireland became 
principally farmers, and among them sprang 
some ardent church men. 

Rev. Richard Smyth, D. D., M. P., a 
cousin of the subject of this sketch, was a 
distinguished divine of the Presbyterian 
church of Ireland, and has served with 
honor as a member of the parliament of 
Great Britain, representing the city of Lon- 
donderry, where he was professor of Hebrew 
and of theology in Magee college. An- 
other cousin is Rev. Jackson Wray Smyth, 
who was, until his recent decease, the 
" Protestant Primate " of Ireland. Both of 
these cousins were Moderators of the Gen- 
eral Assembly. 

James Smith (grandfather), residing at 
the Cathedral of Armagh, was a farmer 
and a Presbyterian elder, and married Mar- 
tha Gray, a sister of Robert Gray, whose 
son, coming to Philadelphia as a boy, be- 
came the celebrated Philadelphia brewer of 
that name. I. Smyth died in 1861, at Bal- 
lymoney, aged sixty-eight years, and his 
widow passed away in 1868, when seventy- 
six years of age. They reared a family of 
six sons and one daughter : Jonathan, Han- 
nah, William, James, Samuel, Hugh, and 
Alexander. 

Jonathan Smyth (father), was born at 
Finvoy, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1813, 
and came to the United States about 1840. 
He engaged in the grocery business in 
Philadelphia, and in 1859 removed to Falls 
township, Bucks county, where he followed 
farming for a few years, and then began the 
grocery business, which he conducted at 
Newtown up to the time of his death, 
which occurred January 3, 1S73. He was 
a strong Republican in politics. A lame 



Biographical Sketches. 



221 



leg prevented him from serving the Union 
army during the Civil war. 

He was a strict Presbyterian, and an Odd 
Fellow. He married Elizabeth Ritchie, 
who is a daughter of the late John Ritchie, 
of Bridgeport, Montgomery county, and 
was born in Philadelphia, in 1831. They 
reared three sons and five daughters : Wil- 
liam, James, Martha, Samuel Gordon, 
Anna E., Margaret J., Mary J., and Susan ; 
the three first named and the last, Susan, 
all dying in infantcy. 

S. Gordon Smyth received his education 
in the common schools of Bucks county 
and at Newtown academy for a term. At 
sixteen years of age he went to sea on a 
vessel bound for Savannah, Georgia, in 
which city he resided for a time. While 
in the steamship service of the Reading 
Coal and Iron company, he contracted 
small-pox from nursing a man with that 
disease, and through General Sickels' in- 
tercession, was admitted into a Philadel- 
phia hospital. Recovering, he went to 
Cape May, New Jersey, in 1877, where he 
learned the tin-working and heater busi- 
ness, which he followed for three years. 
In 1881 he entered the employ of Moro 
Phillips, a large chemical manufacturer of 
Philadelphia, with whom he remained until 
that gentleman's death, but was retained 
and advanced by the trustees of the estate. 
He is now a teller in the Merchants' Ex- 
change bank, at Third and Dock streets, 
and has resided at West Conshohocken 
since 1891. 

On July 24, 1879, Mr. Smyth wedded 
Mary E. Duke, whose father is Francis K. 
Duke, the present coroner of Cape May, 
New Jersey. They have three children : 
Francis A., Marion M., and S. Gordon, jr. 

In politics Mr. Smyth is a Republican. 
He has served as a member of the board of 



health, and is president of the town council. 
He is a member, trustee, and a ruling elder 
of the Presbyterian church of Consho- 
hocken, and clerk of the session. He is 
also an Encampment Odd Fellow, and a 
member of the Montgomery County His- 
torical society, to which he has contributed 
some valuable articles that have been pub- 
lished, notably one relating to Charles 
Thompson, secretary of the Continental 
Congress, whose old home is adjacent to 
" Ryhnout," the residence of the subject of 
this sketch. 



JOHN FEARNSIDE, a merchant of West 
*J Conshohocken, is a son of Benjamin 
and Anna Belle (Leith) Fearnside, and was 
born at Aberdeen, Scotland, March 18, 
1859. His grandfather, John Fearnside, 
was born, reared and educated at Yorkshire, 
England, where he was engaged for some 
years as a woolen manufacturer. In mid- 
dle life he removed to Aberdeen, Scotland, 
where he followed woolen manufacturing 
up to the time of his death. His family 
consisted of three sons and two daughters. 
One of these sons, Benjamin Fearnside 
(father), was born at Aberdeen, and came 
to this country in 1890, but soon returned 
to his native city, where he died. He was 
a woolen manufacturer, and a Presbyterian 
dissenter, and was twice married. His 
second wife was Anna Belle Leith. By his 
second marriage Benjamin Fearnside had 
eight children : Caroline, Jane, Wilhilmina, 
Benjamin, deceased ; John, subject ; Isa- 
bella, Carrie Belle ; and one child which 
died in infancy. 

John Fearnside grew to manhood in his 
native city, received an ordinary English 
education, and assisted his father in the 



222 



Biographical Sketches. 



woolen manufacturing business until 1880. 
In that year he came to this country and 
spent one year in Wisconsin. He then 
came to Conshohocken and was employed 
for six years in the spinning department of 
George Bullock & Co.'s woolen mill. 
During that time he was made secretary of 
a co-operative store at West Conshohocken, 
and soon became manager, which position 
he held until 1890, when he purchased the 
building and entire stock of goods. He 
does a general mercantile business, and has 
a good patronage. He gives his time 
chiefly to the management of his store, yet 
takes an interest in local affairs. He has 
been a Republican since coming to the 
United States, and supports the ticket of 
that party at State and National elections. 
He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal 
church. 

On June 6, 188 1, John Fearnside was 
united in marriage with Maggie Gordon, 
who is a daughter of James Gordon. Their 
union has been blessed with three children, 
two sons and a daughter : Anne Belle, Gor- 
don D , and Albert Russell. 



THADDEUS S. ADLE, one of the lead- 
ing jewelers of Norristown, is a son of 
Jacob and Sarah Koplin Adle, and was 
born in Norristown, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, on August 24, 1848. After 
spending some time in the public schools of 
his native town, he attended the Quaker 
City Business college of Philadelphia, for 
several terms. Leaving school, he entered 
the employ of W. T. Koplin, of Norristown, 
with whom he remained for several years. 
In 187 1 he went into business for himself 
and has conducted an independent enterprise 
ever since. 



Politically, Mr. Adle has always been a 
staunch supporter of the Republican party, 
and has served as school director in Norris- 
town for three successive terms. He has 
also been treasurer of the board for two out 
of the three terms. In his fraternal re- 
lations he is a member of Charity Lodge 
No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons, and 
filled the position of district deputy grand 
master for thirteen years. For a period of 
eleven years he has acted in the capacity of 
deputy high priest and at present is grand 
standard bearer of the grand commandery 
of the Knights Templar, within the juris- 
diction of Pennsylvania. Mr. Adle is also 
a communicant of St. John's Episcopal 
church, of Norristown, in which he has been 
honored with the position of vestryman. 

In 1880, Mr. Adle espoused in marriage 
Annie E. Croll, which marriage has resulted 
in the birth of a daughter, named Helen. 

Jacob* Adle, father of the subject of this 
sketch, was a native of Germany, from 
which country he emigrated to America in 
1805. Soon after landing he located at Ger- 
mautown, Pennsylvania, where he resided 
for some time and finally removed to Nor- 
ristown. Here he remained until his death, 
which occurred in 1866. He at first was 
engaged in making chairs and later em- 
barked in the grocery business. After a 
few years he exchanged merchandising for 
the furniture business, in which latter he 
remained until 1865. He was a Republican 
in politics and served as a member of the 
school board and also as a member of the 
town council. His marriage with Sarah 
Koplin was fruitful in the issue of eight 
children : Theodore, William, Thaddeus S., 
Anna, Matilda, Markley, deceased ; and one 
dying in infancy. Mrs. Adle departed this 
life on January 15, 1884, at the age of sev- 
enty-nine years. 



Biographical Sketches. 



223 



GEORGE N. HIGHLEY, M. D., who 
ranks as one of the most skillful and 
successful physicians and surgeons in Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, is a son of 
Felix and Susan R. (Corson) Highley, and 
was born in Schuylkill township, Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, August 13, 1859. 

The name is of German origin, and was 
originally spelled Heilich, but has since 
been changed and anglicized until it is 
now Highley. The original emigrant 



Heilich (Highley) came from Germany in 
about 1740, settled in Lower Providence 
township, Montgomery county, this state, and 
from him the family which is so numerous 
and prosperous in eastern Pennsylvania is 
descended. One of his sons John Highley, 
who was the great-great grandfather of Dr. 
Highley, was a prosperous farmer and jus- 
tice of the peace of Lower Providence town- 
ship. He lived there during the Revolu- 
tionary war, and saw, as a civilian, many of 
the hardships and struggles incident to that 
great Revolutionary struggle; his remains 
now lie buried in his native township. 
Henry Highley, great grandfather, was born 
in Lower Providence township, but finally 
removed to Schuylkill township, Chester 
count}', where he resided the remainder of 
his life, dying in the same house in which 
Dr. Highley was born. He was a thrifty 
and well to do farmer, a Whig in politics, a 
member of the Mennonite church ; his re- 
mains were interred in the Phcenixville 
Mennonite cemetery. He wedded Hannah 
Savior (daughter of Valentine Saylor, who 
was brought over from Germany by his 
father, Peter Savior, at the age of three 
years), who was born in Phcenixville in 1765, 
and who died in 1831. They had a large 
family among whom was George Highley, 
grandfather, who was born in Schuylkill 
township in 1800, and who died in 1874, in 



Lower Providence township, having resided 
there the greater part of his life, engaged in 
the peaceful and tranquil pursuits of hus- 
bandry. He was a man of few words but 
possessed extraordinary firmness and shrewd- 
ness and was held in high esteem in the 
community in which he lived. Politically, 
he was a Whig, but upon the disintegration 
of that party and the organization of the 
Republican party in 1856, he became a Re- 
publican. His wife was Ann Francis, 
daughter of John Francis, and a lineal 
descendant (through her mother, Elizabeth 
Pennypacker) of Pieter Dirck Keyser, one of 
the first settlers of Germantown. She was 
a woman of marked intelligence, who had 
limited opportunities for culture but pos- 
sessed a remarkable memory that seemed to 
retain all that came within its grasp, and 
which made her a most interesting con- 
versationalist. The children of George and 
Anna (Francis) Highley were : Henry and 
Hannah (twins), Thomas, Eliza, Felix 
Francis, Man - and Deborah — seven in all. 

Of these, Felix Francis, father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born in Lower Provi- 
dence township, on August i, 1832, but on 
attaining his majority, removed to the old 
homestead in Schuylkill township, Chester 
count}-. He cultivated this farm success- 
fully until 1873, when he removed to a farm 
near Jeffersonville ; a few years later he pur- 
chased a home in Norristown, where he has 
since lived, having given up active business 
pursuits. He is a staunch Republican and 
at present is a member of borough council of 
Norristown. On the first of January, 1857, 
he married Susan R. daughter of Charles 
and Sarah Egbert Corson, of Lower Provi- 
dence township, and six children have been 
born to them, viz : Albert C, who died at 
the age of twelve years ; Dr. George Nor- 
man, subject ; Ionia, wife of Henry L. 



224 



Biographical Sketches. 



Everitt, editor of The. Miller's Review of 
Philadelphia ; Charles Corson, the efficient 
cashier of the Malvern National bank ; 
Sarah Corson, wife of George M. Holstein, 
manager of the extensive zinc works at 
Pulaski, Virginia ; and Nancy, unmarried, 
who lives at home with her parents. 

Dr. George N. Highley acquired his ele- 
mentary education in the public schools of 
his native township, Ivy institute, a semi- 
nary at Phcenixville, and in Tremont semi- 
nary, at Norristown. Subsequently he en- 
tered the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and graduated with 
high honor in the class of 1881. He then 
located at Roxborough, Phila, where he 
practiced for a short time, going from there 
to his present residence and field of practice 
in Conshohocken. Dr. Highley is a close 
student of the leading medical literature 
of the day, keeps himself fully abreast of 
the advancement and progress made in his 
profession. He has contributed a number 
articles to the leading medical journals of 
the country — articles which show that he 
possesses fine literary attainments, as well 
as superior knowledge of the subjects upon 
which he wrote. He is a prominent and 
an active member of the Montgomery 
County Medical society, of the Pennsyl- 
vania Medical association, and the Obstet- 
rical society, of Philadelphia. For three 
years he was an assistant surgeon in the 
Pennsylvania National guard, and has 
served two terms as burgess of Consho- 
hocken. He is also a director of the 
Tradesmen's National bank, of Consho- 
hocken. On June 1, 1887, he wedded Mary 
W., a daughter of William and Annie H. 
Wilson, of Conshohocken, and they are the 
parents of three children : Albert (deceased), 
Annie Wilson, and Charles Corson High- 
ley, J r - 



JOHN H. CRANKSHAW, of Norris- 
<J town, one of the unusually successful 
insurance men of the United States, and the 
present chief supervisor of the Metropolitan 
Life Insurance company of New York, is a 
son of James and Ellen (Smalley) Crank- 
shaw, and was born in Chorley, Lancashire, 
England, February 23, 1845. His paternal 
grandfather, John Crankshaw, was a native 
of Chorley, and died at Belmont, England, 
September 4, 1S72, aged eighty-one years. 
He was a calico printer by trade, a Liberal 
in English politics, and a devoted Methodist 
in religion. He married Margaret Weir, of 
Rathfriland, County Armagh, Ireland, whose 
family was of Scotch-Irish descent, and pro- 
duced two leading and prominent clergy- 
men of the Methodist church. Mrs. Crank- 
shaw died in 1881, at eighty-seven years of 
age. Their children, six in number, were : 
Nancy, James, Hamilton, Rev. John Weir, 
Margaret, and Horatio. Nancy Crankshaw, 
the only white woman that remained in 
Atlanta, Georgia, when it was besieged 
during the late Civil war, married Judge 
Thomas Spencer, who was in the machine 
business at Philadelphia and Atlanta, Geor- 
gia, from 1842 until his death in 1888. He 
was a native of Lancashire, England, and 
his son-in-law, P. J. Moran, is now associate 
editor of the Allan/a Constitution, and was 
the coadjutor of Henry Grady. James 
Crankshaw, the second child, is the father 
of the subject of this sketch. Hamilton 
Crankshaw, a machinist by trade, came 
with Judge Spencer in 1842 to Philadelphia, 
and afterwards removed to Atlanta, Georgia, 
where he is in the lumber business, and 
where his son Charles is one of the leading 
jewelers of that city. 

Rev. John Weir, a distinguished Metho- 
dist clergyman, died in England, at the age 
of forty-five years. Margaret Crankshaw 



Biographical Sketches. 



225 



married John Ormrod, who was a calico 
machine printer by trade, and is now a 
retired capitalist of Blackpool, England. 
Horatio Crankshaw, the youngest child, 
who served as an office boy with the firm of 
Ten nan t & Son, cotton brokers, of Liver- 
pool, of which he afterwards became a 
member, is now a general broker in London, 
England. James Crankshaw (father), was 
born in the town of Over Darwin, Lan- 
cashire, England, in 1818, and learned the 
trade of calico printer, which he followed 
until 1882, when he came to Norristown, 
where he died May 29, 1891, aged seventy- 
three years. He married Ellen Smalley, 
who was a daughter of Thomas Smalley, of 
Chorley, England. She died in 1867, at the 
age of forty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Crank- 
shaw had a family of six children : John H., 
(subject) ; Nancy Ellen, who died at six- 
teen years of age ; Elizabeth Ann, wife of 
James Warbrick, of Bolton, England ; 
Thomas H., now engaged in business at 
Norristown; Margaret Alice, wife of Thomas 
Wiggins, a resident of Leyland, England ; 
and Joseph Weir, engaged in the insurance 
business at Over Darwin, England. 

John H. Crankshaw was reared in his 
native shire and received in boyhood but a 
meagre education. At the age of seven 
and one-half years he found employment as 
a helper to his father at calico printing, and 
when but fourteen years of age he entered 
the bleaching and finishing department of 
Mortfield works at Bolton, where he made 
sixteen hours a day for several years in a 
room at an average temperature of from one 
hundred and thirty to one hundred and 
sixty degrees. At the early age of twenty- 
two years he was made foreman of the de- 
partment of bleaching and finishing with a 
force of fifty men and women under his 
prders, and so well discharged the duties of 

'5 



his responsible position, that three years 
later he was offered the management of tin- 
entire works at Birkacre, Chorley, England. 
The business was conducted under eight 
separate branches, and employed two hun- 
dred and fifty people. He quit on account 
of some unwarranted and hurtful interfer- 
ence with his religious principles by the 
proprietor, but having by this time estab- 
lished his reputation as a man of unusual 
business ability, he was not long out of 
permanent employment. Of several advan- 
tageous offers made him, Mr. Crankshaw in 
1873 accepted the position of assistant su- 
perintendent of the Prudential Life Insur- 
ance company, of London, England, and 
for seven years had special charge of the 
English towns of St. Ellens, Widness, War- 
rington, and Bolton. In his new field he 
met with unusual success, and, in 1880, left 
the Prudential company, upon the personal 
solicitation of Brice Collard, of New York 
City, who had just solved the problem of 
industrial insurance in the United States, 
in the formation of the Metropolitan Insur- 
ance company. At Mr. Collard's urgent re- 
quest, he came, in 1880, to this country, and 
assumed charge of the Metropolitan's busi- 
ness in North Philadelphia. When he as- 
sumed charge he had a force of seven men. 
After fifteen years of effectual work, he has 
organized and built up a business in his 
original district that now requires a con- 
stant force of six hundred men, and has in- 
creased from nothing to four hundred thou- 
sand policy holders, with an annual pre- 
mium of over one million dollars. The 
Middle Philadelphia District offices are at 
the northeast corner of Sixth street and 
Girard avenue, and have desk room for two 
hundred and fifty employees, and an entire 
floor space of forty-eight hundred square 
feet, and in his original district there are 



226 



Biographical Sketches. 



now seven hundred and fifty men employed 
by the company. The healthy growth and 
remarkable increase of the business under 
his charge since 1880, has been phenomenal 
and has never been equalled in any other 
division of his own or in any division of 
any other insurance company in the world. 
Mr. Crankshaw resided in Philadelphia up 
to 1883, in which year he removed to his 
present handsome residence at 1202 DeKalb 
street, Norristown, where he has a beautiful 
and luxurious home. 

On June 17, 1870, Mr. Crankshaw mar- 
ried Sarah Southworth, who was a daughter 
of William Wilson, of Leyland, and died Jan- 
uary 22, 1883, aged forty-two years, leaving 
three children, who are still living : Fred- 
erick Weir, editor of the Industrial Herald, 
and a graduate of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, who is now an attorney-at-law and 
a member of the present legal firm of 
Smyth, Carlisle & Crankshaw, of Nos. 136- 
138 South Fourth street, Philadelphia ; 
Florence and Arthur H., attending school. 
On Christmas day, 1883, Mr. Crankshaw 
wedded for his second wife Mary A. Crank- 
shaw, a daughter of Joseph Crankshaw, of 
Philadelphia. 

In England, Mr. Crankshaw was a Lib- 
eral in politics, and since becoming a resi- 
dent of the United States, he has supported 
the Republican part} - . He has never re- 
fused to serve in any position when called 
upon to do so, and hence has been a mem- 
ber of town council since 1891, now serv- 
ing his second term. He is an active 
member of Oak Street Methodist Epis- 
copal church, in which he has served for 
ten years as leader of the choir and other 
offices. While residing in England he 
served for some time as a local minister in 
the Primitive Methodist church, with which 
he had united in 1867. John H. Crankshaw 






is one of the highest degree Masons in the 
United States, being a Scottish Rite or 
Thirty-second Degree Mason, and holding 
present membership in Montgomery Lodge 
No. 19, Free and Accepted Masons ; Colum- 
bia Chapter No. 91, Royal Arch Masons ; 
and Corinthian Commandery No. 53, 
Knights Templar, and Philadelphia Con- 
sistory, A. & A. Rite. He is a past master, 
past high priest, and past commander in the 
Masonic fraternity. He is also a member 
of Hepana Tribe, Improved Order of Red 
Men ; Lu Lu Temple, A. A. O. N., of the 
Majestic Shrine ; Alfred the Great Lodge of 
the Order of the Sons of St. George ; and 
Appollo Senate, Order of Sparta. 

In such a career as Mr. Crankshaw's, of 
which we have given the meagre outline, 
there is much of interest and much of useful 
value to those who are dependent upon their 
own efforts in life. The influences and les- 
sons of such a life cannot be summed up in 
a few brief paragraphs. His continued suc- 
cess testifies as words cannot to his business 
ability, power of organization, and force of 
will. ' 



WILLIAM AMOS EVANS, a leading 
Republican and successful business 
man of Norristown, is a son of Elisha and 
Eliza W. (Hansel) Evans, and was born in 
Upper Merion township, Montgomery coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1856. The Evans 
family has had honorable record in Mont- 
gomery county since its early settlement, 
and is from Wales, where the name oc- 
curs in local and public records for over 
three centuries. The family has always 
possessed those solid and substantial quali- 
ties upon which the public welfare and all 
private prosperity rest. Over a century ago 
Elisha Evans resided at the site of College- 



Biographical Sketches. 



227 



ville, where he was a prominent and 
influential man. He was active in all 
matters of county interest, as well as those 
of local importance. He was instrumental 
in securing the erection of the Perkiomen 
bridge, the finest structure of its kind in 
the county, and hardly has its superior in 
south-eastern Pennsylvania. His son, 
Edward Evans, was a man of common 
education, but possessed of excellent busi- 
ness ability and succeeded well in all of the 
enterprises in which he was engaged. He 
was a Friend, and died February 1, 1856, 
when nearing the close of his eighty-fourth 
year. His wife passed away in 1848. 

Elisha Evans, the father of William A. 
Evans, was born in Richland township, 
Chester county, in 1812. He was a farmer 
by occupation, but had in early life learned 
the trade of plasterer, which he never 
followed to any great extent. He owned 
teams that ran on the old Lancaster pike 
and also hauled freight from Philadelphia 
to Pittsburg in anti-railroad days. He 
resided successively at Swedeland, and in 
Upper Merion township, this count}-, 
where he owned a farm. In March, 1862, 
be became a resident of Lower Providence 
township, in which he passed the last 
eighteen years of his life. He died De- 
cember 12, 1880, aged sixty-eight years. 
He was a Quaker and Radical Republican, 
and married Eliza W. Hansel, who was 
born in 1825, an< ^ ' s a daughter of Charles 
W. Hansel, who resided in Upper Merion 
township. Their children were : Mary E. 
Barry; Jonathan Cleaver ; Henry Pawling, 
deceased ; Charles Edward ; John Wentz, 
deceased ; John Henderson, deceased ; 
Benjamin Franklin, deceased ; William 
Amos, subject ; Catharine Supplee and 
Rebecca Ellen, now dead. 

William A. Evans, was reared on a farm, 



received his education in the common 
schools and Ursinus college which he at- 
tended for a number of years. He after- 
wards taught mathematics in the same 
institution, and, in 1877, accepted a place 
in Gregory's Business College, of New 
York City. He afterwards taught in the 
public schools, and was principal from 1882 
until 1887, of the West Manayunk public 
schools. In the last named year he retired 
from teaching, and has given his time 
principally to his present successful real 
estate, conveyancing and insurance busi- 
ness, at Norristown, which he had estab- 
lished in 1885. Mr. Evans has always 
been a Republican in politics, and is now 
serving his second term as president of 
the Republican Invincibles, a political 
club, of Norristown. He was elected a 
justice of the peace in the First ward in 
1885, and re-elected in 1890, and served 
three years as a member of the school 
board, and four successive terms as presi- 
dent of the board of health, which last 
position he resigned. He is a Mason, being 
a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 75, Free 
and Accepted Masons ; Mountain Chapter 
No. 190, Royal Arch Masons, and Hutchin- 
son Commandery No. 32, Knights Templar. 
On October 14, 1880, Mr. Evans married 
Emma J. Davis, a daughter of Jefferson 
Davis, a farmer and butcher of Lower 
Providence township. To their union 
have been born six children : Mabel L , 
Anson B, Charles C, Brita S., Franklin 
Buchanan, deceased ; and William Amos, jr. 



NELSON FREDERICK SCHMIDT, 
D. D., the efficient pastor of the Je- 
rusalem Lutheran church of Schwenksville, 
and the St. James Lutheran church of Lim- 



228 



Biographical Sketches. 



erick, is a son of Rev. John Henry Schmidt 
and Louisa Ann (Newman) Schmidt, and 
was born at Treverton, Northumberland 
county, Pennsylvania, on December u, 
1866. 

Rev. John Henry Schmidt was born 
August 9, 1827, at Euger, in the province 
of Westphalia, Prussia. He was the son of 
J. H. Schmidt and his wife, Anna Catharine, 
nee Dustman. His mother died when he 
was between sixteen and seventeen years of 
age, and his father just as he had reached 
his nineteenth year. His early education 
was received in the German Normal school 
with the view of preparing for the office of 
teaching. He came to this country in 1852, 
reaching Baltimore October 27. After spend- 
ing two years in teaching and other employ- 
ments, he went to Pennsylvania college, at 
Gettysburg, to complete his education. 
Later he entered the Theological seminary 
at the same place and prepared for the Gos- 
pel ministry. He was licensed by the Alle- 
gheny synod in 1861, and afterward ordained 
by the same synod in 1863. His first field 
of labor was at Altoona, Blair county, 
where he remained a little over four years, 
organizing the St. James Lutheran congre- 
gation, now one of the prominent congre- 
gations of the city. Leaving Altoona, he 
served the Treverton charge in Northumber- 
land county four years, the White Haven 
charge in Luzerne county for seven years 
and finally the Freeland charge, which had 
been part of the White Haven charge, but 
was taken from it in 1876, until the 25th of 
October, 1891, when he retired from the 
active ministry on account of impaired 
health. His labors were mostly of a mis- 
sionary and pioneer character, and in Ger- 
man localities, where he was very successful. 
He still resides at Freeland, Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania. 



He married Louisa Ann Newman, a 
daughter of Charles and Christina Newman, 
of Hanover, York county, Pennsylvania, on 
October 27, 1862. They have five children 
living : Bertha, wife of Adolph Weisz, of 
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ; Rev. Nelson 
F. ; Lulu, a teacher ; William J., a gradu- 
ate of Muhlenberg college ; and Edgar H., 
a leading jeweler of Freeland, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Rev. Nelson F. Schmidt received his 
literary education at Muhlenberg college, at 
Allentown, Pennsylvania, from which hon- 
ored institutien of learning he was gradu- 
ated in the class of 1886. Leaving college, 
he entered the Lutheran Theological semi- 
nary of Philadelphia, then on Franklin 
street, and was graduated in 1889. During 
the summer of 1888 he spent upwards of 
three months missionating among the ne- 
glected Lutherans of south-western Virginia. 
The esteem in which his labors were held 
can best be shown by the fact that in the 
fall of the same year he received a call from 
south-western Virginia synod to become its 
traveling missionary, a position which was 
declined simply on account of its great re- 
sponsibility and his fear that he would not 
be able to meet its requirements because of 
his limited experience. After his gradua- 
tion, he was ordained to the Lutheran min- 
istry on June 17, 1889, and immediately took 
charge of the Schwenksville-Limerick 
charge, from which he had previously re- 
ceived a call. He has labored faithfully 
and successfully in this charge, and his 
labors have been duly appreciated by his con- 
gregations, while he has gained and holds 
the respect of the public and the members 
of other religious denominations. 

On June 19, 1890, Rev. Schmidt was 
united in marriage with Eva A. Sweitzer, 
a daughter of Benjamin K. and Amelia 



Biographical Sketches. 



229 



Sweitzer, of Allentown, this state. Their 
union has been blessed with one child, a 
son, named Nelson S., who was born Janu- 
ary 2, 1892. 



JOHN BISSON FISHER, who is en- 
^-J gaged in the meat and grocery business 
at Bridgeport, is a son of Henry and Mary 
Ann (Bisson) Fisher, and was born August 
19, 1849, at Barren Hill, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. His paternal grand- 
father emigrated from Germany to Ameri- 
ca, and located at Barren Hill, where he 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits. He 
was a supporter of the Democratic party, 
and married Margaret Katz. To them 
were born five children : Samuel, Henry, 
Louisa, Harriet McGinn, and Margaret 
Hallman. Henry Fisher (father) was born 
at Barren Hill, and passed his early life 
with his father upon the farm. Arriving 
at manhood, he learned the trades of 
cabinet-:maker and mill-wright, but soon 
afterward became engaged in the carpenter- 
ing business, which he followed during the 
greater part of his life. From 1858 until 
his death, he resided at Chestnut Hill. He 
was a Republican and was enthusiastic in 
political matters, but neither sought for 
nor ever held any office. At the time of 
Lincoln's assassination, Mr. Fisher was in- 
strumental in causing the whole village of 
Chestnut Hill to be draped in mourning. 
He was three times married. He first 
married Mary Ann Bisson, and this union 
was blessed with three children : John B., 
Anna Zimmerman and Margaret Louisa. 
By his second marriage he had one child : 
Clara Hutzler. After the death of the 
second Mrs. Fisher, he wedded Barbara 
Maust, and to this third union were born 



six children : Harry, Charles, Samuel, 
Thomas, Ella and Laura. Mr. Fisher 
died in November, 1875, in the fifty-sixth 
year of his age. 

At eleven years of age John B. Fisher 
became engaged as a chore boy for a fanner 
in White Marsh township, with whom he 
remained five years. He then resided 
with his uncle for a short time and after- 
wards learned the trade of plumber. For 
a time he was engaged at Chestnut Hill, 
and in 1874 he removed to Norristown. 
Always having had a liking for farming, 
he became manager of a farm belonging to 
Daniel Longaker. Remaining there for 
five years, he then went to Atchison 
county, Kansas, and later returned to Nor- 
ristown, where he again devoted his time 
to agricultural pursuits for three years. 
Owing to ill health, Mr. Fisher was obliged 
to retire for a time from active business, 
but after recovering his health somewhat, 
his energy caused him to start in business 
once more. This was in 1886, and he es- 
tablished a meat market on DeKalb street, 
Bridgeport, where he remained two years. 
At the end of that time he removed to 
Fourth and DeKalb streets, and in addition 
to a meat market there, he has also a 
grocery store. One year after coming to 
the place where he now resides, he tore 
down the old dwelling and erected a hand- 
some residence adjoining his business 
rooms. He takes an active part in the 
Pioneer Lawn Mower Company, which 
manufactures the Pioneer Lawn Mower, 
patented by Rowley R. Ortt. This com- 
pany organized with the following officers : 
Daniel D. Dreslin, president ; Mathias A. 
March, secretary ; John B. ■ Fisher, treas- 
urer, and R. R. Ortt, superintendent. 
The company has just completed their 
factory, a fine two-story brick building, 



'■3° 



Biographical Sketches. 



thirty by sixty feet, with an additional 
building twenty feet square. The pros- 
pects are encourageing for the erection of 
another building of the same size. Already 
many orders from the country have been 
sent in, and the success of the business is 
largely due to the efforts of Mr. Fisher. 

He votes the Republican ticket, and is a 
member of the Knights of the Golden 
Eagle and of the Sons of Temperance. He 
is also a member of the First Baptist 
Church, of Bridgeport, in which he serves 
as a trustee and deacon. 

On January 28, 1877, Mr. Fisher was 
united in marriage with Ella Andrews, a 
dauehter of Andrew Andrews, of Lanca- 
shire, England, who came to this country 
in 1866. Mr. Andrews located at Norris- 
town where he now resides at No. 330 East 
Marshall street. He married Eliza New- 
ton, and they have the following children : 
Elizabeth, Ella, Anis, Newton, Mary Tav- 
erner, widow ; Anna Bardsley and Eunice 
Freed. 



MATHIAS HARLEY, one of the oldest 
citizens of Norristown, is a son of 
Jacob and Susan (Johnson) Harley, and was 
born near Sumneytown, Francouia town- 
ship, this county, on December 2, 1826. 
The nationality of the Harleys has been a 
disputed question, some claiming them to 
be English, others German, but researches 
have been made and the family has been 
traced back to the fifteenth century and it 
is found for certain that it is of German 
origin. In those days it was a very promi- 
nent family and there were several authors 
and doctors am'ong the members of the fam- 
ily at that time. In 1685, when the Prot- 
estants were persecuted and compelled to 
become Catholics or leave the country, the 



ancestors of the Harley family, with many 
thousands of others, departed from Germany 
and fled to England. They soon became 
prominent in their new country and some 
of their descendants obtained positions of 
high honor and trust in England. One 
member of the family by the name of 
Rudolph Harley, who emigrated from Ger- 
many to America in 17 19, was the great- 
great-grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch. His great-grandfather, Rudolph, jr., 
was born on board ship on the voyage 
across the Atlantic. 

Mathias Harley received his education in 
the common schools of his native township. 
Leaving school at an early age, he learned 
the trade of milling, but in which he was 
not engaged for any extended time. Upon 
the death of his father, which occurred in 
the year 1846, he assumed control of the 
mercantile business of the latter and also 
took charge of the home farm in Worcester 
township. Soon after, he purchased a part 
of the farm and occupied it. Here he re- 
mained until the year 1857, when he came 
to Fairview and re-engaged in the mercan- 
tile business. He maintained his connec- 
tion with the mercantile business for a 
period of thirty-four years and still owns the 
original property. He served as postmaster 
at Fairview for a period of thirty-one years 
and at the termination of this long period 
of service he resigned. In addition to his 
mercantile interests, he is a part owner of 
the Fairview Village creamery, established 
in 1881, and of which company he still 
serves as treasurer. Since the year 1891, he 
has resided in Norristown, where he has 
contented himself by living a rather retired 
life. He has been an active propagator of 
the interests of the Western market. 

Mr. Harley has always been an active 
and aggressive Democrat and for a number 



Biographical Sketches. 



231 



of years was the recognized leader of his 
party in his district. During his later years 
he has practically withdrawn from partici- 
pation in political and public affairs. In 
his religious affiliations he is a member of 
the Brethren (Dunker) church. 

On December 21, 1847, Mr. Harley was 
united in marriage to Isabella Hendricks, 
who died November 15, 1848. This union 
was blessed with one son, Aaron H., who is 
the present proprietor of the Ridge Avenue 
hotel in Philadelphia, and largely interested 
in real estate. After the death of his first 
wife, Mr. Harley married Sarah Mattern, on 
November 27, 1851, and to this union were 
born five children : Milton, now engaged in 
the wholesale carpet business, at Eleventh 
and Market streets, Philadelphia ; Clara, 
wife of Jacob Brendlinger, of Norristown ; 
Elizabeth, wife of Remandus Scheetz, of Nor- 
ristown ; Adalaide, wife of John Oiler, of 
Brooklyn, New York ; and Sarah Harley, 
of Norristown. 

Abraham Harley, paternal grandfather of 
Matthias Harley, was a resident of Fran- 
conia township, where he owned a large 
farm and for many years was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. He died September 
20, 1833. His children were ten in number 
and named as follows : Jacob, Abram, 
Rudolph, Samuel, Benjamin, Henry, Wil- 
liam, John, Elizabeth and Mary Price. 

Jacob Harley, father, was also a native of 
Franconia township. He was educated in 
the common schools and after attaining the 
age of maturity, became interested in the 
mercantile business. Later in life he re- 
moved to Worcester township, where he 
turned his attention to farming, in which he 
was engaged during the remaining period of 
his life. He was a member of the Federal- 
ist party and was an attendant and com- 
municant of the Brethren church. He mar- 



ried Elizabeth Krupp, by whom he had 
four children. He was married twice, his 
second wife being. Susan Johnson, who died 
in the year 1856, in the seventy-third year 
of her age. To this second union was born 
one child, Matthias, who is the subject of 
this sketch. 



MAHLON HILLEGAS, a retired mer- 
chant and highly respected citizen of 
East Greenville, this county, is a son of 
Charles and Christiana (Graber) Hillegas, 
and was born July 19, 1829, in Milford town- 
ship, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. A full 
and authentic account of the Hillegas 
family in this country has been very care- 
fully prepared and contributed by Michael 
Reed Minnick, of Philadelphia, and will be 
found eslewhere in this volume. Our sub- 
ject received the limited education, such as 
the district school provided in his day. He 
learned the mercantile business by clerking 
in his father's store, and after sufficiently 
mastering the details of the business, he 
launched a mercantile venture on his own 
account on a modest scale at East Green- 
ville, where he soon built up one of the 
largest general mercantile trades in that 
part of the county, and continued in profita- 
ble business until, by impaired hearing, 
he was rendered incapable, when he retired 
and has since lived on a handsome compe- 
tency at East Greenville. Mr. Hillegas' 
father was one of the projectors and chief 
promoters of the Green Lane and Goshen- 
hoppen Turnpike Road company, organized 
1851, and served for many years as presi- 
dent. Our subject has succeeded him in 
acting as treasurer ever since 1863. Mr. 
Hillegas is a Democrat and an elder and 
consistent member of the New Goshenhop- 



2 3 2 



Biographical Sketches. 



pen Reformed church. On October i, 1859, 
he was united in marriage with Sallie W., 
daughter of Daniel Eberhard, a farmer of 
Lower Milford township, Lehigh county, 
Pa. This union was blessed with one 
child, a son, Cyrus Ellsworth, who died in 
infancy. 



WM. FRANKLIN DANNEHOWER, 
a well known and popular member 
of the Montgomery county bar, is the 
youngest son of John G. and Susanna 
(Cressman) Dannehower, and was born De- 
cember 17, 1854, at Zeiglersville, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. Like so 
main - prominent citizens of the Keystone 
State, Mr. Dannehower is descended from 
German ancestors, resolute pioneers who 
left the Rhenish provinces of the Fatherland 
at an early da) - to find a new home in the 
western world. There were three brothers 
of the name who came over together and 
settled in different parts of Pennsylvania, 
from whom have descended all of the Dan- 
nehowers of America, as far as known. 
For several generations a branch of the 
family has been resident in the county of 
Montgomery, in the northern part of which 
John Dannehower, paternal grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, was born and 
reared. He was a miller by occupation, and 
owned and operated a grist mill, flaxseed 
mill and other enterprises in Marlborough 
township. He also owned a tannery in 
Bucks county, and was likewise engaged in 
saw-milling and farming, being- one of the 
largest real estate owners of his section. 
Politically he was a Jacksonian Democrat, 
and in religion a member of the Lutheran 
church. He was twice married, first to 
Elizabeth Groff, by whom he had eight 
children : Elizabeth, married Benjamin 



Johnson ; Sarah, married John Bealer ; 
Hannah, wedded Jesse Roller ; Jacob, Jesse, 
John G., father; Henry G., and Philip. 
After his first wife's death, who was born 
October 1, 1791, and died January 9, 1824, 
John Dannehower married Elizabeth Zink. 
He died June 11, 1846, aged sixty-three years, 
having been born September 5, 1783. His 
son, John G. Dannehower, (father), was 
born in Marlborough township, this county, 
December 6, 1816, and became a clerk, after 
which he followed huckstering for a time, 
and then purchased a farm near Zeiglers- 
ville and engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
In 1856 he purchased and removed to a 
hotel in Tylersport, which he successfully 
conducted until about 1883, when he leased 
the hotel to his son, Jacob P. Dannehower, 
and retired from active business. He died 
June 14, 1884, and was buried at Indian 
Field Lutheran church, of which he was a 
prominent member, in Franconia township. 
He was a Democrat in politics and held a 
number of local offices. In business affairs 
he was always successful, being a self-made 
man of rare good judgment, and at the 
time of his death, and for many years pre- 
vious, was treasurer of the Tylersport Mu- 
tual Live Stock Insurance company. On 
March 4, 1838, he married Susanna Cress- 
man, a daughter of Jacob B. Cressman. She 
died at Trumbauersville, Pa., January 23, 
1895. They had a family of eight children : 
Matilda, wife of Roller R. Cressman, born 
May 9, 1839, died December 19, 1865 ; 
Catharine A., second wife of R. R. Cress- 
man, now deceased, born December 28, 
1S41, and now the wife of David T. Breisch, 
of Trumbauersville, Pa. ; Benjamin, born 
February 2, 1843, died January 2, 1846; 
Hon. John C, born February 8, 1845, who 
was a wholesale manufacturer of cigars 
with R. R. Cressman, served for a number 



Biographical Sketches. 



233 



of years as a justice of the peace, was 
twice elected to the State Assembly, and 
died December 20, 1884 ; Jacob P., born 
February 2, 1847, and died March 7, 1892 ; 
Henry, born October 1, 1849; a daughter 
born April 4, 1852, who died in infancy ; 
and William Franklin, the subject of this 
sketch. 

William Franklin Danuehower was reared 
at Tylersport, this county, and obtained his 
elementary education in the public schools. 
He afterwards attended the Kutztown State 
Normal School one year, and in 1871-72 
was a member of the Excelsior Normal In- 
stitute at Carversville, Bucks county. In 
the spring of 1872 he entered Lafayette 
college, and was graduated from that insti- 
tution in the class of 1876, with the degree 
of A. B., being selected as one of the com- 
mencement orators. In the autumn of 1877 
he became a law student in the office of G. 
R. Fox at Norristown, and while studying 
law acted as editor of the Weekly Register, 
and was special correspondent of several 
leading New York and Philadelphia jour- 
nals, besides acting as clerk in the prothono- 
tary's office at Norristown. Having com- 
pleted his preparation for the bar, Mr. Dan- 
uehower was admitted to practice June 7, 
1880, and since that time has been continu- 
ously engaged in the duties of his profes- 
sion. He has figured prominently in a 
number of important cases before the courts 
here, among which may be mentioned the 
appeal from the assessments of the mercan- 
tile appraisers, assessing butchers with mer- 
cantile taxes, in which Mr. Danuehower 
acted as attorney for the Butchers' associa- 
tion, and secured a decision exempting its 
members from the payment of these taxes. 
He has also been connected with several 
trials for capital offenses, in all of which he 
has shown legal ability and acquaintance 



with historical jurisprudence. For some 
years he has enjoyed an extensive practice 
in the Orphans' Court, but is a good, gen- 
eral practitioner and very successful in that 
line. In 1890 he acted as solicitor for the 
coroner, sheriff and treasurer. He is solici- 
tor of the Lansdale Trust and Safe Deposit 
company, and of the borough of Green 
Lane, and was for seven years solicitor of 
the borough of Pennsburg. 

In politics Mr. Danuehower is an ardent 
Democrat, and served for two years, 1886-8, 
as chairman of the standing committee of 
his party in this county. He was a candi- 
date for the office of district attorney in 
1889, but was defeated by only one hundred 
and twenty-eight votes in a county largely 
Republican, and when the Prohibitionists 
(mostly Republicans), had a full county 
ticket, except a nominee for district attor- 
ney. 

He was one of the organizers of the 
Montgomery County Bar association of 
Norristown, and has been its secretary since 
its formation in 1885. He is also a member 
of the law library committee, and of the 
committee to revise the rules of court. In 
religious faith Mr. Danuehower is a Luth- 
eran, and has been secretary of the church 
council of Trinity Lutheran church for a 
number of years. He is also a member and 
trustee of the Jefferson club of Norristown, 
and served as its president and also as secre- 
tary for several years. 

On November 30, 1886, Mr. Danuehower 
was united in marriage to Bessie B. Mc- 
Carter, a daughter of the late Colonel 
Samuel McCarter, of Norristown. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Danuehower have been born two 
sons and one daughter : Frances B., born 
November 23, 1887 ; William Franklin, jr., 
born January 18, 1889 ; and Gilbert Lane, 
bom July 28, 1891. 



234 



Biographical Sketches. 



LEWIS A. LUKENS, a prominent re- 
tired manufacturer and business man 
of Conshohocken, this county, is a son of 
David and Mary (Shepherd) Lukens, and 
was born April 8, 1807, in Plymouth town- 
ship, near what is now the borough of Con- 
shohocken. The family, of which Mr. 
Lukens is a worthy scion, is of Holland an- 
cestry, his great-great-grandfather, John 
Lukens, having emigrated from Holland 
to this country in 1683, and became one of 
the founders of the city of Philadelphia. 
Among his sons was one, Abraham, father 
of John Lukens, the grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this memoir. John Lukens was a 
man of more than ordinary education for 
the day in which he lived, especially along 
the line of mathematics. He was a skilled 
surveyor, and being a man of close observa- 
tion, good judgment and retentive memory, 
became the possessor of many facts of prac- 
tical scientific value. He wedded Rachel 
Robinson, and among the children born to 
this union was David, the father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. David Lukens was born 
October 18, 1761, in Towamencing town- 
ship, this county, and died in the locality of 
the present borough of Conshohocken, 
where he owned a farm, upon which much 
of that thriving town now stands. He 
wedded Mary Shepherd, and the following 
children were born to their marital union : 
Charles William, born 1790 ; Elizabeth, 
born 1795; Aaron, born 1798; Maria, who 
was born in 1S01, and wedded Robert B. 
Fowler ; Rachel, who became the wife of 
Dr. Samuel Tyson ; Lewis A., Edward, 
born in 181 2 ; and Mark A. 

Lewis A. Lukens, after profiting by a 
common school education, learned the trade 
of cabinet-maker in Philadelphia, but did 
not follow that business. He soon returned 
to his native town and in partnership with 



his brother, Aaron Lukens, under the firm 
name of Aaron and L. Lukens, engaged 
for two years in the lumbering business. At 
the end of that period Mr. Lukens rented a 
forge on the Quitipahilla creek in Annville 
township, Lebanon county, this State, and 
for ten years engaged in the manufacture of 
malleable iron. In 1845 ne disposed of his 
interests in Lebanon county and opened an 
iron store in Philadelphia, which he dis- 
posed of to his brother-in-law, William W. 
Wood. At the end of one year he removed 
to Bridgeport, this county, and remained 
there four years in the lumber business. In 
1850 Mr. Lukens purchased a farm of one 
hundred and fifty-six acres in Whitemarsh 
township, upon which he resided seven 
years, engaged in agricultural pursuits, and 
in 1858 entered a partnership with his 
brother-in-law, Alan Wood, under the firm 
name of Alan Wood & Co., and built the 
mill now owned and operated by the Alan 
Wood company, sheet iron manufacturers 
of Conshohocken and 519 Arch street, 
Philadelphia. Mr. Lukens remained a part- 
ner in this business until 1877, when he 
sold his interests to his sons and withdrew, 
retiring from active business, since which 
time he has resided in Conshohocken. Mr. 
Lukens is a Republican politically, and for 
three years served efficiently as burgess of 
Conshohocken. In addition to leading a 
very active business life, he was a member 
of a number of business enterprises, requir- 
ing the exercise of a high order of genius, 
and he has been prominently connected 
with the fortunes of the Conshohocken 
National bank as a director for seventeen 
years, and as president for four years. 

On September 16, 1834, he married Mary 
T., a daughter of James Wood, an iron 
worker of Conshohocken, and seven chil- 
dren have been born to this union : Alan 



Biographical Sketches. 



235 



W., who died at the age of about fifty 
years ; Charles, Lewis, deceased ; Jawood, 
president of the Long Mead Iron works at 
Conshohocken ; Frank, deceased ; Mary S., 
wife of Charles F. Corson, of Philadelphia ; 
Clara, wife of Charles Heber Clark, editor 
of the Manufacturer, and secretary of the 
Manufacturers' club of Philadelphia. Lewis 
A. Lukens possesses in an eminent degree 
a combination of mental qualities that in- 
sure success in any line of business, towards 
which he chose to direct his attention. He 
has not only achieved an enviable success as 
a business man, but what is more, a warm 
place in the hearts of his fellow citizens. 
In his dealings with his fellow man he has 
been uniformly humane and courteous and 
his every act has been in strict comport 
with the highest type of Christian man- 
hood. 



BENJAMIN D. ABRAHAM, an active 
and successful farmer of near Merion 
or Abrams, is a son of Joseph and Ann 
(Davis) Abraham, and was born on the old 
homestead in Upper Merion township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Febru- 
ary 6, 1826. Reared on the farm and trained 
to agricultural pursuits, he engaged, upon 
attaining his majority, in farming, which 
has been his life occupation ever since. He 
attended the common schools and has added 
largely since to the brief education he ob- 
tained there, by reading and study. He is 
thoroughly acquainted with farm manage- 
ment and all kinds of farm work. In poli- 
tics Mr. Abraham is a Democrat, who be- 
lieves in the principles of Democracy as 
enunciated by Jefferson and enforced by 
Jackson. 

On February 6, 1S51, Benjamin D. Abra- 
ham was united in marriage with Jane 



Eastburn, whose father, Samuel Eastburn, 
is a resident of Upper Merion, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. To their union has 
been born eight children, three sons and 
five daughters : Anna Mary, died in infancy; 
Margaret J., wife of William B. Thomas, 
j now a resident of Upper Merion township; 
Josephine, married Alfred Taylor, of New 
York city ; George, who died in infancy : 
Emma J., wife of Owen L. Evans, of Phila- 
delphia; Edwin M., Owen E., and Alice, 
who are still at home. 

The founder of the Abraham family in 
Pennsylvania was an Abraham whose Chris- 
tian name is supposed to have been Isaac. 
He and his wife Sarah came from England 
to Pennsylvania in the same year that Penn 
came over in the Welcome. Mr. Abraham 
made a choice of a home in Chester county, 
where he and his wife passed their remain- 
ing days. Their son, James Abraham, sr., 
was sufficiently impresssed with the country 
in Upper Merion township, this county, to 
become a settler within its boundaries when 
its white residents were few in number. He 
purchased near the site of Merion station, 
a tract of land on which he built, and there 
he passed his life. He married and his son, 
Isaac Abraham, succeeded as owner of the 
home farm. Isaac Abraham wedded Dinah 
Harvard, and their son, James Abraham, jr., 
wedded Hannah George, and was the father 
of Joseph Abraham, the third owner of the 
homestead farm, which has come down 
from father to son, for about two hundred 
years. Joseph Abraham was a fanner, a 
Democrat and a Baptist and in every relation 
of life, was active, successful and respected. 
Born December 31, 1788, he lived to reach 
his sixty-second year and died March 25, 
1850. His remains sleep in Tremont ceme- 
tery. He married Ann Davis, a daughter 
of Benjamin Davis, and to them were born 



236 



Biographical Sketches. 



five sons and six daughters. The sons were: 
James, Benjamin D. (subject), Isaac G., 
Thomas D., and Joseph, who died in in- 
fancy. The daughters were : Mrs. Hannah 
Shannon, Mrs. Sarah Philips, Mrs. Eliza 
Supplee, Mrs. Ann Evans, and Matilda and 
Emma, who both died in infancy. 

When James Abraham, the elder, pur- 
chased and settled on the old homestead 
farm in the dawn of the last century, he 
was, in a manner, upon the western con- 
fines of civilization and had to encounter a 
part of the privations of frontier life. Many 
of his sterling qualities have descended in 
a large measure to some of his descendants, 
in every one of the six generations that 
have him as their common ancestor. His 
farm has been held in succession by those 
of his descendants who have lived honorable 
lives, and did credit to an honored ancestry. 



FREDERICK LIGHT, a remarkably ac- 
tive business man of Conshohocken, is 
a son of Charles and Christina (Souders) 
Light, and was born in one of the states of 
the present German empire, January 1, 
1822. His father, Charles Light, came 
from Gatherim, in Baden Baden. He 
learned the trade of blacksmithing, went to 
France, served under Napoleon in his fate- 
ful Moscow campaign, and came about 
1824, to New York. He afterwards re- 
moved to Beechwood, New Jersey, next to 
Easton, this State, and finally settled in the 
city of Philadelphia, where he remained 
until his death, at the age of eighty years. 
He was a Democrat, and a member of the 
Reformed church, and married Christina 
Souders, who was a native of Germany, 
and lived to be fifty-eight years of age. Of 
their children, five lived to maturity : En- 



glehart, killed in the Mexican war ; Fred- 
erick, the subject of this sketch ; Henry, 
Charles, who died some years ago from the 
effects of wounds received at the battle of 
Gettysburg ; and Christina. 

Frederick Light received a limited edu- 
cation in the early public schools of Phila- 
delphia, and at an early age commenced 
working on a farm in Plymouth township 
for his board and clothes. He afterward 
hired as a farm laborer for three years, then 
followed huckstering for two years and 
butchering for five years, and at the end of 
that time purchased eleven acres of land 
and a house in the northern part of Con- 
shohocken, in order to give his children 
the advantage of a good school. In 1862 
he divided his land into lots and sold it, 
and then removed to his present residence. 
While educating his children he was en- 
gaged largely in iron ore digging, and often 
employed as many as fifteen men. From 
1862 to 1866 he owned a number of teams 
and did a large amount of general hauling. 
Since then he has been engaged in various 
enterprises. He constructed the gas plant, 
superintended the laying of the mains, and 
served as president of the gas company for 
many years. He was the projector of the 
Washita hall, supervised the construction 
of the First National bank building, and 
was chiefly instrumental in securing the 
erection of the new Gulf Christian church 
of Gulf Mills. Mr. Light has always been 
active in the various building and loan as- 
sociations of Conshohocken. He is a 
director of the First National bank, treas- 
urer of the school board, and a charter 
member of Gratitude Lodge No. 216, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is 
president of the Home, Welcome, Reliance, 
Fidelity, Progress, and Conshohocken Build- 
ins; and Loan associations of Conshohocken. 



Biographical .Sketches. 



237 



On November 7, 1844, Mr. Light wedded 
Sarah Knight, who is a daughter of John 
Knight, of Chester county. To their union 
have been born seven children : Christina, 
deceased ; Charles, now in Texas ; Lydia 
Jane, deceased ; Frederick, a traveling 
salesman for a belting house ; Mary, now- 
deceased ; John, superintendent of the Con- 
shohocken Gas works ; and Sallie Moulds, 
of Phcenixville, Chester county. 

In politics Mr. Light is Democratic, but 
in local matters is not governed by political 
considerations. He served two terms as 
burgess of Conshohocken, was a member of 
the town council for several terms, and 
acted as census enumerator in 1880. He is 
a member of the Christian church at Gulf 
Mills, of whose Sunday-school he has been 
superintendent for forty years. He solicited 
nearly all the funds to erect the new church 
edifice and superintended its erection. 



ALEXANDER F. GRIFFITH, the 
present postmaster of Bridgeport, is a 
son of James and Mary Griffith, who emi- 
grated to America in 1846. He is the 
youngest of seven children, and was born 
in Boston, Massachusetts, June 22, 1847. 
His father was a tanner by occupation, and 
was so engaged in business until his death, 
which occurred about eighteen months 
after the birth of his son Alexander. 

At the age of two years, Alexander was 
brought to Norristown, Pa., by his mother, 
where he received his education in the 
public schools of that and the adjoining 
borough of Bridgeport. He is a barber by 
trade, in which occupation he was engaged 
in Norristown for about fifteen years. He 
is the owner of considerable property in 
Norristown and Bridgeport, having built a 



number of fine dwelling houses and several 
stores in those boroughs. 

Mr. Griffith was appointed justice of the 
peace of Bridgeport by Governor Pattison, 
which office he held for two years. On 
August 10, 1893, he received his commis- 
sion as postmaster of Bridgeport, in which 
capacity he is still serving. He was mar- 
ried January 1, 1877, to Miss Marie Lawler, 
who died May 4, 1892. He was again mar- 
ried January 16, 1894, to Miss Annie M. 
Farrell, of Edgewood, Upper Merion. By 
his second marriage he has one child, a 
daughter, named Caroline. 



DR. WILLIAM M. HALL. Among 
Conshohocken's leading and success- 
ful physicians is Dr. William M. Hall. He 
is a son of Hibbard and Joanna (Pugh) 
Hall, and was born April 27, i860, at Rad- 
nor, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He 
received his education in the Philadelphia 
schools and the State Normal school at 
West Chester, Pa. Leaving school, he en- 
tered Jefferson Medical college, from which 
he was graduated April 2, 1883. After his 
graduation he located at Conshohocken, 
and in 1888 he purchased the property then 
owned by J. K. Reid, at the corner of 
Fayette and Third avenue. He has an ex- 
tensive practice in Conshohocken, and has 
been very successful in his work. Dr. Hall 
is a member of the Montgomery County 
Medical society. 

On June 15, 1892, Dr. Hall was united in 
marriage with Ida E. Gilbert, daughter of 
Daniel Gilbert, of Conshohocken. Their 
union has been blessed with one child, 
Edna Maris. 

The Hall family is of English extraction, 
and Maris Hall, the paternal grandfather 



2 3 8 



Biographical Sketches. 



of Dr. Hall, was born at Willistown, Ches- 
ter county, where he was engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits until his death. He was 
a member of the Society of Friends, and a 
supporter of the Republican party. He 
married Sarah Dutton, by whom he had the 
following children : Hibbard, Jesse, Bar- 
clay, Clarkson, Hannah and Susan, who 
died very young. Hibbard Hall was born 
and reared upon a farm near Willistown, 
where he grew to manhood, surrounded by 
the beauties of rural scenery, of which he 
was a daily admirer. He afterward became 
engaged in the mercantile business in Con- 
shohocken, where he continued a few years 
and then removed to Radnor township, 
Delaware county. There for five years he 
followed merchandising, and then removed 
to Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery county, 
where in October, 1865, he died of typhoid 
fever, at the age of thirty-six years. He 
taught a school for a time at Radnor, where 
he met his then future wife. He reared a 
family of three children : Sallie, who mar- 
ried Lafayette Ross, of Norristown ; Dr. 
William M , subject ; and J. Barclay, a 
druggist, of Norristown. Mr. Hall was a 
staunch Republican, and made many strong 
and stirring speeches in the interests of his 
party. He was a member of the Society of 
Friends, and won the esteem and respect of 
all who knew him by living an honest, con- 
sistent life. Mrs. Hall was a daughter of 
William Pugh, and a member of the old 
Pugh family of Delaware county. 



CHARLES LUKENS, a prominent 
manufacturer of Conshohocken, is a 
son of Lewis A. and Mary (Wood) Lukens, 
and was born September 30, 1837, at New 
Market Forge, Lebanon county, Pennsyl- 



vania. (For the ancestral history of Mr. 
Lukens, see sketch of his father, Lewis A. 
Lukens, in another part of this work). Mr. 
Lukens obtained his elementary education 
in the private schools of Philadelphia, 
chiefly under the tutelage of Professor 
Alfred L. Kennedy, afterwards president of 
the Polytechnic Institute, of Philadelphia. 
After his father removed to Bridgeport, 
this county, in 1846, he attended Tre- 
mont Seminary, in Norristown, where he 
received most of his education. After re- 
maining for seven years on the farm in 
White Marsh township, whither his father 
had removed from Bridgeport, Mr. Lukens 
entered the iron mill at Conshohocken, of 
Alan Wood & Co., where he received that 
drill which led him into the business of an 
iron manufacturer, which has been his 
vocation up to the present time. From 
1858 to 1886 he was actively connected with 
the business as assistant manager, but on 
the latter date, because of failing health 
gave up his position, and has since been 
only nominally connected with the same. 
In addition to the above, he is a director in 
the J. E. Lee company, of Conshohocken, 
engaged in the manufacture of surgical 
instruments and appliances. Politically 
Mr. Lukens is a staunch Republican and 
has served his municipality in the capa- 
cities of town councilman, school director, 
etc. He is a devout and consistent member 
of Calvary Episcopal Church, at Consho- 
hocken, in the official management of 
which he has served as warden and vestry- 
man. 

On June 5, 1867, he married Miss Annie 
McFarland, daughter of the late James B. 
McFarland, a dry goods merchant of 
Philadelphia, and five children have blessed 
their marital union : Margaret McFarland, 
i Charles F., deceased ; William W., in the 



Biographical Sketches. 



239 



employ of the Alan Wood company, of 
Conshohocken ; George T., attending the 
Arts Department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, and Mary S. 

Charles Lukens is one of the most popu- 
lar men of Conshohocken and southern 
Montgomery county. Of charitable and 
humane instincts, the worthy poor never 
appeal to him in vain, and he is well known 
as a staunch supporter and an enthusiastic ad- 
vocate of all organized charities and every 
move which has for its object the amelior- 
ation of the miseries of mankind, and the 
betterment of the mental, moral and physi- 
cal conditions of the race. This phase of 
his nature was clearly shown during the 
financial stringency and general industrial 
paralysis of 1893, when many families of 
his borough were unable to secure work, 
and were reduced to the verge of starvation. 
In that crisis no one sympathized with 
them more kindly, nor gave of their sub- 
stance more cheerfully than did Mr. 
Lukens. We would say of Mr. Lukens, as 
his most distinguishing characteristics, 
that he is kind-hearted, charitable and 
humane, and is possessed of that sympathy 
which makes all the world akin. 



SAMUEL SLEMMER, who for many 
years was engaged in active business, 
but is now living a retired life in Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania, was born in Philadel- 
phia, March 8, 1818. When only two years 
of age, he moved with his father, Adam 
Skinnier, to New Hanover township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, and in 1833 
to Norristown, and there he finished his 
education at the old academy, under the 
supervision of Eliphalet Roberts. In March, 
1834, he and his brother William entered 



the office of his father and assisted him in 
publishing The Norristotvn Register for 
nine successive years. At this time he en- 
gaged in the mercantile business, which he 
followed for two years. In 1846 he was ap- 
pointed clerk in the surveyor general's 
office at Harrisburg tinder Governor Shunk 
and served in that capacity until i860. A 
portion of that time he had charge of the 
department which was formerly the land 
office. One year later he became interested 
in the oil business and purchased a tract of 
land near Titusville, Pennsylvania, where 
he put down several wells. At the end of 
two years more he removed to Conneaut, 
Ohio, and retired from active business, and 
in 1864 he went to Minnesota. 

On May 2, 1855, Mr. Slemmer married 
Sarah Fifield, who was a daughter of Col. 
Edward and Sally Fifield, of Conneaut, 
Ohio, and while preparing to locate perma- 
nently in Osborn, Missouri, in 1871, his 
wife was taken ill and died there. Mr. 
Slemmer then removed to Norristown, 
where he has resided ever since. 

Samuel Slemmer is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, and was also a member 
of Dauphin Lodge No. 160, I. O. O. F., and 
chief patriarch of Olive Encampment No. 
56, at Harrisburg. 

His ancestors were of the nobility of 
Hungary, but the immediate branch of the 
family, from which he is descended, emi- 
grated from Basle, Switzerland, about 1740, 
and settled in Philadelphia. His father, 
Adam Slemmer, was a very enterprising 
man in the early history of Norristown. 
He was a member of the legislature of 
Pennsylvania for four terms, and was also 
justice of the peace and prothonotary of the 
courts of Montgomery county. He was in- 
spector of the prison, and founder of Mont- 
gomery cemetery. He was president of the 



240 



Biographical Sketches. 



town council and took great pride in shap- 
ing the various industries of the town. He 
was a man of advanced ideas and served as 
one of the first directors of the public 
schools of his town. He never voted any- 
thing but the Democratic ticket, and was a 
member of the old Tammany organization 
in Philadelphia in 1820 and 1821. Samuel 
Slemmer, like his father, has always been 
an ardent Democrat. 



MARK HILTEBEITEL, a prosperous 
farmer and a leading citizen of the bor- 
ough of Green Lane, is a son of Adam and 
Sarah (Hoffman) Hiltebeitel, and was born 
April 31, 1S36, in Upper Salford township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. The 
paternal ancestry of the family are of dis- 
tinctively Montgomery county nativity, 
and they have ranked among the more 
sturdy and successful agricultural people 
of the county. Adam Hiltebeitel, the 
great-grandfather of Mark Hiltebeitel, was 
born in 1733 and died in 1823, bringing 
his age to ninety years. His wife, Salome, 
died at the age sixty-four years. 

Grandfather Daniel Hiltebeitel, was a 
farmer in Upper Salford all his life, and 
owned a portion of the original tract taken 
up by his father, Adam Hiltebeitel. He 
was a Democrat and a very zealous and de- 
voted member of the Reformed church. 
His wife was Elizabeth Rider, who bore 
them seven children, four sons and three 
daughters : Jonas, Adam, Daniel, Jesse, 
Hannah (Geisinger), Mary Smith, and Cath- 
arine. Grandfather Hiltebeitel died at the 
age of seventy-eight years. 

Adam Hiltebeitel (father) was born in 
Upper Salford township, Montgomery coun- 
ty, and was a farmer of Upper Salford 



formally, but latterly and up to his death 
resided in New Hanover township, for a 
period of forty years. He owned a large 
farm, and was one of the most successful 
farmers of the township and became pos- 
sessed of considerable means. He was a 
Democrat and a consistent member of the 
Reformed church at the Swamp. He mar- 
ried Sarah Hoffman, which union resulted 
in the birth of ten children, the eldest of 
whom was Mark, the subject of this bio- 
graphical notice. The other children were: 
Josiah, Jacob, John, Augustus, Angeline 
Hoof, Sarah Knouse, Mary Stettler, Irwin 
and Adeline. The father died May 22, 
1882, at the age of seventy-one years. The 
mother of the subject died at the age of 
seventy-two years. 

Mark Hiltebeitel, the subject proper of 
our sketch, received the limited education 
such as the crude rural schools at that day 
provided. After abandoning the employ- 
ments of school, he remained with his 
father until the age of nineteen years when 
he apprenticed himself to learn the milling 
trade, which he pursued with profit for ten 
years at various places. Subsequently, in 
1865, he purchased the farm where he re- 
sides and where he now owns in all about 
one hundred and twenty-five acres of fertile 
land in a high state of cultivation. He 
does a general farming business. 

Mr. Hiltebeitel is interested in the Per- 
kiomeu and Sumneytown Turnpike com- 
pany, and is one of the board of managers. 
He is also interested in the Perkiomen 
National bank at East Greenville. He is 
a Democrat in political affiliation, and re- 
ligiously, is a member of the- Reformed 
church at Sumneytown, and is a member 
of the board of trustees, having served 
, many years as elder, and previously served 
a number of vears as deacon. 



Biographical Sketches. 



24 r 



On November 23, i860, he married Catha- 
rine, a daughter of Michael Miller, a farmer 
of Marlboro township, this county. This 
Union lias been fruited with four children : 
Jonas, married Mary Frederick ; they have 
one child. He assists his father on the 
farm. Adam, who was educated at Ursinus 
college and Kutztown State Normal school, 
graduating from the latter in 1892, and, 
until recently, a professor in the Womels- 
dorf Orphans' Home, Berks county, is now 
completing his course at college. Morris, 
the youngest, was educated at Ursinus col- 
lege and Stroudsburg Normal school ; he 
is a teacher by profession. 



ALBERT SHOEMAKER, a successful 
contractor and builder of Norriton 
township, is a son of Charles K. and Sarah 
C. (Childs) Shoemaker, and was born on 
the old homestead, in Whitpaiu township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Sep- 
tember 6, 1851. He was reared on the 
farm, received his education in the common 
schools and Loch's select school at Nor- 
ristown, and then to fit himself for business, 
entered Pierce's Business college, of Phila- 
delphia, from which he was graduated in 
1870. Returning home he learned the 
trade of carpenter which he followed for 
seven years, working a part of that time in 
Philadelphia and for one year in the west. 
He turned from carpentering in 1879, to 
farming, which he followed in Norriton 
township up to 1889. In the last named 
year he resumed carpentering, and in con- 
nection with it, commenced contracting 
and building, in which he has been quite 
successful. He has erected several of the 
most important buildings in Norriton and 
adjacent townships, among which was a 

16 



fine twelve roomed house on the Path 
farm, the remodeling of the William Ritten- 
house mansion, and the erection of his own 
three story brick residence at Jefferson- 
ville. 

On November 4, 1875, Mr. Shoemaker 
married Ray R. DeHaven, a daughter of 
David DeHaven, of this county. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Shoemaker have been born four 
children : Irene D., Lida G., Charles 
Leslie, who died in infancy, and Uarda A. 

In politics Mr. Shoemaker is a staunch 
Republican. He served as a supervisor of 
roads in 1893. He is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, in which he is an 
elder and trustee, and served as Sunday 
school superintendent. He has always 
been regarded as a good mechanic and a 
reliable citizen. 

The Shoemaker families were founded 
in eastern Pennsylvania by Jacob Shoe- 
maker, whose sons were : Mathias, Jona- 
than, Isaac and David. 

Mathias Shoemaker was born in 1736, 
and died in 1816. In 1777 he removed to 
Whitpain township, where in 1777 and in 
1796 he purchased the lands constituting 
the Shoemaker homestead. He had an 
only son, Thomas Shoemaker, who in- 
herited the farm. Thomas Shoemaker 
married Jane Supplee, and their children 
were : Enoch, Job, David, Alan, Mathias, 
Hannah, Jesse, and Charles K , who came 
into possession of the home farm. Charles 
K. Shoemaker, father, was born June 4, 18 19 
and commenced life with that best capital 
that man can have, good health, strong 
arms and a determination to succeed. By 
hard toil, honest industry and good man- 
agement, he secured means sufficient to 
purchase the home farm, on which he re- 
resided until his death which occurred Janu- 
ary 11, 1892. In 1 84 1 he married Sarah C. 



242 



Biographical Sketches. 



Childs, a daughter of Peter and Sarah 
Childs, residents of Whitemarsh township. 
Mrs. Shoemaker was born December 2, 
1818, and still survives. To Charles K. 
and Sarah C. Shoemaker were born ten 
children : Phoebe G., who married Charles 
C. McCann ; Mathias, who enlisted as a 
soldier in the late Civil war, was promoted 
to second lieutenant, and died from exposure 
and starvation at Anderson ville prison pen; 
George; Emma Jane, infant daughter; 
Albert, whose name heads this sketch ; 
Jessie ; Sallie C, wife of Harry C Hoover ; 
Charles T., who died in 1876, and Anna C. 



EDWARD WILLIAM FRANCE, a resi- 
dent of West Conshohocken, and a 
director of the textile department of the 
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Indus- 
trial Art, of Philadelphia, is a son of John 
and Ellen (Ward) France, and was born at 
Lawrence, Massachusetts, August 6, 1859. 
His paternal grandfather, Matthew France, 
was a native and life-long resident of Lan- 
cashire, England, where his son, John 
France, was born. John France was well 
reared and educated, and soon became dis- 
tinguished in mathematics. He came to 
the United States in 1854, bringing with 
him his mother and a niece, and locating at 
Syracuse, New York. He was a cotton 
spinner by trade, and soon removed to Law- 
rence, Massachusetts, where he married and 
followed cotton spinning for some time. He 
then became manager of a large cotton mill, 
which position he still holds. He is an en- 
thusiastic Republican, served as alderman 
and as a justice of the peace of Lawrence, 
and was also a member of the board of 
health of that place. He is a member of 
the Episcopal church, and has been for 



many years a prominent Odd Fellow and 
Free Mason. Mr. France married Ellen 
Ward, who was a daughter of William 
Ward, and died March 2, 1862, aged thirty- 
three years, leaving one child, Edward 
William, the subject of this sketch. Mr. 
France married for his second wife Harriet 
Maria Goodwin, by whom he had three 
children : John W., Harriet, and Edwin, 
now deceased. His second wife dying, 
Mr. France married Mrs. Alice Marcroft, 
who had one daughter named Alice, and is 
now deceased. 

Edward William France was reared at 
Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he re- 
ceived his education in the public schools 
of that place. His father being engaged in 
the manufacturing business, as before men- 
tioned, he naturally entered the factory with 
the object of learning the business, devoting 
several years to the various branches. He 
finally took up the subject of textile design- 
ing, which he followed from 1876 to 1881. 
In the last named year he came to Con- 
shohocken, where he accepted a position in 
the weaving department of George Bullock's 
mills, which he resigned in 1884, to become 
assistant director of the Philadelphia textile 
school, which was organized in the last 
named year. Three years later he went to 
Europe and spent five months in visiting 
the industrial countries of the continent. 
He visited forty large textile institutions 
and establishments, and saw all the most 
noted places of Continental Europe. Re- 
turning from his extended old world tour, 
he was soon made a director of the textile 
department of the before mentioned insti- 
tution, comprising the schools of carding, 
spinning, weaving, finishing, and chemistry 
and dyeing. The institution has an enroll- 
ment of over six hundred pupils. Mr. 
France is recognized as an authoritv in his 



Biographical Sketches. 



243 



special line of industry, where he has won 
prominence by merit. He is an active, dili- 
gent and energetic man. Like his father, 
he is a Republican and an Episcopalian. 
He has served as a councilman, and is now 
president of the school board of West Con- 
shohocken. He is a member of Grecian 
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Law- 
rence, Massachusetts. 

On August 2, 18S8, Mr. France was 
united in marriage with Amanda Burhouse, 
a daughter of James Burhouse, of West 
Conshohocken. To their union have been 
born two children : Emma B., deceased ; 
and John Edward, who was born Ma}- 24, 
1892. 



GEORGE R. KITE, teller and assistant 
cashier of the First National bank, of 
Norristown, is a son of Edmund A. and 
Elizabeth (Jackson) Kite, and was born at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 3, 1852. The Kite family is 
of Scotch descent, and the first member 
that settled in America was a descendant 
of M. Paschall, an officer who came to 
America with Lafayette and served on his 
staff during the Revolutionary war. A 
descendant of this officer was Isaac Kite, 
the paternal grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch. 

Isaac Kite was a life-long resident of 
Philadelphia, and a member of the Society 
of Friends. He had three children : Ed- 
mund A., Mary Ann, and Rachel H. Ed- 
mund A. Kite was born in Philadelphia, 
June 2, 1813. He was a tailor by trade, 
but removed in early life to Norristown and 
served as station agent for the Philadelphia, 
Germantown and Norristown railroad for 
forty years. He is a Democrat in politics, 
and was elected burgess and a member of 



the town council for two terms in each 
office. Mr. Kite married Elizabeth Jack- 
sou, and to their union were born seven 
sons and one daughter : William, Isaac 
(deceased), Charles (dead), Eliza J., Edmund 
A., George R. (subject), Harry (deceased), 
and John P., now a resident of Norristown. 
Mrs. Kite was a daughter of William Jack- 
son, of Philadelphia, and died July 1, 1882, 
when in the sixty-second year of her age. 

George R. Kite was reared in his native 
town, received his education in the Norris- 
town public schools, and at sixteen years 
of age left school to learn the art of tele- 
graphy in the office of the Western Union 
Telegraph company. He was a telegraph 
operator for several years, during which 
period of time he served for three years as 
clerk to the superintendent of canals, at 
Norristown. At the end of that time he 
became assistant ticket agent at the Mill 
street station of the Philadelphia and Read- 
ing railroad, which position he left to serve 
as a transcriber for one year in the Re- 
corder's office. He then served for one 
year as a clerk and the telegraph operator 
in the office of George and James L. Bul- 
lock, woolen manufacturers of Consho- 
hocken, and then became book-keeper for 
S. Fulton & Co., iron manufacturers, of 
Norristown, with whom he remained up to 
1873. In that year he was elected discount 
clerk in the First National bank of Norris- 
town, and in 1882 became teller, which 
position he still holds. In two years after 
becoming teller, he was made assistant 
cashier, and discharges the duties of both 
positions at the present time. 

On October 16, 1877, Mr. Kite married 
Emma M. Moir, a daughter of James Moir, 
president of the Conshohocken Woolen 
company. To their union were born five 
children : Bessie M. (deceased), Mary E., 



244 



Biographical Sketches. 






James M., Karl K. and George E. Mrs. 
Kite died April 29, 1885, when in the 
thirty-fourth year of her age. 

In political matters, George R. Kite has 
always been a Republican. He has served 
for five years as a member of the borough 
school board, being its present secretary. 
He is connected with various Norristown 
enterprises, being treasurer of the Fame 
Building and Loan association, secretary of 
the Citizens' Passenger Railway company, 
and was vice president of the Electric 
Light company of Norristown, of which he 
was one of the original members. He 
served for two years as president of the 
board of trade, and is secretary of Charity 
Lodge No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons. 



DR. JOHN G. HILLEGASS. A profes- 
sion whose mission it is to inquire into 
the nature of the structure and physiologi- 
cal functions of the human body, that they 
may be assisted in their natural duties to 
the end that human suffering may be al- 
leviated, certainly deserves to rank as one 
of the noblest of callings ; and one who, for 
almost half a century has stood in the front 
rank of the profession of medicine, is the 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch. 
He is a son of Peter and Maria (Gery) 
Hillegass, and was born October 26, 1828, 
in Upper Hanover township, near Penns- 
burg, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. 
The Hillegass family is of German origin, 
and was among the early colonial families 
of the city of Philadelphia. During the 
yellow fever epidemic in that city in 1826, 
Frederick Hillegass, becoming alarmed, 
gathered his effects together and with a 
team started for the country. He came 
into what is now Upper Hanover township, 



this county, then a wooded wilderness, and 
took up a large tract of land and began the 
foundations of a home. In this pioneer 
home, John Hillegass, grandfather of the 
subject of this biographical sketch, was 
born. Of necessity, his avocation was agri- 
cultural pursuits, as it was only through the 
tilling of the soil that he was able to obtain 
the primary necessities of life. He also 
built a saw mill upon his farm and built the 
first frame house in this locality. Afterwards 
he built a hemp mill, and still later the 
first linseed oil mill that was built in the 
country. This mill has been rebuilt and is 
now operated by the subject of this sketch. 

Peter Hillegass (father), was born near 
Pennsburg, on a part of the original home- 
stead, where he lived most of his life. He 
was a man of limited education, so far as 
books go, but possessed a good judgment 
and a good practical knowledge of human 
nature. He took to stock dealing and drov- 
ing, and became one of the most extensive 
and successful dealers in the county and ac- 
cumulated a handsome fortune. In con- 
nection with his agricultural pursuits and 
the collateral one of stock dealing, he con- 
tinued the manufacture of linseed oil, that 
was begun by his father. Several years 
prior to his death he retired from active 
business and devoted his time in looking: 
after his investments and such other matters 
in connection with his estate that could not 
be overlooked. He was a member of the 
Reformed church, and a Democrat in politi- 
cal faith and practice. His children were 
as follows : John G., subject ; Jacob, who 
died young ; Matilda, wife of Dr. Mensch, 
of Pennsburg ; and Maria, wife of Dr. 
Henry Bobb, a physician and druggist at 
East Greenville, this county. 

Dr. Hillegass received his preliminary 
education at Washington Hall Boarding 



Biographical Sketches. 



245 



school at the Trappe, this county, under the 
direction at different times of Prof. Hudson 
and Prof. Rambo. Having- a strong pen- 
chant for the study of medicine, lie entered 
that time-honored institution of learning, 
the University of Pennsylvania, from the 
portals of which he came forth in 
1849, a full-fledged graduate from the 
medical department. He afterward still 
further broadened his professional training 
by practice in the hospitals of the city. 
Shortly after graduating he located at 
Pennsbnrg, and entered at once with earn- 
estness and enthusiasm upon the practice of 
that profession for which he had made such 
ample preparation. He soon built up a 
good practice, and now, after almost a half 
century of arduous work, would gladly 
withdraw from its exacting duties, but 
finds it impossible to do so when impor- 
tuned for medical advice by those whose 
ailments he has known and whose pains 
and aches he has allayed during the whole 
course of his professional career. After 
his father's death, he succeeded to the 
homestead farm, and still continues the lin- 
seed oil industry, established by his grand- 
father. In 1872, he, in connection with his 
brother-in-law, Dr. Meusch, founded a lum- 
ber, feed, flour and coal establishment, and 
built the large and handsome business block 
occupied by Dr. Mensch, in Peuusburg. 
Dr. Hillegass was one of the projectors and 
organizers of the Perkiomen National bank 
at East Greenville, this county. Politically 
he is a Democrat upon all National issues, 
and upon the monetary question believes 
that gold and silver should be so coined as 
to maintain them at a parity and make one 
dollar the equal of the other. 

On October 26, 1852, he married Catha- 
rine A., a daughter of Jesse Ziegler, of Sal- 
ford station, this county, and ten children 



bless their union : Dr. Eugene Z., who 
graduated from Jefferson Medical college in 
1880, and is now practicing the profession 
at Montana, New Jersey ; Ida, wife of Dr. 
John G. Hersh, a physician and the present 
burgess of East Greenville, this county ; 
Ella M., Katie, wife of Dr. William H. 
Hnnsbnrger, of Pennsbnrg ; Jesse, a gradu- 
ate of the Ontario Veterinary college, at 
Ontario, Canada, and now engaged in the 
practice of his profession, and largely en- 
gaged in the dealing of horses ; Charles Q., 
a dentist of Pennsburg, and whose sketch 
follows; Howard C, a graduate of Franklin 
and Marshall college in the class of 1894, 
who is at present editor of the Bloomsburg 
Daily, at Bloomsburg, this State ; Calvin 
M., is at home associated with his father in 
business ; Mary L,., wife of Jacob B. Esser, 
editor of the Kutztozvn Courier and Patriot, 
of Kutztown, Berks county ; Dr. John P., 
a practicing physician at No. 161 7 Dauphin 
street, Philadelphia. The latterisa general 
practitioner of medicine, and also makes a 
specialty of the eye and is assistant in the 
Medico-Chirurgical college. 



GUSTAVUS EGOLF, the leading fur- 
niture dealer in Norristown, and at 
one time the most extensive dealer in an- 
tique goods in the United States, is a son of 
George and Catharine (Sinister) Egolf, and 
was born May 19, 1849, m the grand duchy 
of Baden, Germany. George Egolf (father), 
was a blacksmith by trade, and in 1850 came 
from Germany with his wife and four chil- 
dren and settled in Philadelphia. After 
pursuing his trade for three years on Poplar 
street, he removed to the corner of Broad 
and Cumberland streets, where he was pro- 
fitably engaged in trucking and dairy busi- 



246 



Biographical Sketches. 



ness on a small farm of seventeen acres, and 
continued up to 18S4. In that year he re- 
tired from active business pursuits, and has 
since resided at the corner of Broad and 
Huntington streets, being in the eighty- 
fifth year of his age. He is a Republican, 
and a member of the Reformed church, and 
has been twice married. By his first wife, 
who died in Germany, he had no children. 
For his second wife, he wedded Catharine 
Sinister, who is a daughter of Charles 
Sinister, and was born in 1719. To this 
union were born six children : George, an 
extensive flour and feed dealer, at the cor- 
ner of Broad and Cumberland streets, Phila- 
delphia ; Charles, a sergeant on the Phila- 
delphia police force ; Elizabeth Gross, a 
resident of Philadelphia ; William and 
Louisa, who both died in infancy ; Gus- 
tavus, subject. 

Gustavus Egolf, although born in Ger- 
many, was reared in Philadelphia and re- 
ceived his meager educational training by 
very irregular attendance in the Oakdale 
school, Eleventh and Huntington streets, 
until fourteen years of age. After leaving 1 
school he drove teams for nine years, during 
which time, by very carefully husbanding 
his modest earnings, succeeded in saving 
sufficient margin to enable him to launch a 
contracting business in hauling on his own 
account, employing eight teams. He con- 
tinued in this business for three years, at 
the expiration of which time he made a 
visit to his birth place, and after three 
mouths spent in Baden, he made a tour 
through Germany, France, Ireland and 
England. Returning from the Old World, 
Mr. Egolf established an extenstve antique, 
china and furniture business at the corner 
of Eleventh and Oxford streets, Philadel- 
phia, where he remained up to July 9, 1879, 
when he came to Norristown and opened a 



similar business at the corner of Main and 
Walnut streets. After seven years he re- 
moved to the site of his present residence 
and branch store, at 363 East Main street. 

In 1893 M r - Egolf 's business had grown 
to such dimensions as to demand increased 
facilities to accommodate his constantly 
growing trade. He accordingly purchased 
a site at 113 East Main street, and erected 
the handsome four-story brick structure, 
twenty-five by seventy feet, with iron front, 
known as the Egolf building. This build- 
ing Mr. Egolf contemplates extending to a 
depth of one hundred and fifty feet, and 
when thus enlarged it will be one of the 
largest and handsomest business places in 
Norristown. He is the agent for the popu- 
lar Walsbach patent gas burner. He is a 
staunch Republican in politics and always 
contributes his share to the success of the 
party at the polls. Mr. Egolf is a member 
of the Montgomery County Historical so- 
ciety and the Humane Fire company. On 
February 23, 1873, Mr. Egolf married Eliza 
Egolf, a daughter of Charles Egolf, of 
Baden, Germany, but latterly and at death 
resided in Philadelphia. To their union 
have been born ten children : George, de- 
ceased ; Charles, Caroline, Clara, Gustavus, 
deceased ; Edward, Edith, Eliza, Sadie and 
Howard. 



HENRY F. SCATCHARD, one of the 
foremost manufacturers of south- 
eastern Pennsylvania, is a son of Joseph B. 
and Betty (Heap) Scatchard, and was born 
in Yorkshire, England, January 13, 1842. 
His parents came to this country when he 
was an infant, and after residing for some 
time near Downingtown, in Chester county, 
removed in 1850 to East Coventry town- 
ship, that county. There Joseph B. Scat- 



Biographical Sketches. 



247 



chard bought a farm and woolen factory, 
which lie conducted quite actively for a 
number of years. 

Henry F. Scatchard was reared in 
Chester county, where he received his edu- 
cation in the public schools, and spent his 
boyhood years on the farm and in the 
factory. At seventeen years of age he ac- 
cepted regular employment in the factory 
and remained with his father for three 
years. At the end of that time he entered 
a woolen factory at Germantown and 
worked at five dollars a week for several 
months. Leaving that place he went to 
Fairmount, in Philadelphia, and engaged 
in the woolen manufacturing business, 
which he followed there for fifteen years. 
He then came to Norristown and bought 
the Angoria woolen mills, which he has 
operated ever since. These mills are on 
the site of the old Blue mills, built in 1847, 
and run by Bodey and Jacobs as a cotton 
lap factory. It was burned and rebuilt, 
and operated successfully by Blout, Shaw 
& Co., and J. and J. Shaw & Co. In 1871 
a large addition was made to the mills and 
improved machinery added, and since then 
various improvements have been made. 
The mills are in the north-eastern part of 
Norristown, and form three sides of a hol- 
low square. Mr. Scatchard has equipped 
the mills thoroughly with every conveni- 
ence and all needed machinery for the 
manufacture of first-class cotton and woolen 
goods. He employs from one hundred and 
forty to one hundred and eighty men, and 
the output of the Angoria mills find ready 
sale in all sections of the United States. 
Practical, experienced and progressive, 
Henry F. Scatchard has become prominent 
as one of the successful manufacturers of 
cotton and woolen goods in the south-east- 
ern part of the State. 



In politics Mr. Scatchard has always 
been a Republican. He is a member and 
a deacon of the First Baptist church, in 
whose affairs he takes a deep interest and 
an active part. He is also the superinten- 
dent of the East End Baptist mission 
Sunday school, and a manager of the 
George Nugent Home, at Germantown, 
this State, for aged ministers of the Baptist 
church. He is a member of Philomeathen 
Lodge No. 10, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, with which extensive organization 
he has been connected for several years. 

On June 16, 1865, Mr. Scatchard was 
united in marriage with Lucy Bonsor, 
daughter of William Bonsor, of German- 
town, this State. To their union have been 
born four children, three sons and one 
daughter : Laura B., wife of Robert Dorris, 
of Philadelphia ; Barton H., now engaged 
in the manufacturing business with his 
father; Warren R., who married Bessie 
Richards, and is engaged in business with 
his father ; and Henry F., now attending 
school. 



ABNER McMICHAEL, the second son 
of William and Margaret (Dillin) Mc- 
Michael, and now senior member of the 
manufacturing firm of McMichael & Wild- 
man, of Norristown, was born May 7, 1846, 
in the city of Philadelphia. He spent his 
early life in that city, obtaining a fair edu- 
cation by his own efforts, and when ten 
years of age, became an errand boy. At the 
age of sixteen he began learning the trade 
of machinist with J. G. and G. L. Chapman 
of Philadelphia, with whom he remained 
until they failed in business. He then 
went to the Port Richmond Iron works, 
owned by I. P. Morris & Co., where he 
worked as a machinist for some time, and 



248" 



Biographical Sketches. 



later removed to Bristol, Bucks county, 
where he entered the employ of Thomas 
Hughes & Co., in their hosiery and under- 
wear mill, where he remained in various 
capacities for a period of eight years. From 
Bristol, he removed to Philadelphia, thence 
to Norristown, and forming a partnership 
with Frank B. Wildman (see his sketch), 
under the firm name of McMichael & Wild- 
man, embarked in the manufacture of knit- 
ing machinery for the production of all 
kinds of hosier}- and underwear, at the corner 
of Oak and Corson streets. This enterprise 
they have ever since successfully conducted, 
and now own and operate one of the best 
equipped plants of the kind in eastern Penn- 
sylvania, employing about sixty men. 

In politics, Mr. McMichael is a Democrat 
and a Protestant in religion. He is a mem- 
ber of Amity Lodge No. 19, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, of Philadelphia, and 
of Integrity Lodge No. 139, Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, of Pennsylvania. 

On September 26, 1879, Mr - McMichael 
was united in marriage with Anna Calvin, 
a daughter of William Calvin, of the city of 
Philadelphia. To Mr. and Mrs. McMichael 
have been born two children : Nellie and 
Elizabeth. 

The family from which Mr. McMichael is 
descended is of ancient Irish lineage. His 
father, William McMichael, was born on 
the Emerald Isle, but when six years of age 
was brought to America by relatives, and 
grew to manhood at Marietta, Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania. While yet a young 
man he learned the shoemaker trade and 
worked at that occupation during the greater 
part of his life. Some years prior to his 
death he removed to Gloucester, New Jer- 
sey, and died there in 1855, at the age of 
thirty-three years. He was a member of 
the Morning Star Lodge, Independent Order 



of Odd Fellows, of Philadelphia, and a 
Protestant in religion. In 1842 he married 
Margaret Dillin, a daughter of Joseph Dillin, 
of Philadelphia, Pa., and to them were born 
five children, three sons and two daughters: 
Joseph (now dead) ; Abner, the subject of 
this sketch ; Katie, who married Thomas 
Hall, of Philadelphia ; William and Jose- 
phine, now the widow of William Kensil, 
of Philadelphia. Mrs. Margaret McMichael 
survived her husband for more than a quar- 
ter of a century, dying in 1891, at the age 
of sixtv-eight vears. 



DANIEL LOUGHIN, the proprietor of 
the Port Kennedy hotel, is a son of 
John and Isabella (Lamon) Loughin, and 
was born in County Antrim, Ireland, 
February S, 1819. His paternal father, 
Henry Loughin, was a native and life-long 
resident of County Antrim, in which he 
followed farming and was engaged in a 
fishery. He was a man of considerable 
property, and wielded an influence in his 
immediate neighborhood. He married, 
and his son, John Loughin, was born in 
1772, and resided in his native county 
until his death, which occurred in 1837, at 
sixty-five years of age. John Loughin was 
a stone mason by trade, and as a contractor 
erected many dwellings and some buildings 
of considerable importance. He was a 
Protestant and a Free Mason, and married 
Isabella Lamon, a resident of his native 
country. Mr. and Mrs. Loughin reared a 
family of four children : John, Dennis, 
Daniel, sons ; and Katie, daughter. 

Daniel Loughin was reared in County 
Antrim, and received a very ordinary edu- 
cation in the primary schools of Ireland. 
Leaving school he was employed for a 



Biographical Sketches. 



249 



short time in various kinds of business, 
and then, at the early age of eighteen, 
sought in Pennsylvania to find a wider 
field for effort than was afforded him 
in Ireland. Landing at Philadelphia, he 
resided successively at Valley Forge and 
Norristown, and in 1841, crossed the moun- 
tains to Pittsburg, where he was engaged 
for three years in the hotel business. At 
the end of that time, in 1844, he removed 
to Westmoreland county, where he spent 
three years in the mercantile business, 
which he quit there to come to Port Ken- 
nedy. Here he built and opened a store 
which he sold to James Meenely, in 1852, 
to engage in the lime business. Ten years 
later he disposed of his quarries and bought 
the Port Kennedy hotel, which he has con- 
ducted up to the present time. 

On March 16, 1841, Mr. Loughin married 
Jane McKay, a daughter of John McKay, 
of County Antrim, Ireland. To their 
union have been born seven children : 
Isabella, John, Alexander, Daniel Jr., Ann 
Jane, Henry D., Katie and one child that 
died in infancy. Mrs. Loughin died 
August 1, 1891, aged seventy-six years, 
and her remains were interred in Port 
Kennedy cemetery. 

Daniel Loughin has always been a Demo- 
crat in politics since coming to this 
country. He is a member of Port Kennedy 
Presbyterian church, and ranks among the 
older business men of Port Kennedy. 



CHRISTIAN F. TEGTMEIER, M. D., 
a physician in active practice at Con- 
shohocken, is the eldest son of Dr. August 
and Caroline (Cook) Tegtmeier, and was 
born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 24, 1862. Dr. August Tegt- 



meier was born and reared in Germany, 
of German parentage, and graduated from 
the famous Aldorf Veterinary college, of 
his native country, and in 1850 came to 
Philadelphia, where he still resides at No. 
729 South Sixteenth street. He is a 
Homoeopathic veterinary surgeon, and dur- 
ing the late Civil war was employed 
actively in the service of the Government. 
Since the war he has practiced continuously 
at his present place of residence. He is a 
Republican and a Lutheran, and in i860 
wedded Caroline Cook, a daughter of 
Christian Cook, of Bridgeton, N. J. 

Dr. Christian F. Tegtmeier, received his 
education at the Philadelphia Central High 
school, and then entered Hahnnemann 
Medical college, from which noted Homoeo- 
pathic institution he was graduated in the 
class of 1885. After graduation he served 
for one year as a member of the dispensarv 
staff of the college, and then located at 729 
South Sixteenth street, Philadelphia 
where he remained but six months. At 
the end of that time, in November, 1886, 
he came to Conshohocken, where he has 
practiced continuously and successfully up 
to the present time. He is a member of the 
Homoepathic Medical Society, the Philadel- 
phia County Medical Society, the Philadel- 
phia Organon and Materia-Medica Society 
and the Homoeopathic Council. In addition 
to his practice, he is a contributor to the 
numerous medical journals of the United 
States. He is a Republican politically, 
and in religious faith and church member- 
ship, a Presbyterian. 

On July 1, 1885, Dr. Tegtmeier was 
united in marriage with Eleanor G. McGirr, 
a daughter of John McGirr, of Philadel- 
phia. Their union has been blessed with 
four children: Ralph, Christine, William 
C. and August. 



25° 



Biographical Sketches. 



HENRY LITZENBERG, a resident of 
Ardmore, is a son of Horatio Gates and 
Hannah (Johnson) Litzenberg, and was 
born at Ardmore, Lower Merion township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1845. The Litzenbergs are of 
Welsh origin, and members of the family 
have been prominently identified with 
the business interests of Ardmore for the 
last three generations. John Litzenberg, 
who was born in 1790, became a resident of 
Ardmore, when it was known as Athens- 
ville, and purchased the famous " Red 
Lion " hotel from John Taylor. This 
hotel has a history that stretches three de- 
cades back of the initial year of the fast 
waning nineteenth century, and always 
ranked as a first-class hostelry with accom- 
modating and courteous bonifaces. Mr. 
Litzenberg proved to be no exception to the 
rule in his management of the house, which 
he conducted up to his death, which oc- 
curred August 7, 1854. He was a Jacksonian 
Democrat, and married Christina Stanley, 
by whom he had three children : Horatio 
Gates, Elizabeth and Martha. Horatio 
Gates Litzenberg was born October 26, 
1814, at Ardmore, where he died March 28, 
1880. Receiving a fair education, he was 
engaged in the general mercantile business 
successively at Liberty ville, Humphrey ville 
(now Bryn Mawr), and Ardmore. About 
1854 he purchased the Red Lion hotel from 
his father, and in 1868 quit merchandising 
and continued in the lumber, coal and feed 
business, which he conducted in connection 
with the hotel until his death. A Democrat 
in political principle, and a Baptist in reli- 
gious views, he passed through life without 
seeking for prominence in civil or church 
affairs. He married Hannah Johnson, a 
daughter of Aaron Johnson, who died 
March 13, 1845, a g e( l twenty-seven years. 



They had a family of three children, two 
sons and one daughter : Mary, dead ; Wal- 
ter S., deceased ; and Henry, the subject of 
this sketch. 

Henry Litzenberg, at four weeks of age, 
lost his mother, and was sent to live with 
his maternal grandfather, Aaron Johnson, 
of Delaware county, with whom he re- 
mained for fourteen years. He attended 
the Cooperstown public schools, S. Gayley's 
select school at Media, and the Upland 
Normal High school at Chester, Pa., and 
then returned to Ardmore, where he as- 
sisted his father in his farming and in his 
business affairs up to the year 1869. He 
then removed to Chester county, but only 
remained there on a farm for six years, and 
shortly afterwards came back to Ardmore, 
where he managed his father's farm until 
the death of the latter, where he has re- 
sided up to the present time. 

On January 9, 1867, Mr. Litzenberg wed- 
ded Kate E. Butler, a daughter of George 
Butler, a resident of Torrsdale, Pa., and 
granddaughter of the late Captain Enoch, 
of Torrsdale, Pa. To their union have 
been born five children : Mary E., Sarah 
B.; George Yocum, deceased; Leroy and 
Louise G., deceased. 



JOSEPH LEES, a well known and 
<J highly esteemed business man of Bridge- 
port, was born in Yorkshire, England, 1830. 
He was a son of James and Betty (Savill) 
Lees, both of whom died about eight years 
previous to the death of their son. When 
Joseph Lees was twelve years of age his 
parents came to this country. Upon reach- 
ing manhood he was associated in the 
woolen business with his father and another 
partner. 



Biographical Sketches. 



25 1 



In the year 1864 the firm of James Lees 
& Sons was established, of which the father 
of Joseph and John Lees was the senior 
partner. The business was established at 
Bridgeport, Pa., at that time, and expanded 
until it became one of the largest plants of 
its kind in the country. The rapid growth 
of the great plant was dne to the energy 
and enterprise of Joseph Lees. For some 
years previous to his death, the father, 
owing to advancing years, was not active in 
the business. This threw the full responsi- 
bility of the management of the plant upon 
his son Joseph, who, through the successful 
direction of the firm's affairs, demonstrated 
his great business qualities. Upon his death 
it was found necessary, in order that the 
plant might be properly managed, to trans- 
fer the business of James Lees & Sons to a 
corporation known as James Lees & Sons 
Company. The family of Joseph Lees still 
control this corporation. 

Joseph Lees was very active in the politi- 
cal affairs of Montgomery county. He was 
an ardent Republican, and ever sought the 
highest and best interests of his party. For 
many years he was chairman of the county 
committee, and it was through his political 
sagacity that the county was changed from 
a Democratic to a Republican district. He 
had been offered by his party the nomina- 
tion for Congress, but declined this and all 
other solicitations to enter official political 
life. 

Mr. Lees was a vestryman of the Episco- 
pal church of Bridgeport for several years 
previous to his death, and sought in every 
way the advancement of the interests of his 
church. 

Early in life Mr. Lees was married to 
Maria S. Hinkle, of Roxborough, Philadel- 
phia. There were born to this union seven 
children, two of whom died in infancy. At 



his death, Mr. Lees left, besides his widow, 
George S., a manufacturer of Germantown, 
Pa. ; Sue B., Mary A., wife of Charles F. 
Williams, director of the firm of James 
Lees & Sons Co. ; Lizzie S., and Alice T, 
who married Abram T. Eastwick, also a 
director of the firm of James Lees & Sons 
Company. Mr. Lees died March 27, 1894, 
and was laid to rest in Montgomery ceme- 
tery at Norristown. 



THOMAS M. S AURMAN, the proprietor 
and operator of the " Acme" copying 
and enlarging photographic house at Nor- 
ristown, is a son of Thomas and Catharine 
(Spang) Saurman, and was born at Norris- 
town, Montgomery count} - , Pennsylvania, 
August 9, 1846. The name of Saurman 
would indicate its German origin, and 
Thomas M. Saurman's paternal grandfather, 
whose name was John Martin Saurman, 
resided near Sixth and Commerce streets, 
Philadelphia. He owned a farm, married 
and reared a family. His son, Thomas 
Saurman, was born October 19, 1804, and 
received an ordinary education in the schools 
of Philadelphia. Thomas Saurman, in 
1839, came to Norristown, where he built 
the Eagle Iron works, which he operated in 
the manufacture of mill machinery until 
his death, May n, i860. He was an in- 
dustrious energetic man, and served for sev- 
eral years as a councilman. He was a Whig 
in political opinion, and married Catharine 
Spang, a daughter of Jacob Spang, and a 
member of the old Spang family of eastern 
Pennsylvania. She was born May 14, 1814, 
and passed away May 28, 1881. To their 
union were born four children : Mary Y., 
widow of Samuel D. Delp ; Thomas M., 
subject ; James S., a photographer at St. 



2.S2 



Biographical Skktches. 



Joseph, Missouri, and Othniel S., who died 
January 26, 1889, when in the thirty-sixth 
year of his age. 

Thomas M. Sannnan was reared at Xor- 
ristown, and received his education in the 
borough public schools and Treemonnt semi- 
nary, when under the charge of Prof. John 
W. Loch. At sixteen years of age he en- 
tered the employ of the Norris Iron com- 
pany, and worked in their mills at Norris- 
town for twenty months. He then took a 
course in book-keeping at Bryant and Strat- 
ton's Business College, of Philadelphia, and 
after graduation in 1S65, purchased the 
branch photograph gallery of E. Hippie, at 
Main and Green streets, that city, which he 
operated until 188 r. In that year he sold 
out to his brother, Othniel S., and during 
January of the succeeding year, purchased 
a "copying" house at Pottstown, which he 
conducted for one year. He then, on March 
1, 1883, removed his business to the corner of 
Cherry and Main streets, Xorristown, and 
two and a half years later, on August 29, 
1885, opened his present Acme Copying 
and Enlarging House at No. 508 Green 
street. 

On October 30, 1867, Mr. Saurman mar- 
ried Eliza Davis, a daughter of Evan and 
Rebecca Davis, of Norristown. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Saurman have been born five sons and 
six daughters: Catharine, died at nine 
weeks of age ; Mary Y., Thomas E., died 
at ten years of age ; Edith R., Jonathan D., 
born August 8, 1874, died July 12, 1894 ; 
Louis R., James S., Herbert H. and Ralph 
L-, twins, the former dying at one year and 
the latter at sixteen months of age ; Norma, 
C. and Mabel L. 

Thomas M. Saurman is a Republican in 
political matters. He is a member of Mont- 
gomery Fire and Hose company. Mr. 
Saurman, by natural aptitude and years of 



experience, is well qualified for his special 
line of work. The Acme Copying and 
Enlarging House is a three-story brick 
structure, forty by sixty feet in dimensions 
and thoroughly equipped for the successful 
prosecution of every department of the busi- 
ness including the artist studios. Mr. 
Saurman has his own dynamo and engine, 
and employs as high as twenty men. His 
patronage has steadily increased year bv 
year, and his work is now to be found over 
a wide area of territory in this and adjoining 
States. 



GEORGE W. POLEV, one of the pros- 
perous citizens of Xorristown, is a 
native of Montgomery county, born near 
Perkiomenville, April 23, 1848. His parents 
were Jeremiah and Mary Ann (Bigouv) 
Poley, both born and reared in the country. 
The family is of German and French de- 
scent, and for many years have resided in 
the Keystone State. The paternal grand- 
father, George Poley, was a resident of 
Chester county during the early part of his 
life, but afterward removed to Perkiomen- 
ville, this county, where he was engaged in 
conducting a woolen mill for many years, 
located on Perkiomen creek, and said to be 
the first woolen mill on that stream outside 
of Norristown. He had a large trade and 
became a man of local prominence. He 
was a Democrat politically, and a man of 
unassuming manners — kind, generous and 
very trustworthy. His son, Jeremiah Poley 
(father), was principally reared at Perkio- 
menville, where he spent the early part of 
his life. He was a man of common school 
education, supplemented by a term at the 
Trappe seminary. He assisted his father in 
the woolen mill, spinning, dyeing and weav- 
ing woolen cloth for a number of years, and 



Biographical Sketches. 



253 



later removed to Norristown and engaged 
Itl mercantile pursuits, which he followed 
until his retirement in 1S64. He was a Re- 
publican in politics and a Lutheran in reli- 
gion. He married Mary Ann Blgony in 
1843, anc f by that union had a family of 
four children : Clara, wife of J. O. Knipe ; 
Irvin, who served as a soldier in the Civil 
war and died of wounds received in the 
battle of Spottsylvania ; George W., the 
subject of this sketch ; and Warren H, 
now a resident of Germantown, Philadel- 
phia. Mrs. Poley died in March, 1893, at 
the age of seventy-three years. 

George W. Poley remained in Marlbor- 
ough township until the age of ten, when 
he came with his parents to Norristown. 
He attended the public schools until six- 
teen years of age, and then began learning 
the trade of machinist in the Norristown 
Iron works. He remained with the firm 
for a period of five years, and then for a 
short time was in the employ of Grice and 
Long, engine builders, Philadelphia. Subse- 
quently he entered the employ of the Phce- 
nixville Iron company at Phcenixville, this 
State, with which he remained in various 
capacities for twenty-three years. At the 
end of that time he removed to Philadel- 
phia, where he engaged in the engineering 
and contracting iron business. 

Politically Mr. Poley is a staunch Repub- 
lican, though he has never taken a very 
active interest in politics. He is a member 
of the Central Presbyterian church of Nor- 
ristown, which he has served as a trustee 
since 1876. He is also a member of Curtis 
Lodge No. 231, Independent Order of ( )dd 
Fellows, having passed through all the 
chairs, and is likewise connected with the 
Encampment, and with Li 11 wood Lodge No. 
154, Ancient Order of United Workmen, in 
which he has also held every official position. 



In 1871 Mr. Poley was married to Annie 
M. Titlow, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Reuben Titlow, of Norristown, Pa., and 
they have had three children : Irene L., 
died in childhood ; G. Milton and Catharine 
C, both living at home with their parents. 



FRANK B. WILDMAN, junior member 
of the firm of McMichael & Wildman, 
manufacturers of circular rib knitting ma- 
chinery, is the eldest son of Barclay and 
Maggie (Black) Wildman, and was born 
February 5, 1856, at Langhorn, Bucks 
county, this State. His paternal grand- 
father, Jonathan Wildman, was born near 
the close of the last century in that county, 
and was a fanner by occupation. He passed 
all his life in his native county, and died 
about i860, at the age of sixty-five years. 
Politically he was a Whig and Republican. 
He was the father of four children, two 
sons and two daughters. One of his sons 
was Barclay Wildman (father), who was 
born and reared in Bucks county, where he 
secured a good common school education, 
and afterward learned the trade of carpen- 
ter. He worked at his trade to some extent 
and also engaged in agricultural pursuits, in 
which he is still employed. He is a Repub- 
lican in politics, and a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1854 
he married Maggie Black, a daughter of 
John and Rachel Black, of Bucks county, 
and to them were born eight children : Frank 
B., subject of this sketch ; Elmer, George, 
Gillam and John, deceased ; William, Han- 
nah, wife of Frank Flower; and Lizzie, 
who married William Priestly. Barclay 
and Mrs. Maggie Wildman are still living. 
Frank B. Wildman spent the first fourteen 
years of his life on his father's farm, obtain- 



'54 



Biographical Sketches. 



ing an ordinary education in the public 
schools of his neighborhood. He then went 
to Northampton township and worked on a 
farm for two years, after which he went to 
Langhorn and began learning the trade of 
blacksmithing with his uncle, John Black. 
Having completed his apprenticeship, he 
worked at the trade for eleven years in the 
shop where he had learned it, and then be- 
came a machinist, working at Langhorn 
one year longer, and then removing to 
Bristol, where he worked as machinist in 
the hosien- mill of Thomas Houghes &: Co. 

In 1887 he removed to Xorristown, and 
entered the employ of the Keystone Hosiery 
company, where he had charge of the ma- 
chinery for three years. At the end of that 
time he formed a partnership with Abner 
McMichael, (see his sketch), under the firm 
name of McMichael 6c Wildman, and in a 
small way began the manufacture of knit- 
ting machinery for hosiery mills. Their 
business rapidly increased, and the firm now 
employs about sixty men the year round. 
They make circular rib knitting machinery 
for the manufacture of all kinds of hosiery 
and underwear, and in addition do mill re- 
pairing of every description. Their estab- 
lishment is located at the corner of Oak and 
Astor streets, Xorristown, and their plant is 
regarded as one of the best equipped insti- 
tutions of the kind in this part of the State. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Wildman 
is an uncompromising Republican, believing 
in the policy of protection to American in- 
dustry, and supporting his party on all gen- 
aral questions. He is a member of Oriental 
Lodge Xo. 163, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, of Langhorn ; of the Improved 
Order of Red Men, and of the Knights of 
the Mystic Chain, of Bristol. 

On February 20, 1SS4, Mr. Wildman was 
married to Mattie Brown, a daughter of Ed- 



ward L. and Sarah A. (Saxton) Brown. To 
them have been born two children : Flor- 
ence, who died May 22, 1888, aged three and 
one-half years ; and Marion, now in her 
ninth Year. 



WILLIAM LITTLE, a leading and 
prominent business man at Spring 
Mills, is a son of James and Martha (Sem- 
ple) Little, and was born at Spring Mills, 
Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, Decembers, 1856. His father 
was reared and educated anions the hieh- 
lands of Scotland, where nature abounds in 
delightful scenery, that has been so beauti- 
fully portrayed in poetry and song. Arriv- 
ing at the age of manhood, James Little 
became a drover and farmer by occupation. 
Leaving his family in his native country, 
he emigrated to America, and soon after 
located at Roxborough, and about one year 
thereafter he brought his family to his new 
place of residence. There he became mana- 
ger of a large farm, and later he was em- 
ployed by the Schuylkill Xavigation com- 
pany as lock-keeper on the canal. He re- 
mained in the employ of this company for 
thirty-three years, living the greater part of 
the time at Spring Mills, Whitemarsh town- 
ship. The last four years of his life was 
passed in retirement, and he died August 
20, 1877, at the age of seventy-five years. 
He was a staunch Republican, and for 
twenty-three years was a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellow. He mar- 
ried Martha Semple, who died December 8, 
1893, at the advanced age of seventy -nine 
years. Their family consisted of five sons 
and two daughters : Robert, a resident of 
New York ; John, a resident of Consho- 
hocken ; William, James, deceased ; Martin, 



Biographical Sketches. 



255 



a resident of Whitemarsh township ; Susan, 
widow of William Sheridan, of New York ; 
and Mary, who married Albert H. Clauser, 
a blacksmith, in Philadelphia. 

William Little received his education in 
the public schools of Conshohocken, and at 
the age of fifteen years he found employ- 
ment in a brick yard. Subsequently he was 
employed on the Schuylkill canal between 
Schuylkill Haven and New York City, and 
afterwards he became interested in the 
crushed slag and stone business at Spring 
Mills, in which he employs one hundred and 
twenty-five men. In 1891 he began the 
coal, flour and feed business, and has suc- 
ceeded in establishing an extensive whole- 
sale and retail trade. On September 12, 
1889, Mr. Little was united in marriage 
with Clara R. Hitner, daughter of D. O. 
and Catharine Hitner, of Spring Mill. Mr. 
and Mrs. Little have two children : Wil- 
liam, deceased ; and Ludwig Filbert. 

Mr. Little is an active Republican, but 
has never sought for or held office. He 
has served as delegate to the Republican 
county convention, and takes due interest in 
all local political affairs. 



MR. JAWOOD LUKENS, a prominent 
manufacturer and business man of 
Conshohocken, is a son of Lewis A. an 
Mary Thomas (Wood) Lukens, and was 
born March 8, 1843, m Lebanon county, 
Pennsylvania. He received his education 
in private schools and Treemount seminary, 
Norristown, and graduated from the Poly- 
technic College of Pennsylvania, at Phila- 
delphia, in 1864, as civil engineer, having 
served in the Pennsylvania militia in the 
emergency calls of 1862 and 1863 — first in 
the nth regiment and second in the Grey 



Reserve regiment, of Philadelphia. After 
his graduation he was for a time engaged 
with an engineer corps, engaged in survey- 
ing a route for the Pan Handle railroad in 
West Virginia and Ohio, and later was en- 
gaged in surveying in the oil fields of Penn- 
sylvania. In 1867 he took a position in the 
employ of Alan Wood & Co., remaining 
with this company in that capacity until 
1873, when he was taken into the firm. He 
remained a member of that firm until 1881. 
Upon the latter date he withdrew from the 
business and built, in 1882, the Long Mead 
Iron works, for the manufacture of muck bar 
iron, and operated these works until 1894, giv- 
ing employment to ninety men. In 1894 a 
stock company was formed with Jawood 
Lukens president and treasurer and A. L- 
Murphy, secretary, and the works were en- 
larged by the addition of a finishing mill for 
the manufacture of Skelp iron. This en- 
terprise gave employment to one hundred 
and twenty hands. In 1883 he was one of 
the prime movers in building and equipping 
the Conshohocken Tube works and has 
been president of the company ever since. 
These works give employment to a force of 
one hundred and twenty-five hands. He is 
president of the Conshohocken Gas and 
Water company, and vice president of the 
Tradesmen's National bank of Consho- 
hocken 

In 1868 Mr. Lukens married Susan, a 
daughter of Dr. Hiram Corson, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this volume. Jawood 
Lukens is a man of many excellent and 
useful traits of character. Energetic, prompt 
and pains-taking in the discharge of every 
duty, he leaves nothing to chance or good 
fortune, and believes that good luck is but 
the result of good management. Persever- 
ance and patience are among his most strik- 
ing characteristics, and he makes himself 



256 



Biographical Sketches. 



thoroughly acquainted with the minutest 
details of the business he may have in hand. 
His power of analysis and combination, and 
his fine executive ability enable him to se- 
cure the skillful and successful execution 
of his work in any business or financial en- 
terprise, in which he may be engaged. As 
a citizen, Mr. Lukens is highly esteemed by 
all who have business or social intercourse 
with him, while his integrity and honor are 
unquestioned. He is a member of the 
American Institute of Mining Engineers; 
the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia ; the 
Franklin Institute, and the Union League 
and other clubs. 



JACOB H. GABLE, a retired citizen of 
Pottstown, Pennsylvania, is a son of 
Jacob and Catharine (High) Gable, and was 
born September 29, 1820, in Colebrookdale 
township, Berks county, Pa. He received 
his scholastic training by attendance at 
various private schools at Boyertown, that 
county. After leaving school he worked 
on a farm a few years, and during the same 
time had learned the milling trade, which 
he pursued for six years at Colebrookdale, 
Berks county, Pa. In 1856 he came to 
Pottstown, this county, and in partnership 
with his brother, Henry, operating under 
the trading name of H. &: J. Gable, pur- 
chased the Pottstown Roller mills, which 
they operated up to 1867, when the name 
was changed to Gable, Bertolette & Co., who 
continued to conduct the business up to 
1883. In 1878, Mr. Gable, in the firm of 
Gable, Jones &. Gable, became engaged in 
ore mining at Boyertown, Berks county, 
and at the same time leased a furnace at 
Bechtelsville, that county, which they 
operated up to 1890, Mr. Jones, of the firm, 



having died in 1880. Partially due to the 
flooding of the mines of the Warwick Iron 
company, they blew out the furnace, since 
which time, Mr. Gable and his brother 
Henry, who were associates in business, 
have retired from active pursuits, and are 
devoting their time to looking after their 
varied and valuable investments, With his 
brother Henry, he is extensively interested 
in real estate in Pottstown. They own a 
handsome farm of two hundred and forty 
acres at Pottstown, upon which is held the 
annual fairs of the Tri-County Agricultural 
society, comprising adjacent portions of 
Chester and Berks counties and the 
whole of Montgomery county. Here is 
found one of the best one-mile race courses 
in the state. Mr. Gable is a strong advo- 
cate of the principles of protection as held 
by the Republican party, but never sought 
political preferment. Mr. Gable resides 
with his brother Henry at Pottstown. 

Henry H. Gable, the third child and 
eldest son of Jacob and Catharine (High) 
Gable, was born March 5, 1808, in Cole- 
brookdale township, Berks county, Pa. He 
received his education in the pay schools of 
his native township, and after leaving 
school, worked on a farm and finally 
operated the homestead farm and also 
operated the Colebrookdale grist mill, now 
called Boyertown Roller mills. Mr. Henry. 
H. Gable, of this notice, owns individually, 
three valuable farms in York and James 
counties, Virginia. He is a member of 
the Mennonite church. On the 25th 
of September, 1835, Mr. Gable mar- 
ried Fredericka Kurtz, a daughter of 
Mathias Kurtz, which union has been 
blessed with six children: Angelina Gilbert, 
Emma, Sarah, wife of Charles K. Himmel- 
wright, who is manager of his father-in- 
law's Virginia farms ; Amanda (dead), El- 



Biographical Sketches. 



257 



tnira Baldwin and Barbara Fitzsimmons. 
Mr. Gable comes from a sturdy German 
ancestry, the emigrant ancestor was the 
great-grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, who sailed for this country from 
Alsace, Germany, about 1736, with a wife 
and family. Tradition reveals little au- 
thentic of the fate of this American pro- 
genitor, but it is thought that he either 
died on the passage or shortly after landing 
at Philadelphia. The family, however, 
located in west Jersey for a time and thence 
came to Hereford township, Berks county, 
Pa , where the widow, with a family of 
two small children, had found a situation 
as housekeeper with a Mr. Latshaw, whom 
she afterwards married, and by whom she 
had six children. Henry Gable, grandfather, 
at two years of age, came with his parents to 
this country and remained with his mother 
and contributed, as he grew older, what he 
could to the support of the family. While 
a boy he learned the carpenter trade which 
he followed for several years. He after- 
wards purchased a farm containing six hun- 
dred acres, now constituted in four farms in 
Colebrookdale township, that county, upon 
which he operated a grist mill and saw 
mill, and became possessed of considerable 
means for that day. He was a Whig and 
a member of the Mennonite church. He 
married and had six children, all of whom 
are deceased. Their names were as follows: 
Jacob (father), John, Hannah Sehantz, Mrs. 
Bechtel and Mrs. Brower. Grandfather 
Gable died in 1828, at ninety-three years of 
age. The father, Jacob Gable, was born in 
Colebrookdale township, Berks county, Pa. 
He owned and operated the homestead farm 
and was a member of the Mennonite church 
and a Whig in political affiliations. He 
had eleven children as follows: Elizabeth 
Gable, Magdalina Ehst, Henry, John, Susan 

■7 



Landis, Catharine (deceased), Mary Gable, 
Hannah Hauck, Jacob (our subject), Bar- 
bara and Leah, the last two of whom were 
twins, but Leah died when quite young and 
Barbara lived to be 69 years old. His father 
died September 29, 1823, at fifty years of 
age. The mother of our subject died May 
24, 1886, at the very remarkable age of one 
hundred and one years, five months and 
five days. 



SAMUEL R. FISHER, a successful and 
well known photographer of Norris- 
town, is a son of Jacob and Ann (Ritter) 
Fisher. He was born at Bull's Corner, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, February 9, 
1834. After a short preparation in the 
public schools, he entered a select school in 
Norristown, conducted by the Rev. Samuel 
Aaron. When he reached his majority, he 
left school and turned his attention to pho- 
tography, which art he studied under the 
direction of Thomas Taylor, of West Ches- 
ter, Pennsylvania. In 1863 he removed to 
Norristown, where he opened up a photo- 
graph gallery, which he has conducted for 
more than fifteen years. He has made a 
specialty of landscape photography and in 
this line of photographic art has reached a 
very creditable degree of proficiency. 

Having been inspired with a desire to 
travel, and become acquainted with the 
countries and civilizations of the old world, 
in company with A. W. Geiger, G. W. 
March and Isaac Landis, of Norristown, he 
made an extended tour through Europe and 
part of the continents of Asia and Africa. 
The central point of the pilgrimage was the 
land of Palestine and the Upper Nile coun- 
try, returning by way of Germany, Italy and 
France. The period of travel extended 
over the whole of one summer, and during 



258 



Biographical Sketches. 



the journey Mr. Fisher, with the aid of his 
camera, made valuable views of the ancient 
and historic points of interest in the cities 
and countries which he visited. These 
views are to be utilized in a series of descrip- 
tive lectures now in preparation by Mr. 
Fisher, and relating to the ruins, archi- 
tecture, customs, manners, archaeology and 
general characteristics of eastern civiliza- 
tion. The most prominent title in this 
series of lectures will be the " Holy Land as 
it is To-day." 

Aside from literary and illustrative work 
Mr. Fisher takes a prominent part in church 
affairs. He is a member of the Trinity 
Lutheran church of Norristown, in which 
he has been an elder for eight years. He 
has been connected in an official capacitv 
with the above named denomination for a 
period of fifteen years and is at present as- 
sistant librarian of the Sunday school and 
financial secretary of the Lutheran Union. 
In his fraternal relations he is a member of 
the Brotherhood of the Union ; Knights of 
the Mystic Chain, No. 44 ; Knights of 
Pythias ; and the Knights of Malta. Po- 
litically, he is a Democrat. 

During the closing years of the late Civil 
war, Mr. Fisher served in the Emergency 
corps as a member of Company F., 9th regi- 
ment, Pennsylvania militia, stationed at 
Hagerstown, Maryland. 

On March 16, 1866, the subject of this 
sketch was united in marriage to Sarah A. 
Neiman, a daughter of John Neiman, a 
farmer residing near Norristown. Mrs. 
Fisher died in April, 1890, at the age of 
sixty-one years. 

The Fisher family is of German extrac- 
tion, the grandfather of our subject having 
emigrated from Germany and located in 
Philadelphia about the year 1800. He was 
engaged in the manufacture of brick, in 



which business he continued until the time 
of his death. He was a member of the 
Lutheran church and married Margaret 
Wellinger, by whom he had seven children: 
Benjamin, Jacob, Margaret, intermarried 
with Lawrence Ramey, Hannah, Mary, 
Catharine and Elizabeth, intermarried with 
James Cooper. The elder Mrs. Fisher died 
at the age of fifty-four years, and her hus- 
band was afterwards united in marriage with 
Man- Casho. To this second union were 
born three children : Susan, wife of Henry 
Clymer ; Jane, and Priscilla, inter-married 
with Lindsay Coats. 

Jacob Fisher (father) was born in the 
Quaker city on May 1, 1807, and when he 
arrived at the period of manhood, removed 
to the southern part of Lancaster countv. 
Here he was apprenticed with the view of 
learning the blacksmith trade in connection 
with which he learned the business of manu- 
facturing edged tools. Some years subse- 
quent he came to Norristown, where he re- 
sided until the time of his death on January 
28, 1877. His marriage to Ann Ritter, a 
daughter of Samuel Ritter, resulted in a 
family of three children: Samuel, Hannah, 
deceased ; and Susan. Mrs. Fisher died at 
the advanced age of eighty-five years. In 
his political proclivities, Jacob Fisher was a 
Democrat, and fraternally he was a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
at Norristown. 



DR. RICHARD V. MATTISON, presi- 
dent of the large chemical manufac- 
turing concern, the Keasbey and Mattison 
Company, of Ambler, is a son of Joseph J. 
and Mahala(Van Selous) Mattison, and was 
born in Solebury township, Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, November 17, 1852. Joseph 



Biographical Sketches. 



259 



J. Mattison was of feudal Scotch descent, 
and followed farming as an occupation. 
He was a Friend and a Republican, and 
married Mahala Van Selous, by whom he 
he had two children : Asher G. and Rich- 
ard V. Mr. Mattison was active and 
industrious, and lived to be eighty-one 
years of age, dying April 9, 1893. 

Richard V. Mattison was reared in his 
native township, where he attended the 
public schools until he was seventeen years 
of age, and then entered the drug business 
with John Wyeth and Brother, of Phila- 
delphia. While employed by that firm he 
attended the Philadelphia College of 
Pharmacy, from which he was graduated 
in 1S73, and in that year founded the firm 
Keasbey and Mattison, for the manufacture 
of chemical specialties. They commenced 
business on a small scale at the corner of 
Juniper and Arch streets, and continued 
there for a year, during which time they 
had but one employee. The next year 
they removed to Filbert above Twelfth 
street, where they remained for two years, 
and then found their enlarged plant and 
increased force of employees not sufficient 
to meet the demands for their products. 
To remedy this they again removed, this 
time to Front street, where more suitable 
quarters and additional facilities were 
found. With each year their trade in- 
creased, and in 1879 they established a 
branch establishment at Ambler. Four 
years later they removed their entire works 
to Ambler, retaining their main office in 
Philadelphia, which they placed at Fifth 
and Market streets, where it remained 
until 1886. In that year the main office 
was transferred to Ambler and their entire 
business in all of its branches has been con- 
ducted there ever since. The company 
was incorporated November 29, 1892, under 



the style and title of Keasbey and Mattison 
company. Pure water was one inducement 
that caused the company to locate at 
Ambler. The company has its large plant 
at the junction of Wissahickon avenue and 
Maple street, which is operated by several 
steam boilers of 1500 horse power capacity, 
and affords regular employment for a force 
of two hundred and fifty hands. The pro- 
ducts of the works, including carbonate of 
Magnesia and many other specialities of 
different manufacture, are of such purity 
that they are in demand in all the leading 
cities of the country. The company have 
erected a splendid business block on Butler 
avenue, and have made Ambler what it is 
to-day, a place of some size and business 
prosperity. Dr. Mattison is president of 
the company, and under his skillful and 
judicious management the business has 
grown from a very humble and limited 
beginning to its present large proportions 
and remarkable prosperity. Under his 
management also, the Ambler Spring 
Water company has erected water-works 
and the Electric Light company an elec- 
tric light, heat and moter plant for the use 
of the works and the benefit of the borough. 
He is president of the Ambler Spring 
W T ater, Ambler Electric Light, and the 
Real Estate Improvement, National Lathe 
and Tool, and other companies, and in ad- 
dition to supervising these industrial 
enterprises in connection with the manage- 
ment of his great chemical works, he has 
been president and one of the directors of 
the Philadelphia Drug Exchange, director 
of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 
and also president of its Alumni associa- 
tion. In order to fully qualify himself in 
his line of business, Dr. Mattison entered 
the medical department of the University 
of Philadelphia, and was graduated from it 



26o 



Biographical Sketches. 



in 1879, with the degree of M. D. Active, 
energetic, and progressive in business, he 
has always taken an interest in the local 
affairs of his borough, as well as in his large 
manufacturing industry. He is a thorough 
American and an active Republican, but 
has always refused to accept any office. 
Dr. Mattison has won success in business 
life by his energy, prudence, and good 
judgment, and has an enviable standing 
in the community in which he lives. He 
is a member of Apollo Lodge No. 386, 
(Philadelphia) Free and Accepted Masons, 
the Manufacturers' Club, and kindred or- 
ganizations of Philadelphia. 

On November 4, 1873, ^ r - Mattison 
wedded Esther Dafter, daughter of James 
Dafter, of Cranberry, N. J. Their union 
has been blessed with three children : 
Richard V. jr., Royal, and Esther Y., the 
latter having died of typhoid fever at the 
early age of four years. 



/WlAHLON 
i V 1 leading 



PRESTON, M. D., the 
homoeopathic physician of 
Norristown and Montgomery county, is a 
son of Isaac C. and Mary (Price) Preston, and 
was born at Cain, Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 22, 1839. His paternal 
grandfather, Mahlon Preston, was a native 
of London, Grove township, Chester 
county, where he followed farming for an 
occupation. He was a Friend or Quaker, 
and supported the Whig party in all of its 
principal measures except its course on the 
slavery question. He was a pronounced 
and active anti-slavery man, and did much 
as an agent of the Underground Railroad 
to assist fugitive slaves in their northward 
journey across Chester county. He wedded 
Amy Coates, who passed away in 1853, at 



the age of sixty-eight years, three months 
and twenty-nine days. Their children 
were as follows : Isaac C, Zillah, William, 
Hannah, Barclay, Coates, Israel, Beulah, 
Seymour. 

Isaac C. Preston, the father of Dr. Preston, 
was born October 15, 1807, in West Grove, 
(the west end of London Grove) and re- 
ceived a good common English education, 
after which he engaged in the general 
mercantile business at Cain, in his native 
county, where he handled large quantities 
of grain which he shipped on his own 
cars by railroad to Philadelphia. He was 
one of the leading business men of Chester 
county. He was a Henry Clay Whig, and 
a member of the Society of Friends, and 
served as postmaster at Cain for several 
years before his death, which occurred 
November 28, 1S50. He married Man- 
Price on February 9, 1837, and to their 
union were born three children, two sons 
and one daughter : Elizabeth, who died in 
infancy ; Dr. Mahlon, whose name appears 
at the head of this sketch; and Ei. Fred- 
erick, a practicing physician of Chester, 
Pennsylvania. Mrs. Preston is a daughter 
of Issachar Price, and resides at Blooming- 
ton, Illinois, being now in the seventy- 
eighth year of her age. 

Dr. Mahlon Preston received his educa- 
tion at the boarding school of the celebrated 
Jonathan Gauze, near West Chester, 
Chester county. Leaving school he com- 
menced the study of medicine, and after a 
preparatory course of reading, entered the 
Homoeopathic Medical college, of Philadel- 
phia, from which he was graduated in the 
class of 1861. In the same year that he 
was graduated he came to Norristown, 
where he has continued ever since in the 
J practice of his profession. He has a large 
I and lucrative practice, ranks with the lead- 



Biographical Sketches. 



261 



ing homoeopathic physicians of the State, 
and is an able writer on medical subjects, 
being a frequent contributor to various 
progressive medical journals. He is a 
member of the Delaware, Chester and 
Montgomery County Medical Council, and 
the American Institute of Homoeopathy. 

On October 11, 1867, Dr. Preston mar- 
ried Mary Krause, a daughter of Hon. 
David Krause, then president judge of the 
judicial district composed of the counties of 
Montgomery and Bucks. Dr. and Mrs. 
Preston have three children : Frederick 
H., {Catherine and Emily. 

The name of Preston is one of the old 
and honorable names of Chester county, 
and the family is contemporary with that 
of the Coates family, whose early American 
members founded Coatesville, Pennsyl- 
vania. 



S POWELL CHILDS is a descendant in 
• the sixth generation of Henry Child, 
who resided in Coldshill, in the parish of 
Rindersham, Hertford county, England. 
The family were of the Society of Friends. 
He was eminent as a writer and speaker 
among them, and was on close and intimate 
terms with William Penn. He had several 
children. From William Penn, Henry 
Child made a purchase of five hundred 
acres of land, for which he paid ten pounds 
sterling, on the 20th of January, 1687. 
Henry Child accompanied his young son, 
Cephas, to America in 1693. The purchased 
land was then located in Plumstead, Bucks 
county, Pa., and the son was placed with a 
family in Philadelphia, where he learned 
the carpenter trade. The father, after re- 
turning from England, came back and 
finally settled in Ann Arundel count}-, 
Maryland. In 1715 Henry Child gave the 



above mentioned land to his son Cephas, 
who, having in 17 16 married Mary Atkin- 
son, of Philadelphia, settled on the land 
in Bucks county. The}- had nine children, 
the sixth of whom, named Henry, was born 
on the homestead in Bucks count}-, January 
1, 1725. He married Mary Shoemaker, of 
Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, August 3, 1750. 
Their children were : Sarah, John, Isaac, 
George and Thomas. Of these, John, the 
grandfather of S. Powell, was born April 3, 
1755, in Plumstead, Bucks county, from 
which place his father removed with his 
family, in 1776, to Cheltenham, Montgom- 
ery county. John was married June 5, 
1777, to Mar}-, daughter of Peter Phipps, of 
Abingtou. The}- had twelve children, eight 
of whom lived to be men and women, and 
were named Mary, Peter, Sarah, James, 
Tacy, Elizabeth, John and Margaret. Of 
these, Peter, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, was born in 1780, in Chelten- 
ham township, Montgomery county, Pa. 
He married Sarah Rogers, by whom he 
had several children, only two of whom, 
James and Sarah, survived infancy and 
youth, and are still living at the age re- 
spectively of eighty-four and seventy-eight 
years. Sarah married Charles Shoemaker, 
of Whitpain township, in 1840. He is now 
deceased. The second wife of Peter Childs 
was Rosanna Lee, daughter of James and 
Elizabeth Lee, nee Krickbaum, of Lower 
Meriou. 

Their only child, S. Powell Childs, the 
subject of this sketch, was born June 7, 
1832, in Plymouth township, Montgomery 
county, Pa., on the farm upon which he 
now lives, and which has been his residence 
from the time of his birth. This farm was 
then owned by Samuel Powell, his mother's 
uncle. It was then rented and occupied by 
Peter Childs, who afterwards purchased it. 



262 



Biographical Sketches. 



Samuel Powell, the uncle, who was a wid- 
ower without children, lived with the 
Childs family, being cared for by his niece 
until his death, in April, 1844. The boy, 
S. Powell, was named in honor of this uncle, 
and when old enough became his almost 
constant companion. The uncle remem- 
bered his young namesake in his will with 
a handsome legacy. S. Powell Childs at- 
tended school steadily from his sixth until 
his eleventh year, after which, until his 
fifteenth year, he worked on the farm in sum- 
mer and went to school in winter, after 
which a term at the private academy of 
Samuel Aaron, at Norristown, closed his 
school education. At this time he was an 
active reader, and his thirst for knowledge 
was supplied by books from the Whitpain 
library and other sources. 

His father having died in 1844, the time 
and effort of the son was now needed to as- 
sist his mother in the management of the 
farm and in marketing the products in 
Philadelphia. Upon attaining his majority 
in 1853, he bought of his father's estate the 
homestead farm, containing sixty acres, to 
which a few years later twenty-five acres 
were added. This farm has been greatly 
improved by the erection of new and com- 
modious buildings, and by a skillful sys- 
tem of husbandry. His mother continued 
to live here with her son and his family 
until her death, February 20, 1888, aged 
ninety-two years. Mr. Childs was on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1854, married to Mary A., daughter 
of William and Sarah Schlater, of Ply- 
mouth township, who died January 21, 1855. 
On February 24, 1859, he was married to 
Malinda, daughter of George and Margaret 
Freas, of Plymouth township, who was 
born September 17, 1837. The children of 
S. Powell and Malinda Childs are : Horace 
G., born June 7, i860, and who was killed 



by lightning June 6, 1883 ; Mary, born June 
13, 1862 ; Sherman, born August 1, 1864, 
died August 7, 1866; Sallie S., born Septem- 
ber 20, 1868; George F., born August 6, 1870; 
Ella F., born June 17, 1872, and died No- 
vember 19, 1880; and Lizzie H, born 
January 27, 1875. The living children re- 
main with their parents. Sallie S. is an ac- 
complished and successful teacher in a pub- 
lic school of this district. Mr. Childs' 
father, and all his father's ancestors, male 
and female, for five generations, were mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends. His mother, 
not being a Friend, he failed to be a mem- 
ber by birthright, but he was reared under 
the influence of the Quaker faith, and for 
the most part believes in it. 

In politics, Mr. Childs is a Republican. 
He was one of the local founders of that 
party and an active and influential member, 
but he has never desired or sought office. 
He held for a term the office of assisant in- 
ternal revenue assessor. In 1876 he was 
tendered and accepted the nomination for 
the office of State senator, when, although 
he received more than his party's vote, that 
party being in the minority, he was not 
elected. He has taken great interest in 
educational matters, and has endeavored to 
improve the public schools. He was elected 
a director in 1856, and during the greater 
part of the time since then, has been a 
member of the board. He has been the 
secretary thereof almost continuously since 
1873. His nomination for director has al- 
ways been made by the party in the minority 
and yet his election has generally been by a 
large majority. He early advocated a town- 
ship high school, and five years ago had the 
satisfaction of helping to organize one. The 
school has fully justified his expecta- 
tions. 

His skill as a farmer and his devotion to 



Biographical Sketches. 



263 



his profession as such, has frequently been 
recognized. He has for a long time been 
reporter of statistics for the State Hoard of 
Agriculture of Pennsylvania, and chief re- 
porter in Montgomery county of the same 
for the United States Department of Agri- 
culture. He was a member and for some 
years a manager and vice president of the 
Montgomery County Agricultural society, 
and he actively assisted in organizing Cold 
Point Grange No. 606, Patrons of Hus- 
bandry, October, 1875, and was elected its 
first master, a position to which he was re- 
elected many times. During this time No. 
606 became the banner Grange of the 
State. He is at present treasurer of this 
Grange. 

He has also held for several terms the po- 
sition of master of the Montgomery County 
Pomona Grange, and is at this time the 
treasurer thereof. In the Pennsylvania State 
Grange, of which he is a member, he has 
held the position of member of the execu- 
tive committee, a position of great trust and 
responsibility. 

Mr. Childs has always taken an active 
part in matters of local interest, progress 
and improvement, and several years ago, 
while in the board of managers of the 
Montgomery County Mutual Fire Insurance 
company, he aided largely in having that 
staunch company extend the principles of 
insurance to damage done by storm, as well 
as that done by fire. He contributed liber- 
ally of his time and money to aid the estab- 
lishing of the corporation and the factory 
known as the Plymouth Valley Creamery 
company. He has for many years been an 
advocate of good roads, and he now enjoys 
the satisfaction of seeing the principal high- 
ways of Plymouth township macadamized, 
and also the electric trolley cars of two 
companies running on the principal roads 



of said township, giving facilities at inter- 
val! of a few minutes to reach Norristown, 
Philadelphia and other places, and practi- 
cally annihilating time and distance. 



WILLIAM R. PECHIN, of Norristown, 
is a member of a family noted for 
longevity and the piety and faithfulness in 
religion for its members. He is a son of Wil- 
liam and Elizabeth Pechin, and was born in 
Philadelphia, November 25, 1825. The 
Pechins are descendants of the early French 
Huguenots, many of whom were pioneers 
in the Mississippi valley. John Pechin, pa- 
ternal grandfather, was a native of Phila- 
delphia, where he was a carpenter for some 
years, and then retired from active business 
life at an early age. He was a Whig, and 
served one term as tax collector in his na- 
tive city, and was a member of St. Paul's 
Episcopal church, in the welfare of which 
he was greatly interested. He married Ann 
Wallace, to whom were born seven chil- 
dren : William, Thomas W., who died quite 
young ; John C, now deceased, who resided 
in Philadelphia and devoted much of his 
time to the interests of the church of which 
he was a member, and of whose Sabbath- 
school he served as superintendent for 
twenty years ; Mary, Ann, Robert W., who 
died at the advanced age of seventy-three 
years ; and Elmira, who lived to be eighty- 
three years of age. Mr. Pechin passed 
away November 1, i860, after arriving at 
the age of ninety-two years. 

William Pechin was born and reared in 
the same city as his father, where he be- 
came engaged in the tanning business. On 
Schuylkill Front and Cherry streets, he 
opened a tannery and carried on an exten- 
sive business. In his day he stood in the 



264 



Biographical Sketches. 



I 



front rank of business men, and did much 
to shape the different industries of his im- 
mediate neighborhood in the Quaker city. 
He also owned a fine farm in Chester county. 
In politics, Mr. Pechin was at first a 
Democrat, but afterwards became a Repub- 
lican. He was a member of the Episcopal 
church. He married Eliza Adams, and 
this union was blessed with one child : John 
A., who is a resident of Exton, Chester 
county, Pa., his mother dying while he was 
very young. He afterwards married Eliza 
Bewley, and they had six children : Wil- 
liam R., Robert W , who resides in Chester 
county ; Edward T., who died in 1866 ; 
George J., a resident of Philadelphia , 
Charles, who died in 1878 ; and Anna C. 
Laird, who died in 1866. Mr. Pechin died 
in 1877, at the age of eighty-two years, and 
Mrs. Pechin passed away in 1841, when in 
the forty-fifth year of her age. 

William R. Pechin received his education 
in the common schools, and was engaged in 
the tanning business with his father until 
he became twenty-three years of age. At 
that time he opened up a tannery at Straf- 
ford, Chester county, where he remained 
five years. In 1857 he removed to King of 
Prussia, Montgomery county, where he 
purchased a farm of seventy-two acres, 
and upon which was located a tannery. 
There he resided for twenty-seven years, and 
then, in 1883, removed to Norristown, where 
he now lives a retired life. For seven years 
he served as vice president of the Norris- 
town Passenger Railway company, on 
which railway they first ran horse cars ; 
it has since been changed to a trolley line. 
He was one of the chief promoters of the 
enterprise. He is a Republican, and a 
member of the Junior Artillerists of Phila- 
delphia, and took part in suppressing the 
riots in Philadelphia in 1844. 



On March 1, 1849, Mr. Pechin married 
Sidney M. Walton, a daughter of Isaac 
Walton, a farmer and saddler of Horseham 
township. The Walton family are of Eng- 
lish descent, and trace their trans-Atlantic 
ancestry back to four brothers, who came to 
America before the arrival of Penn. They 
afterwards located in Philadelphia and 
Bucks county. The Waltons are of Quaker 
belief and are pious and peaceable citizens. 
Jesse W. Walton, paternal grandfather, was 
a resident of Bucks county, where he owned 
a fine farm and was engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. He had but one brother, Joshua, 
also a farmer, who had two children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pechin are the parents of 
seven children : Anna Eliza, who married 
Nathan Anderson, and resides at King of 
Prussia, Montgomery county ; John W., of 
Philadelphia, who is a manufacturer of 
leather belting and factory supplies, and 
who married Anna, daughter of George and 
Matilda McDowell, of Paoli, Chester count)' ; 
Mary L., who married Charles H. Murray, 
and resides at King of Prussia ; Edward T., 
a resident of Philadelphia, who married 
Matilda, a daughter of George and Matilda 
McDowell ; Margaret W., who married W. 
K. St. Clair, of Parksburg, Chester county ; 
Jesse W., a druggist, at Thirteenth and Co- 
lumbia Avenue, Philadelphia ; and Mason 
Jones Pechin, who is a commercial traveler. 



' HESTON TODD, a prominent citizen 
1 • and business man of Port Kennedy, is 
a son of John and Martha (Heston) Todd, 
and was born at Chester Valley, Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1839. His pater- 
nal grandfather, David Todd, was a native 
and life-long resident of Chester Valley, 
where he was a man of considerable means 



Biographical Sketches. 



265 



and owned a large tract of land. He was a 
Democrat and Presbyterian, and a man of 
prominence and influence in the community 
where he lived. His son, John Todd, was 
born in 1809, and resided on the home farm 
until 1885, when he removed to West Ches- 
ter, the county seat of Chester county, where 
he died in 1893. Like his father before him, 
he was a Democrat and Presbyterian, and 
always took an active interest in local 
affairs. John Todd wedded Martha Heston, 
a daughter of Isaiah Heston, of Chester 
county, Pa., whose father, Isaiah Heston, 
was a Revolutionary soldier, who was 
wounded at the battle of Monmouth, and 
remained a cripple until his death. Mrs. 
Martha Heston Todd was born in Chester 
count}-, Pa., in 1810, and is still living. 
They reared a family of six children : David, 
I. Heston, Gilbert H., Margaret, Mary and 
Charlotte. Mary, the fifth in order of age 
of these children, married Joseph Menkin. 
I. Heston Todd was reared in Chester 
Valley, in his native county, received his 
edcation in the common schools and Tre- 
mont seminary, and was engaged in farm- 
ing with his father until after he was of 
age. He then went into the banking busi- 
ness at Downington, Chester count}-, and 
two years later went to Philadelphia, where 
he accepted a position in the Fourth Na- 
tional bank, which he afterwards resigned 
to engage in the retail coal trade, in which 
he remained until 1873. In that year he 
came to Port Kennedy and engaged in his 
present lime and limestone business. His 
quarries are located on the old Valley Forge 
camp grounds, one mile from Port Kennedy, 
and besides selling limestone, he also ope- 
rates lime-kilns, the product of which he 
disposes of in the surrounding cities. He 
is also interested in a large wood pulp mill 
at Buena Vista, Virginia, and has been a 



stockholder for several years in the Iron 
National bank of Pottstown. Mr. Todd 
has been identified for over twenty years 
with the movement to establish a National 
Park at Valley Forge, being a member of 
every committee appointed towards securing 
that commendable object. He was ap- 
pointed Valley Forge Park Commissioner 
by Governor Pattison, and removed by 
Governor Hastings for political reasons. 
He is a strong Democrat, and served as a 
delegate from the Seventh Congressional 
District to the Democratic National Con- 
vention, at Chicago, in 1892, that nominated 
Grover Cleveland for President of the 
United States. He is a member of Thomp- 
son Lodge No. 340, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, of Green Tree, Chester county, Pa. 

On February 21, 1865, Mr. Todd married 
Jennie A. Robb, who was a daughter of 
Archimedes Robb, of Chester Valley, Ches- 
ter county. She died in 1880, and left four 
children : Charles M., Helen W., John 
Robb and Joseph Heston. Five years after 
the death of his first wife, Mr. Todd, on Oc- 
tober 6, 1885, was united in marriage with 
Anna Pawling, a daughter of Dr. Henry 
DeWitt Pawling, and a granddaughter of 
Hon. Levi Pawling, who was a distin- 
guished lawyer, and served as a member of 
Congress. 



WILLIAM BROMER, a wide-awake 
business man, and the proprietor of 
the Bromer tailoring manufacturing estab- 
lishment at Schwenksville, is a son of 
Albert and Catharine (Shepherd) Bromer, 
and was born at Schwenksville, Montgom- 
ery county, Pen nsylvania, November 6, 1864. 
He attended the public schools until he 
was fifteen years of age, and then took a 
full six months course at Brvant and Strat- 



266 



Biographical Sketches. 



ton's Business College, of Philadelphia. 
Returning from there he worked in various 
departments of his father's tailoring manu- 
facturing establishment until 1889, when 
he succeeded to the proprietorship of the 
entire business. Mr. Bromer employs 
seven hundred hands, and has a regular 
output of eight thousand garments per 
week, which are delivered to the leading 
wholesale clothing houses of Philadelphia, 
while during the busy trade season of the 
year he manufactures about ten thousand 
garments per week. His establishment is 
a three-story structure containing two ware 
and packing rooms thirty-five by sixty feet, 
a button-hole factory thirty by forty, and 
two finishing and shipping rooms twelve 
by sixteen feet. Mr. Bromer is a Repub- 
lican and a member of the Reformed 
church, in which he has served for some 
time as a trustee. 

On October 16, 1888, William Bromer 
married Katie Mary Willard, a daughter of 
Peter Willard, of Trappe. Their union has 
been blessed with two children, a son and a 
daughter : Ruth, aged four years. The son 
died an infant. 

The Bromer family is one of the old and 
respectable families of the city of Kehl, in 
the grand duchy of Baden, Germany. Fred- 
erick Bromer, of that city, owned an exten- 
sive bakery and wine cafe, which was 
destroyed three times in as many different 
wars, when Kehl was subjected to bom- 
bardment. These losses reduced him 
from affluent circumstances to a state of 
limited means at the time of his death. 
He reared a family of two sons and one 
daughter. The eldest son served as a sol- 
dier under Napoleon Bonaparte, and was 
killed during the invasion of Russia. The 
younger son, Jacob Bromer, learned the 
trade of tailor and became a merchant tailor 



in Kehl. He came to Philadelphia in 1869, 
but not finding the facilities for business 
that he was led to believe existed there, he 
returned to his native city, where he died a 
few years later. He married and had eight 
children: Sophia, widow of Richard Krug, 
of Philadelphia, now living at Sehweuks- 
ville ; Jacob, a soldier in the German army, 
who took part in the revolution of 1848, in 
Germany, and came to Philadelphia, where 
he followed merchant tailoring until his 
death in 1854; Frederick and Minnie, both 
died in early life ; Louise, wife of Chris- 
tian Mayer, of this county ; and Albert, 
father of our subject. 

Albert Bromer was born September 2, 
1837, received a fair education and at fifteen 
years of age came to Philadelphia, where he 
learned the trade of tailor with his brother 
Jacob. After the death of the latter in 1854, 
he became a journeyman tailor and worked 
for ten years in various places. At the end 
of that time, in 1864, he came to Schwenks- 
ville and started a small merchant tailoring 
manufacturing establishment and disposed 
of his products to the leading clothing 
houses of Philadelphia. From thence for- 
ward his business career was one of abun- 
dant success until he disposed of his estab- 
lishment to his son William, on January 1, 
1889. Since then Mr. Bromer has not been 
engaged in active business. He is a Re- 
publican and a member of the Reformed 
church, and on April 9, i860, wedded Catha- 
rine Shepherd, a daughter of William Shep- 
herd, of Philadelphia. They have eleven 
children living: Elizabeth, wife of Irwin 
Schwenk, teller of the First National bank; 
Susan, married Samuel Weller, a salesman 
of Philadelphia ; Rev. Albert, a graduate of 
Yale college, and pastor of Grace Reformed 
church, of Philadelphia ; William, whose 
name heads this sketch ; Rev. Edward, a 



Biographical Sketches. 



267 



graduate of Yale college, and pastor of the 
Orwigsburg Reformed church, in Schuylkill 
county ; Frank, now in his senior year at 
Lehigh college ; Jacob, engaged in business 
with his brother William ; Katie, a graduate 
of the Philadelphia High school ; Minnie, a 
student at Ursinus college ; and Courtney 
and Ralph, who are at home with their 
parents. 



HON. JOHN WOOD, ex-member of Con- 
gress and the oldest active business 
man in Conshohocken, if not in Mont- 
gomery count}', has for many years enjoyed 
the distinction of being one of the most 
prominent and important figures in the 
business and political circles of his native 
county. Four score years of activity in the 
business world have failed to dim a fertile 
mind, that is still capable of good counsel 
in the workings of a big corporation, nor 
have they destroyed the activity of body 
that would compel him to retire and in the 
sunset of a brilliant career step aside and 
live again in the past. In everything the 
word implies, John Wood is a remarkable 
man. From earl}- youth he took kindly to 
mechanical pursuits, and with a brain filled 
with inventive genius, he scored successes 
that were important to home and foreign 
manufacture. Though never aspiring after 
office, he did take up politics when he 
thought he could serve his country, and 
when he did enter that field he took with 
him the same courage, the same clear 
thought, and the same shrewd way of going 
in for success that made him victorious in 
the commercial sphere. His wonderful 
political success and his careful, conserva- 
tive and timely action in congress at a 
period when the social centre of the country 
was being shaken with the distant rum- 



blings that foretold of National disruption, 
won for him a distinguished name among 
his colleagues, and when full}' understood, 
brought to him the hearty commendation 
of his constituents, who, if permitted, 
would have testified their confidence by a 
re-election, that would have been practi- 
cally unanimous. Such a man is John 
Wood, the subject of this sketch. 

The sound and peaceful policy of William 
Penn has given to the people of Pennsylva- 
nia what no other State can boast — a true, 
honest title to their land. No man, honest 
in himself, need fear the inspection of the 
title papers of the land he owns in Mont- 
gomery county, for it was secured from the 
original owners in a legitimate business 
transaction. Having secured this property, 
first by grant from England, that did not 
own it, and later from the native and right- 
ful proprietors, Penn's next object was to 
have the land settled and made use of for 
farming and other purposes. To this end 
numerous colonizing expeditions were fitted 
out in England, and with one of these, in 
1690 or 1700, James Wood, a single man of 
means, and a member of the Society of 
Friends, cast his lot and came to Pennsyl- 
vania. Arriving here, he turned his face 
toward Montgomery county, and settled 
and purchased a very large tract of land in 
Plymouth township, and settled down for 
life at what is now known as Blue Bell. 
This property remained in the family up to 
1832, though it had been divided among 
the children. He lived on this big farm 
until he died, and his remains were laid to 
rest in the Friends burying ground at Ply- 
mouth Meeting. The original ancestry of 
the emigrant, James Wood, was a mixture 
of English and Welsh. He was the father 
of these children : Margaret, Mar} - , Eliza- 
beth, Catharine, John, Da wees, Catharine 2d. 



268 



Biographical Sketches. 



John Wood was the grandfather of ex-Con- 
gressman Wood. He was born at Bine 
Bell, Plymouth township, at the old home- 
stead, in 1 747. He was a farmer by occu- 
pation, tilling the soil of the original Wood 
farm, and died there in 1832, at the age of 
eighty-five years. He married Catharine 
Davis, and their union was blessed by the 
following children : James, father of the 
subject of this sketch ; Jane, Samuel, John 
and David, who became a literary man of 
considerable note. 

James Wood began life in the humble 
sphere of a village blacksmith, but he was i 
a born mechanic, and long before he died 
was counted among the most celebrated 
manufacturers in his district. From the 
anvil and forge in a small village, he soon 
worked his way to prosperity and promi- 
nence in the iron industry, and the works 
he founded still exist as a monument to a 
self-made man. He secured good schooling 
in the schools of his day, and then learned 
the trade of blacksmith. He opened 
a smithy at "The Gulf." He soon began 
to manufacture sickles, and later other agri- 
cultural implements, first opening a factory 
at Valley Forge, then at Fox Chase, and 
finally at Conshohocken, where the business 
grew to large proportions, including the 
manufacture of shovels, spades, saws, and 
other implements, and the industry gained 
a wide reputation. He also founded the 
Delaware Iron works near Wilmington, and 
having his sons in partnership with him, 
conducted both establishments. Later he 
sold the Delaware works to his son Alan, 
and confined his entire energy to the Con- 
shohocken works with his sons, under the 
firm name of James Wood & Sons. Later 
his son Alan also disposed of the Delaware 
plant and came to Conshohocken. Here 
with his two sons, Alan and Howard, he es- 



tablished a small mill of one pair of rolls. 
This mill now covers fifteen acres, with a 
capacity of 20,000 tons a year and employing 
six hundred hands. James Wood was no 
seeker after office, and only held one public 
position, that of school director of Ply- 
mouth township. He was president of the 
board from 1S34 to 1839, and during that 
time when free schools were being intro- 
duced against bitter opposition, the mem- 
bers of the board had no easy task to main- 
tain the stand they took for the new school 
law. He lived a peaceful, busy, honored 
life, and died in January, 1851, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-one years. His second 
wife, Ann, survived him until January, 1882, 
when she had reached her ninety-second 
year. Mr. Wood was married twice. His 
first wife, Mary Thomas, of Plymouth, bore 
him nine children : James, Alan, Catharine, 
Mark, Mary, who died in infancy ; Thomas, 
Man- and Sarah. His second wife was Ann 
W. Warner, of Philadelphia, and this union 
was productive of eleven children : Lydia, 
Charles, John, William W., David L., 
Thomas C, George F., Anna J., Martha 
A., Caroline T. and Benedict D. Of these 
children there are living at the present 
time: John, Charles, Anna J., Martha and 
Benedict D. 

Hon. John Wood, the subject of this 
sketch, was born in Philadelphia, on the 
6th of September, 1816, and is a son of 
James and Anne W. (Warner) Wood. He 
was brought up in the pure and wholesome 
atmosphere of the Friends Society of that 
citv, and received his education in their 
schools on New street. At the age of six- 
teen years he entered the counting house of 
his father's large agricultural and tool 
manufactory in Philadelphia, and remained 
associated with him in business until his 
death. In 1832, their business having in- 



Biographical Sketches. 



269 



creased so greatly, a large factory was 
opened at Conshohocken, and this estab- 
lishment had connected with it a mill for 
the manufacture of sheet and boiler iron, 
then a new industry in the United States. 
At this time Mr. Wood had not yet reached 
his majority, but his training had been su- 
perior, and he showed such energy and en- 
terprise, that he not only doubled his 
father's business, but became associated 
with Lewis A. Lukens at New Market 
Forge, Ouitopohill Creek, Lebanon county, 
where they manufactured blooms to their 
great profit, but sold out his interest to his 
partner in 1840. A year later he and his 
brother, William W., started a rolling mill 
on Red Clay creek, near Wilmington, Dela- 
ware, for the manufacture of sheet iron, and 
remained there four years. In 1844 he sold 
out this plant to his brother Alan, and came 
back to Conshohocken and associated him- 
self with James Wood & Sons, and superin- 
tended the erection of a new and large mill. 
Under his direction this mill was quickly 
completed and the capacity of the works 
again doubled. This establishment came 
to be known as one of the most important 
sheet iron concerns in the country, and in 
a short time later its reputation became 
even greater and more wide-spread, for Mr. 
Wood began to turn his attention to making 
an imitation of the celebrated and costly 
" Russia sheet-iron," that was used to cover 
high-priced heating stoves and other ma- 
chinery. After much experimenting, he 
was successful and his mill began turning 
out an article equal in ever)- way to the im- 
ported article, and of course at a much more 
reasonable figure. This patent is known as 
" Wood's Process," and is the only one that 
has ever displaced the product from the 
Czar's dominions. It came to its perfection 
just at the time of tV Crimean war, and 



the J. Wood & Bros, mills were kept very 
busy supplying the demand, the Russia iron 
not being exported during the war. Mr. 
Wood became senior member of the firm in 
185 1, when his father died, and he then 
built steam mills at Conshohocken, which 
turned out five thousand tons a year. He is 
a man of wide, practical experience, and 
was thoroughly competent to cake hold and 
work with his men in any part of his big 
establishment. The mills ran on, con- 
stantly growing in importance and increas- 
ing in business under the old firm name of 
J. Wood & Brothers, until 1886, when it 
was incorporated into a company under the 
title of the J. Wood Brothers Company, of 
which Mr. Wood is president, George W. 
Wood, his son, vice-president and general 
manager, and William M. Wood, his nephew, 
treasurer. The mills have a present capa- 
city of 22,000 tons of sheet and plate iron a 
a year, and over five hundred hands are em- 
ployed. 

Mr. Wood has not taken more than ordi- 
nary interest in party politics, though he 
was a patriot of the most sincere quality 
and was known to be for the preservation of 
the union. In the latter fifties politics 
reached fever heat. The Democratic party 
had lost the confidence of the people, and 
the Republican party, just coming into 
prominent notice, was not looked upon 
with that favor, which later on enabled it to 
sweep the country from end to end. The 
territory then known as the Fifth Congres- 
sional District comprised Montgomery coun- 
ty and several conservative wards in Phila- 
delphia. In this latter city were many who 
were afraid of the strong abolition senti- 
ment and did not want to lose the trade of 
the South, and they held back from coming 
out distinctively against slavery. For these 
reasons a Republican candidate in Congress 
would not suit them, and they were desirous 



2 TO 



Biographical Sketches. 



of retiring the then Democratic incumbent. 
Snch was the condition of affairs in 1858, 
when these people, under the title of " The 
People's Party," nominated and persuaded 
John Wood to be their candidate for Con- 
gress. After deep and earnest reflection, he 
consented, and that was one of the most ex- 
citing congressional contests in the annals 
of our State history. The Democratic can- 
didate, who was then in office, Hon. Owen 
Jones, had been elected two years previous 
by a majority of over two thousand ; this 
year he was defeated by Mr. Wood by a 
majority of two thousand five hundred and 
sixty-four votes, the latter carrying the 
county by nine hundred and thirty-eight 
votes. During this campaign Mr. Wood 
conducted a fight that was upright and 
honorable in every way, but he was a man 
of magnetic qualities, and he made and 
kept friends. 

His course in Congress was in every way 
in keeping with his personal character and 
high sense of duty and honor. There was 
a bitter fight for speaker, and as neither the 
Republicans or Democrats had enough votes 
to win, the contest was long, lasting for 
fifty-eight days. John Sherman, of Ohio, 
was the candidate of the Republican cau- 
cus, and the Democrats had taken up Bo- 
cock, of Virginia. This dead-lock was not 
broken until Mr. Wood, with Messrs. Morris, 
Junkin and Scranton, of Pennsylvania, and 
Nixon, of New Jersey, agreed to vote for 
Smith, an American party man, from North 
Carolina. The Democrats, seeing no chance 
to win, turned against Bocock and would 
have elected Smith if Mr. Wood and others 
had not changed their votes at the last mo- 
ment, having learned of enough to make 
them fear Smith's sentiments on the tariff. 
The Republicans then took up Pennington, 
of New Jersey, a Republican of conserva- 
tive ideas, and he was elected. Mr. Wood's 



action at this crisis was at first questioned, 
but its value was appreciated later and he 
was offered an unanimous re-nomination. 
This he would not accept, as he had no 
liking for the wranglings and profitless 
party fights that then created such a scan- 
dal in congressional affairs. Mr. Wood had 
other good reasons for not remaining in 
politics, as about this time his mills needed 
his close attention. His successor was W. 
Morris Davis, also a Republican, who de- 
feated the Democratic candidate, Harry In- 
gersoll. 

Mr. Wood has been married twice. In 
1840 he married Miss Elizabeth K. Wells, 
the cultured daughter of James Wells, at 
one time high sheriff of this county. This 
estimable and highly respected lady died in 
1864. Two years later, in January, 1866, 
Mr. Wood was joined in marriage to Miss 
Hettie Peterman, daughter of Benjamin 
Peterman, a prominent paper manufacturer 
of Elkton, Maryland. The children of the 
first marriage, who are living, are as fol- 
lows : Helen, wife of Major Mauch, U. S. 
A. ; James W., who married Miss Josie 
Hoffman, of Allentown ; Clara, who inter- 
married with D. H. Merriman, a prominent 
lumber manufacturer of Williamsport ; Wil- 
liam W., John, jr., who married Ida Sling- 
luff, of Norristown ; George W., who mar- 
ried Laura H. Wilson ; Lizzie W., who is 
the wife of William H. Cresson, of Con- 
shohocken ; Rachel, died April 11, 1871 ; 
and E.J. Morris, died July 21, 1861. The 
second marriage was blessed with three 
children : Man- P., Walter D. and Edith M. 

Besides his own immediate business en- 
terprises, Mr. Wood is interested in many 
public institutions of a financial character, 
among them being the Tradesman's bank of 
Conshohocken, of which he was president 
for five years, when he resigned ; the Guar- 



Biographical Sketches. 



271 



antee Building and Loan association, and 
the Fidelity Building- and Loan association, 
both of Conshohocken. He has always 
been recognized as a man of great financial 
tact, and to-day commends the hearty re- 
spect of all who know him. 



COLONEL DANIEL M. YOST, who 
is largely identified with the business 
interests of Norristown, is a son of Judge 
Isaac F. and Rosina (Miller) Yost, and was 
born in Pottsgrove township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, August 27, 1839. 
The Yosts, who are of Dutch descent and 
came originally from the Netherlands, have 
been residents of Montgomery county for 
five generations. Colonel Yost's great- 
grandfather, Philip Yost, was a Whig and 
served throughout the Revolutionary war 
as a soldier in the Pennsylvania line. He 
was but nineteen years of age when he en- 
listed and saw the hardest of service, being 
at Long Island and Paoli and enduring 
the sufferings of Valley Forge during the 
winter of 1777. He was also at the bat- 
tles of Trenton and Monmouth. His pa- 
rents were Philip and Veronica (Dotterer) 
Yost, and his father, who was born in 17 18, 
in Nassau, west Germany, came to America 
prior to 1738. Philip Yost, the younger, 
was born in Limerick township, August 24, 
1757. He married Rosina Berringer, and 
his son, Benjamin B. Yost (grandfather,) 
was born December 31, 1787, and reared in 
Montgomery county. He was a surveyor 
by profession, but a carriage manufacturer 
by trade and occupation. He served as 
fife-major of an American regiment during 
the war of 1812 or the second war for In- 
dependence from Great Britian. He was a 
Democrat in politics, and a member and 



official of the German Reformed church. 
He was elected to the office of county com- 
misioner in 1833, and twelve years later he 
was nominated and elected as register of 
wills, which latter office he filled for a term 
of three years. He married Sarah Weaver 
on November 13, 1813. His son, Hon. Isaac 
F. Yost (father), was born March 2, 1815, in 
Pottsgrove township, and when he grew to 
manhood became a farmer. He is a resi- 
dent now of Boyertown, Berks county. He 
served as county auditor and commissioner, 
and was the last associate judge of Mont- 
gomery county. He is a Democrat, and in 
his early life was an able advocate of the 
free school system, which then encountered 
a bitter opposition in part of the State. He 
not only advocated free schools, but aided 
practically in their establishment and sup- 
port by teaching in them for a short time and 
then serving for many years as director in 
his township. Judge Yost took an active 
part in early life in military matters and 
commanded a militia company. As a 
fanner he was progressive, and when the 
Patrons of Husbandry was organized in 
Pennsylvania, he became a member and 
worker of that organization. He is a mem- 
ber of the German Reformed church. He 
married Rosina Miller, a daughter of Dan- 
iel Miller, of Pottsgrove township. To 
their union were born fourteen children, of 
whom ten are living. 

Daniel M. Yost received his education in 
the public schools of his native township, 
and before he had attained his sixteenth 
year came (March 18, 1854) to Norristown 
to engage as a clerk in a dry goods estab- 
lishment, where he remained until 1861. 
In the following year he formed a partner- 
ship with I. H. Brendlinger, which lasted 
about ten years, when the firm changed 
to D. M. Yost & Bro. In 1878 the firm 



272 



Biographical Sketches. 



changed to its present title of D. M. Yost 
& Co , of which Colonel Yost is the senior 
member. The firm does a large wholesale 
and retail dry goods business. Colonel 
Yost is also connected with the hosiery busi- 
ness, being the senior partner of the Norris- 
town Hosiery company. 

Colonel Yost's military record com- 
mences back in the dark April days of 1861, 
when on the 19th day of that month, he en- 
listed in Company K, 4th Pennsylvania in- 
fantry. He was successively promoted to 
corporal and to orderly sergeant, and with 
his captain (W. H. Cooke) and two others 
of his company, volunteered to go into the 
first battle of Bull Run. At the expiration 
of his term of service he returned, but in 
September, 1862, he raised, a company of 
Emergency men, with the assistance of his 
father, in forty-eight hours, and joined the 
nth Pennsylvania regiment, which, by his 
instrumentality, was the first regiment to 
cross the State line and re-inforce General 
Reynolds at Hagerstown. At the forma- 
tion of the regiment, he was promoted from 
captain to lieutenant colonel by Governor 
Curtin, and held the latter rank at A11- 
tietam. On his second return from the 
army, he accepted, at the request of Gov- 
ernor Curtin, the lieutenant-colonelcy of 
the 179th Pennsylvania infantry (of which 
the late Judge William Yerkes, of Phila- 
delphia, was major), which he commanded 
during the greater part of its term of ser- 
vice. He commanded the regiment at the 
battle of White Oak Cross-roads, July 1, 
1S63, and was wounded there in the leg, 
and at Baltimore Cross-roads, July 2, 1S63, 
received another wound in the hip so se- 
verely as to render him unfit for further 
active duty. He was discharged on ac- 
count of disability and expiration of term 
of service, on July 27, 1863. 



On December 29, 1863, Colonel Yost was 
united in marriage with Hannah C. Feather, 
daughter of Solomon Feather, of Reading, 
this State. They have five children : Marie 
Rosina, Daniel F., Harry L., Ella and 
Walter. 

In political opinion Colonel Yost is a 
Democrat, while in religious faith and 
church membership he is a Lutheran. He 
is connected with the Odd Fellows, Knights 
of Pythias, and the military order of the 
Loyal Legion of the United States. He is 
a high degree Mason, being a member of 
Charity Lodge No. 190, Free and Accepted 
Masons ; Norristown Chapter No. 190, 
Royal Arch Masons ; and Hutchinson Com- 
mander)- No. 32, Knights Templar. 



HENRY W. REIFF is at present the 
most prominent merchant and business 
man at Lederachville. He is interested in 
a general store and a number of other im- 
portant enterprises, and holds an enviable 
place in the business and social life of his 
community. Mr. Reiff conies from a race 
of industrious and prosperous farmers. His 
grandfather was born in Skippack town- 
ship. He went to the district schools, and 
during the rest of his long life worked a 
farm of eighty-five acres. He was a very 
active Republican. Mr. Reiff's father at- 
tended school until he was sixteen years old, 
and then went on the parental farm. He 
was a farmer and huckster all his life. Like 
his father, he was a Republican. He was a 
very prominent member of the Mennonite 
church, and was an honest, consistent Chris- 
tian. He was the father of the following 
children ; George, Mary, who died young ; 
Samuel, Jacob, Abraham and the subject of 
this sketch. He is still living and is aged 



Biographical Sketches. 



273 



seventy-three years. His estimable wife 
was born June 26, 1830, and is still enjoying 
good health. 

Henry W. Reiff is the son of Jacob S. 
and Susan (Weiss) Reiff, and was born in 
Skippack township, September 17, 1865. 
Until the age of fifteen he attended the 
district schools. He then engaged as a 
clerk in his father's store at Lederachville, 
and remained there in that capacity until 
he was twenty years old. His father then 
admitted him to partnership. When he 
was twenty-two years old he bought out his 
father and continued the general store busi- 
ness until 1890, when, failing in health, he 
sold out to Reiser &: Allebach. Two years 
later, having regained his health, he bought 
back the business and has been running it 
ever since. He is also head of a thriving 
tailoring business and does custom work. 
Besides this he has a very prosperous cigar 
factor}- that employs twelve hands. 

Mr. Reiff is a Republican, and has held 
many offices. At present he is commis- 
sioner of the district, judge of election and 
justice of the peace. He is a member of 
the Reformed church, and has been super- 
intendent of the Union Sunday-school at 
Lederachville for six years, and is organist 
of the church and leader of the choir. 

On December 24, 1888, he was married 
and is the father of two children : Jacob, 
born November 22, 1889 ; and Lizzie, born 
January 1, 1892. Mr. Reiff is very promi- 
nent in all public movements, and is looked 
up to and respected by everybody. 



CHARLES C. KNOX, an influential 
citizen and successful farmer, located 
near Wynnewood, is a son of Josiah and 
Sabiua (Bishop) Knox, and was born on the 

18 



old homestead farm in Lower Merion town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
March 9, 1X49. He was reared in the old 
farm house in which he was born, and re- 
ceived his education in the common schools 
of Lower Merion township, and Concord- 
ville seminary in Delaware county. After 
leaving school he took the full commercial 
course at Crittenden's Business college of 
Philadelphia, from which he was graduated 
in 1868. Thus ecjuipped for business pur- 
suits by his commercial training, he re- 
turned home and assisted his father in farm- 
ing until the death of the latter during the 
next year. He then managed the farm 
until he attained his majority, when he 
came into possession of it. His farm con- 
tains one hundred and twenty acres of s^ood 
grain and grazing land, and lies within one- 
half mile of Wynnewood. For nearlv 
twenty years Mr. Knox was personal lv 
active in its cultivation and improvement, 
but since 1891 he has only busied himself 
with its management and giving the neces- 
sary attention to his other business affairs. 
Mr. Knox has always preferred the quiet 
and steady pursuits of an agricultural life 
to the worriment and strain of any occupa- 
tion or line of work in the active business 
world. While he has not reaped the im- 
mense gains of some fortunate speculation, 
yet neither has he lost in one rash venture 
the accumulations of years, ami to-day pos- 
sesses a competency acquired by honorable 
labor and judicious management. He is a 
Democrat, and has held the offices of school 
director, assessor and auditor of his town- 
ship. Mr. Knox is identified with the 
Lutheran church, in whose faith and teach- 
ings he was reared. He is unmarried. 

The American Knox family, of which 
Charles C. Knox is a member, is a branch 
of the old Scotch-Irish Knox family, and 



274 



Biographical Sketches. 



was founded by Hugh Knox, who was one 
of the earliest settlers of Lower Merion 
township. He purchased a farm, which at 
his death, passed into the possession of his 
son, Louis Knox, who married Margaret 
Miller, and was a leading member of the 
Lutheran church in his community. Louis 
and Margaret Knox were liberal Christians, 
who evinced a living friendship for all 
other religious denominations by their con- 
tributions to even- church erected in their 
neighborhood. They had four children : 
Josiah, James and Susan, who are dead ; and 
Jane, who is now in the eighty-second year 
of her age. 

Josiah Knox (father), was born on the 
home farm, which he afterwards inherited, 
and on which he always resided. From 
time to time he purchased adjoining pro- 
perty until he had become the owner of a 
tract of fertile land of two hundred and 
forty acres, which, at his death, was divided 
into two tracts, one of which was given to 
Charles C. Knox, and the other to his 
daughter, Margaret C. Knox, who married 
Edmund Green. Mr. and Mrs. Green have 
one child, a daughter, Sabina Knox 
Green. 

Josiah Knox was a successful farmer, an 
earnest Lutheran, and a strong Democrat. 
He held numerous local offices in his town- 
ship, was a member for several years of an 
old militia cavalry company, and alwavs 
led in any public enterprise for the benefit 
of the community in which he resided. He 
lived to be sixtv-five vears of a°:e, dvine in 
September, 1869. He wedded Sabina Sheaff 
Bishop, a daughter of George Bishop. To 
their union were born six children, four sons 
and two daughters : Louis and Jackson, who 
died ; Margaret C, wife of Edmund Green ; 
J. Bishop, deceased ; Charles C, the subject 
of this sketch ; and Sabina, now deceased. 



The Knox family, through its six genera- 
tions in America, has made for itself an 
honorable record. 



PROFESSOR JOHN K. HARLEY, a 
prominent educator of Moutgomerv 
county, is the youngest son of the late 
Henry and Anna (Kulp) Harley. He was 
born on his father's farm, at Trappe, this 
county, February 17, 1855. His grand- 
father, John Harley, was a resident of 
Germantown, where, upon his death, which 
was by accident, he left a family of six 
children, among whom was Henry, father 
of Professor Harley. After his father's 
death, Henry, then a mere boy, went to 
live with a farmer by the name of Frick, in 
Worcester township, this county. After 
several years of farm life, Henry apprenticed 
himself to John Hendricks, of Skippack, to 
learn the trade of a shoemaker. Soon 
after completing his apprenticeship, and 
upon his marriage in 1834, he removed to 
a farm at Trappe, then belonging to the 
Rev. Abraham Hunsicker. On this farm 
Henrv lived the rest of his life, following 
his trade along with farming until his 
death on June 27, 1882, at the age of sixty- 
nine years. 

Henry Harley was married to Anna 
Kulp, a daughter of Isaac Kulp, who lived 
upon a farm about two miles west of 
Trappe, where he died when Anna was but 
thirteen years old. After her father's 
death she lived with Dillman Godshall, 
of Lower Salford township, until her mar- 
riage. She died March 1, 1878, at the age 
of sixty-seven years. Henry Harley was 
quite active in local public affairs, and for 
several years was a supervisor in Upper 
Providence township. In politics he was 



Biographical Sketches. 



275 



a Republican. In religion he was an ad- 
herent of the Mennonite church, in which 
he always took an active part and felt a 
deep interest. 

The family of Henry Harley consisted of 
seven children, the oldest of whom was 
Catharine, who died at the age of fourteen ; 
Isaac, who now resides on a large farm 
near Manassas, Prince William county, 
Virginia ; Abraham, residing now at what 
was for many years the " Cross Keys " 
hotel, in Lower Providence township, and 
carries on butchering along with farming; 
Mary, wife of Josiah H. Custer, who lives 
on a farm a mile west of Trappe ; Henry, 
deceased January, 1878, at the age of thirty- 
one years; Elizabeth, wife of Gabriel G. 
King, residing near Trappe, and John K., 
(subject) who at present resides at Consho- 
hocken. 

Professor John K. Harley worked on his 
father's farm until nineteen years of age, 
attending the public schools of the neigh- 
borhood during the winter months. He 
also attended the Washington Hall Col- 
legiate Institute, for a few winter terms, at 
Trappe, which at that time was conducted 
by Abel Rambo, A. M. In October, 1874, 
he began teaching public schools. He 
taught continuously for five years in Lower 
Salford, Upper and Lower Providence 
townships, during which time he also took 
a course of study, in 1877, at the Bryant 
and Stratton Business College, in Philadel- 
phia. In 1879 he entered the State Normal 
School, at Millersville, Pennsylvania, from 
which institution he graduated in the year 
1880. 

Professor Harley then resumed his pro- 
fession and taught school in Lower Provi- 
dence township for three years. Always 
being ambitious to push his studies further 
and thus more fully equip himself for the 



profession of teaching, he was in the spring 
of 1882, admitted to the junior class at 
Ursinus College, Collegeville, but owing to 
the death of his father at that time, he was 
obliged to leave that institution before 
graduation. He however subsequently 
pursued at the college an advanced course 
in mathematics for which he has a great 
liking. 

While teaching with great success in 
Lower Providence, Professor Harley origi- 
nated and worked out a system for a graded 
course of study for country schools. The 
system was adopted in that township in 
June, 1882, and the first class in the county 
was graduated from the public schools 
under the system in May, 18S3. This 
graded system of study has since become 
widespread in the country, and is exerting 
a powerful influence in the efficiency of 
the country schools. 

In 1882 Professor Harley edited and pub- 
lished a small work on the " History, 
Geography and Government of Montgom- 
ery County," designed as a text book for 
the public schools of the county. The 
work has now passed through three editions. 
In 1S83 Professor Harley, by competitive 
examinations, became a member of the 
faculty of the Boys' High school of Read- 
ing, Pa., as teacher chiefly of mathematics, 
book-keeping and drawing. He continued 
very successfully in this position until his 
election in 188S to the principalship of the 
High school of Pottstown. Here he con- 
tinued for one year with splendid success, 
when soon after his re-election, he was 
elected in August, 1889, to the principal- 
ship of the public schools of Consho- 
hocken. 

He maintained his connection with the 
Conshohocken school until 1892, filling his 
position very ably. In March of that year 



276 



Biographical Sketches. 



he was appointed to the Department of 
Graphics in Girard College, Philadelphia, 
entering; upon his duties there May 2nd, 
and has been connected with that institution 
down to the present time 

In 1S86 Professor Harley issued a hand- 
book for teachers and students of history. 
entitled "Topical Outlines of the History 
and the Constitution of the United States." 
which has since passed through many 
editions. 

He has also been a frequent contribu- 
tor to leading educational journals and 
to the Montgomery County Historical 
society, of which he is a member. He is 
now pursuing, ad interim, a course of study 
in the Department of Philosophy, at the 
University of Pennsylvania. 

Politically Mr. Harley is a Republican 
and is at present a member of the school 
board of Conshohocken, where he lives, 
having been elected a director soon after 
his retirement as principal of the schools 
of that borough. He is also a member of 
Washington Camp Xo. 121, P. O. S. oi A. 
In matters on religion, he is a member of 
St. Luke's German Reformed church at 
Trappe, and for a time was leader of the 
choir of that church. 

On June 10, 1886, Professor Harley was 
married to Miss Ida M. Gotwals, of Lower 
Providence, a daughter of John Z. Gotwals, 
now of Highlands, X. C. Mrs. Harley was 
also a teacher in the public schools of the 
county for several years. To this union 
have been born three children, two of whom 
are living : Edith G., born December n, 
1S90, and Allen G., born October 27. 
Professor Harley, upon the death of his 
father, came into posses-ion ot the old 
homestead at Trappe, where he along with 
his other duties, engaged in farming until 
September, 1SS9. 



TOHX A. RIGHTKR, an old and 
*J respected citizen of near Win. Penn 
Post Office, is a son of John and Elizabeth 
LeGaux) Righter. and was born at Spring 
Mill, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
September 16, 182 1. He received his edu- 
cation in pay schools at various places in 
the county, for a time attending at Consho- 
hocken, and afterwards at William Kerr's 
school. At seventeen years of age his 
school life closed, and he then remained 
with his father until 1847. Having 
married in 1845, he moved into the 
dwelling that was built by his father, and 
in which the latter still lives. He was 
there engaged in the mercantile business 
until the breaking out of the Civil war. 
In the meantime he had engaged in the 
soap stone business in Lower Merion town- 
ship, where he purchased a farm and 
worked soap stone quarries for twelve 
years. He then sold his farm to Howard 
Wood and Clement Griscom, and since 
1S76 has lived a retired life. He owns one 
hundred and eleven and one-half acres of 
land near Phoenixville, Chester county, 
and is well and favorably known through- 
out his community. 

Mr Righter was formerly an old line 
Whig, but is now an ardent Republican. 
He is a director and one of the promoters 
of the Tradesmen's Bank of Conshohocken. 
He has served as director of the poor of 
Montgomery county for three years, and 
for many years was a school director of his 
district. In educational affairs he takes an 
active part and is always interested in the 
progress of the schools. He is a member 
of Charity Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, at Xorristown. 

Mr. Righter was married on December 
11, 1845, to Rebecca Kirkuer, a daughter 
of Joseph and Elizabeth Kirkuer, of Barren 



Biographical Sketches. 



2/7 



Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Righter have four 
children : Daniel, Horace B., Joseph K and 
Kate, who married Michael K. Wood, of 
Conshohocken, and has a family of children, 
Frank A., and John R., the latter of whom 
is paying teller in the Tradesmen's Nation- 
al Bank, of Conshohocken. 

The Righter family is of German ex- 
traction, and trace their American ancestry 
back to one of three Righter brothers, who 
with two sisters, came to America. One 
brother located in Lower Merion township, 
and John, the great-grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, settled on Mill Creek, 
in Lower Merion township, where he- 
owned a grist mill. The sisters were 
Quaker preachers. John Righter (grand- 
father) reared a family of children, one of 
whom was Anthony Righter, who was 
born in Lower Merion township. He was 
a mill-wright by trade, and resided during 
the latter part of his life in White Marsh 
township, on the property purchased by 
his son John. He married Catharine Tay- 
lor, by whom he had nine children : John, 
Morris T., Isaac, Joseph, Anthony, Richard, 
Mary Pontzler, Catharine and Elizabeth 
Xuss. Mr. Righter died at the age of eighty- 
nine years. John Righter (father) was also 
a native of Lower Merion township, and in 
early life was dependent upon his own re- 
sources. He first worked upon a farm and 
afterwards became engaged in burning and 
hauling lime to the Philadelphia markets. 
He afterwards shipped a great amount of 
lime by canal and burnt as high as three 
hundred thousand bushels in one year. He 
employed many men and has shipped to 
Philadelphia annually for many years. 
Later in life he abandoned the lime busi- 
ness and devoted his attention to farming 
at Spring Mill, where he was very success- 
ful. John Righter, sr., was formerly a 



Democrat, but later a Republican, and was 
ever active in the interests of his party. 
He took an active part in the Underground 
Railroad, and was a birthright member of 
the Society of Friends. He died in 1869, 
aged eighty-three years. His remains were 
interred in the Barren Hill cemetery. He 
married Elizabeth LeGaux, and reared a 
family of the following children : Peter L., 
who resided in Bucks county, now deceased; 
Isaac, (died young); Joseph and Anthony 
P., who are deceased ; John, Charles C, a 
fanner in White Marsh township ; Lindley 
V., a retired farmer at Lafayette, Mont- 
gomery county ; George W., of Upper 
Merion, and Lucressa R. Mrs. Richter 
died in 1867, when in the seventieth year 
of her age. Peter LeGaux, maternal grand- 
father, was a native of the Province of 
Lorraine, France, from which he came to 
America in 1785. He was an attorney-at- 
law in his native country, and was also a 
member of the National Academy of 
Sciences, and after coming to this countrv 
was engaged in the practice of medicine. 
He was admitted counsellor at the parlia- 
ment at Metz and at the Supreme Tribunal, 
Nancy, in 1768. He was a member and 
correspondent of several academies of 
science and arts in Europe and America, 
and was also a contributor to the Columbia 
Magazine, chiefly on meteorological ob- 
servations. He died at Spring Mill, on 
September 27, 1827. 



FRANCIS HOUPT, the postmaster at 
Dreshertown, is a son of Henry, jr., and 
Sarah (Leightkep) Houpt, and was born in 
Upper Dublin township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1839. 
The Houpt family in Montgomery county 



278 



Biographical Sketches. 



is of German descent, and lias pro- 
duced many very successful business men 
The name was originally spelled Haupt, 
and the earliest progenitor of the family, 
Samuel Houpt, came to this country long 
before the Revolutionary war, and in 177(1 
he owned a farm of ninety-six acres near 
Jarrettown Henry Houpt, sr. , was the 
grandfather of Francis Houpt, and he also 
was a fanner and resided near Jarret- 
town. His son, Henry Houpt, the younger, 
was a life-long resident of Upper Dublin 
township, in which he was born June II, 
1 Si 17, and died November 1, 1885. He re- 
ceived his education in the old subscription 
schools and learned the trade of stone- 
mason, which he followed for several years. 
He worked on bridges and other county 
work and the hotel at Jarrettown, which 
he built and conducted for several years. 
He was a Lutheran, and a Democrat in 
politics, and a member of Upper Dublin 
Lodge Xo. 45S, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. He married Sarah Leightkep, 
and their family consisted of nine children, 
six sous and three daughters : Anna, 
George, Devi, Hannah, Charles, Francis, 
Sarah, Henry and Samuel. The children 
Anna and Sarah both died in childhood, 
and Hannah is the widow of John Shay. 

Francis Houpt was reared in his native 
township, received his education in the 
schools, and then learned the trade ot 
mason, which he followed continuously for 
ten years in different parts of the county. 
In 1S67 he quit his trade to purchase 
property at Dreshertown, where he opened 
his present general store. In polities he 
was formerly a Democrat, and while sup- 
porting that part>' he served as township 
auditor and school director. He is now a 
Prohibitionist, and advocates the principles 
of that part\- as necessary for good govern- 



ing nt and national prosperitv. He was ap- 
pointed by President Cleveland, on Febru- 
ary 6, 1885, as the first postmaster at 
Dreshertown, and has continued in that 
position ever since, under Harrison and 
Cleveland's administrations. Mr. Houpt 
was president for some years of the Jarret- 
town Building and Loan Association, and 
is a member of Jarrettown Lodge No. 
458, Independent ( >rder of Odd Fellows. 
He has been a member for thirty years of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, in which 
he is now serving as steward and trustee. 

On October 10, 1867, Francis Houpt 
married Anna DePrefontaine, of Jarrettown. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Houpt have been born 
thirteen children : John, Harry (deceased), 
Irvin, Jennie, Mary, William (deceased), 
Albert, Edward, Carrie, Francis, jr., Oliver, 
Anna, and one child that died in early 
infancy. 



JOHN ELLWOOD LEE, founder, secre- 
kJ tary and treasurer and general manager 
of the J. Ellwood Lee Company, of Con- 
shohocken, is the oldest son of Bradford A. 
Lee and Sarah (Raser) Lee. He was born 
at Conshohocken, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, on November 9, i860. He 
attended the public schools at Conshohocken 
until he reached the age of sixteen years. 
He then left school and made an effort to 
maintain himself at several different em- 
ployments; Becoming dissatisfied, how- 
ever, with the insufficiency of his education, 
he re-entered school, and at the end of three 
years completed his studies and graduated. 
He then obtained a position with William 
Snowdeu, a maker of surgical instruments 
and dealer in surgical appliances in Phila- 
delphia. Remaining in this service for four 
and a half vears, he obtained a masterv of 



Biographical Skrtchks. 



279 



the business, which encouraged the be- 
lief that lie could establish and conduct 
upon a more extended scale a business of his 
own. 

Returning to Conshohocken, he embarked 
in the manufacture, in a small way, with 
less than one hundred dollars capital, of 
surgical appliances, which appeared to him 
to be in such demand as to warrant his un- 
dertaking. His operations were conducted 
in a single room, which was factor}', sales- 
room and office. His success was immedi- 
ate. This was due largely to the fact that 
Mr. Lee possesses a rather remarkable in- 
ventive faculty, which enabled him to pre- 
pare various novel appliances of such merit 
that they found popularity among surgeons 
in all parts of the country. One of his in- 
ventions was a perforated metallic splint, 
nicely shaped to the part of the body to 
which it was to be applied, light, flexible 
and wonderfully superior to the clumsy and 
inflexible wooden splint so long used and 
now still to a considerable extent employed. 
These splints were favorably received at 
once, and the demand for them and for his 
other wares compelled Mr. Lee to construct 
a two-story shop, which was equipped with 
a steam engine. 

The business, swiftly expanding, another 
building was soon added, and in 1887 a 
third was erected in the shape of a three- 
story stone mill of much larger dimensions 
than those of the two earlier buildings. As 
the demand for his products increased, Mr. 
Lee felt the want of much larger capital, 
and, in 1888, some of his friends in Con- 
shohocken joined him in forming the cor- 
poration known as the J. Ellwood Lee Com- 
pany, with a capital of $75,000. In 1890 
this capital was increased to $150,000, and 
again increased in 1894 to $500,000. The 
members of the company are Charles Heber 



Clark, president ; Charles Lukens, vice 
president ; J. Ellwood Lee, secretary, treas- 
urer and general manager ; Alan Wood, Jr., 
Howard Wood and Conrad B. Lee. 

Since the organization of the company 
the business has been much enlarged and 
extended, and the buildings have been 
added to until now they offer floor space 
probably five or six time that possessed la- 
the corporation when the charter was 
granted. The added buildings include a 
three-story stone mill, devoted to the manu- 
facture of catheters and the production of 
other articles ; a large bleach house, drying 
room, card room and finishing room for the 
manufacture of absorbent cotton, of which 
his company is one of the largest producers 
in the world, making cotton of the finest 
quality ; and a four-story stone mill, devoted 
to the manufacture of plasters of every 
variety, antiseptic preparations, many of 
them patented, oiled silk, etc., etc. The 
general products of the mills may be classi- 
fied under the single head of surgical sup- 
plies, for individual and hospital use, many 
of which are patented, no less than twenty- 
four patents having been granted to Mr. 
Lee since 1887. The company sells its 
wares in ever}- part of the world, having 
agencies in London, Berlin, Paris, Mel- 
bourne, Sidney, Toronto, and in all large 
cities in the United States. 

Its remarkable success is due chiefly to 
the uniform excellence of its products, the 
eff >rt being to attain to the highest degree of 
serviceability and to give to each buyer ex- 
actly what he pays for. The patents owned 
by the company have also done much to 
promote its interests, Mr. Lee having dis- 
played somewhat extraordinary success in 
exerting his inventive power in directions 
which were indicated by the needs of sur- 
geons. From eminent surgeons in this and 



28o 



Biographical Sketches. 



other countries he has had warm letters of 
congratulation upon his skill in supplying 
them with facilities for the safe practice of 
their profession. 

To inventive talent of no ordinary kind, 
Mr. Lee adds executive ability as a business 
man, which is not so rare a gift, but is still 
of vital importance in conducting the ope- 
rations of a concern so large as this. Ably 
assisted, he is after all the principal super- 
visor of the manufacturing processes, that 
go on in the great mills ; and his also is the 
mind that directs the business of placing 
the goods in the hands of customers. Mr. 
Lee is a quiet, modest, unassuming gentle- 
man in his manners. He is a member of 
the Episcopal church, and a vestryman in 
that organization. 

On April 12, 1882, Mr. Lee was united in 
marriage with Jennie W. Cleaver, a daugh- 
ter of Mrs. A. J. Cleaver, and a sister to 
Hon. John Wood. To their union have 
been born three children : Mary, deceased ; 
Elsie, and J. Ellwood, Jr. 



JACOB A. STRASSBURGER, who for 
*-J nearly twenty years has been promi- 
nently connected with the Norristown bar, 
is a son of Reuben Y. and Elizabeth Z. 
(Schwenk) Strassburger, and was born Oc- 
tober 15, 1849, in Hilltowu township, Bucks 
county, Pennsylvania. As the name would 
indicate, the family is of German origin, and 
traces its American ancestry back to an edu- 
cated German pioneer who came to Penn- 
sylvania about 1765, and settled in Bucks 
county, where he taught school for many 
years, and is buried at Tohickon graveyard. 
He left one son, who must have come over 
with him from Germany and who settled in 
Lehigh county, where he became very 



wealthy and was regarded at one time as the 
richest man in that county. He was a tan- 
ner by trade and carried on that business 
with other enterprises for many years. One 
of his sons, John Andrew Strassburger, pa- 
ternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, a native of Lehigh county, removed 
to Bucks county, this State, about 1S1S. 
He was a minister of the Reformed church, 
and was actively engaged in ministerial 
labors in Bucks county from 1818 to 1854, 
at which time he retired. To the genera- 
tion now rapidly passing away his name 
was a household word. He died in May, 
i860, at an advanced age, and is buried in 
Franconia township, Montgomery county. 
He married Catharine Stout, by whom he 
had a large family, one of his sons being 
Reuben Y. Strassburger (father), who was 
born in Rockhill township, Bucks county, 
October 1, 1823. After attaining manhood 
he engaged in the general mercantile busi- 
ness, which he followed successfully until 
1869, when he removed to Schwenksville, 
Montgomery count)-, and embarked in the 
lumber and coal business. 

He was accidentally killed on August 14, 
1872, by falling from the top of a car which 
was being backed up to his warerooms. In 
politics he was a Whig and Republican, 
and in religion a member of the Reformed 
church. He took a prominent part in the 
work of his church with which he was 
officially connected for many years. A man 
of fine education, he was public spirited, 
and possessed of excellent business qualifica- 
tions; he was successful in his undertakings, 
and by industry and enterprise accumulated 
considerable wealth. January 21, 1847, ne 
married Elizabeth Z. Schwenk, daughter of 
Jacob Schwenk, and to them was born a 
family of seven children, four of whom 
still survive : Annie, became the wife of 





r #. X&-v^k^*-*^L«A^^ 





<e-o 



Biographical Sketches. 



281 



Benjamin F. Leidy, cashier of the Farmers' 
National bank of Pennsburg ; Kate A., 
married Charles M. Spare, of Haverford, 
this county, agent of the Philadelphia and 
Reading- railroad at Belmont ; Magdalena, 
wife of Wilfred L. Stauffer, general mana- 
ger of James Lees & Sons' Manufacturing 
company at Bridgeport ; and Jacob A., the 
subject of this sketch. Mrs. Elizabeth Z. 
Strassburger, widow, is still living at 
Schwenksville. 

Jacob A. Strassburger was reared princi- 
pally in Hilltown township, Bucks county, 
receiving his education in the public schools, 
Ouakertown and Treemount seminaries and 
Ursinus college, from which latter institu- 
tion he was graduated in 1873. He then 
studied law under General B. F. Fisher and 
was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 
1875. For some time he practiced in Phila- 
delphia, but in September, 1878, removed 
to Norristown and was admitted to the bar 
of Montgomery county, where he has been 
continuously engaged in the duties of his 
profession to the present time. In addition 
to conducting a large general practice, Mr. 
Strassburger has acted as solicitor for the 
directors of the poor and the clerk of the 
courts, and is a member of the law library 
committee and the committee on revising 
and indexing the records of Montgomery 
county. This law library is considered one 
of the best in Pennsylvania, and the method 
of indexing adopted in the records of Mont- 
gomery county is complete and exhaustive 
as used in connection with public records. 

On December 15, 1880, Mr. Strassburger 
was united in marriage with Mary Beaver, 
only daughter of Dr. Ephraim K. Beaver, 
of Albertus, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Strassburger have been 
born two sons and one daughter : Elizabeth 
B., Ralph B. and Perry B. 



In politics Mr. Strassburger is an ardent 
Republican, always taking an active and 
intelligent interest in political and civic 
affairs. In 1883 he was a candidate for dis- 
trict attorney, but was defeated. In 1892 
he served as a delegate from the Seventh 
Congressional District of Pennsylvania to 
the National Republican convention at 
Minneapolis, and has been very active in 
local politics. He is a director in the Nor- 
ristown Title, Trust and Safe Deposit com- 
pany, and in the Riverside Cemetery com- 
pany, both of which he assisted in organiz- 
ing, and is also a director in the Perkiomen 
and Sum ney town Turnpike company. For 
a number of years he has served as a trustee 
of Ursinus college, his alma ma/er, and 
from which he received his master's degree 
in 1876. He is also connected with the 
faculty of that institution as lecturer on the 
constitution of Pennsylvania. In religion 
Mr. Strassburger is a member of the Heidel- 
berg Reformed church at Schwenksville. 
He is also a past master of Warren Lodge 
No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons, at 
Trappe, Pa. His professional and business 
career has been successful, and as a citizen 
and lawyer he takes high rank among the 
people of his adopted county. 



JOSEPH FORNANCE, Esq., a member 
<J of the Montgomery county bar, who has 
been in active, successful practice here for 
nearly thirty years, is the eldest son of Hon. 
Joseph and Anne B. (McKnight) Fornance, 
and was born in Washington, District of 
Columbia, April 24, 1S41, while his father 
represented this district in the Congress of 
the United States. Anthony Fornance, pa- 
ternal great-grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch, lived at New Castle, Delaware, 



282 



Biographical Sketches. 



where he died in 1768. One of his sons, 
John Fornance, was born at New Castle, 
1766, removed to Philadelphia, afterwards 
to Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, and 
married, in 1791, Elizabeth Roberts, daugh- 
ter of Thomas Roberts, of Blockley town- 
ship, Philadelphia county, whose ancestors, 
Welsh Quakers, came about 16S4 from 
Wales, and were among the earliest mem- 
bers of the Friends' Meeting at Merion. 
John Fornance died at Norristown in 1845, 
and is buried in Montgomery cemetery at 
Norristown, together with his wife and his 
three children. 

His youngest child, Hon. Joseph For- 
nance, was born in Lower Merion township, 
Montgomery county, October 18, 1804, and 
received his education at the old academy 
in Lower Merion. A certificate of Noah 
Leeds, principal of the Lower Merion 
Boarding school, dated 7th month, nth, 
1820, states that "Joseph Fornance has at- 
tended the school for about two years, 
mostlv studying the mathematics, such 
branches as algebra, surveying, navigation, 
and the most useful problems of nautical 
astronomy, calculated for a sea-faring life, 
to wdiich his attention seems to have been 
drawn." 

After leaving school, he taught for some 
vears in the schools of this county. About 
1829 he abandoned teaching and began the 
study of law in the office of Hon. Philip S. 
Markley, at Norristown. He was admitted 
to the bar August 21, 1832, and in 1834 was 
elected by the Democrats to represent Mont- 
gomery county in the State assembly. 
While there he took an active part in secur- 
ing the abolition of public executions, and 
advocated a compulsory public school sys- 
tem. After serving one term he was de- 
feated in 1836, through the Muhlenberg 
division of his party. In 1838 he became 



the Democratic nominee and was elected to 
represent what is now the Seventh Penn- 
sylvania District in the congress of the 
United States. His duties as a member of 
the T went\ -sixth congress were discharged 
with such ability that he was re-nominated 
by his party in 1840, and notwithstanding 
the excitement attending the " log cabin and 
hard cider campaign " that carried the Whig 
candidates — Harrison and Tyler — to the 
White House, Mr. Fornance was triumph- 
antly re-elected, and took an active and 
prominent part in the proceedings of the 
Twenty-seventh congress. Speaking of his 
congressional career, a writer has said : 
" Mr. Fornauce's two terms in congress were 
distinguished by the bitter controversies 
about the safe-keeping of the public funds 
and the institution of the Independent 
Treasury by Van Buren's administration. 
That famous measure had been rejected at 
the extra session in 1837, but passed both 
houses in the session of 1840. It was re- 
earded as the great achievement of that 
presidential term. During all this exciting 
period, Mr. Fornance steadily sustained the 
principles of his party, and doubtless truly 
represented his constituents. His manner 
was ever mild, consistent and firm. On re- 
tiring from congress he held, as he always 
had, a character above reproach for ability 
and integrity." 

After serving two terms in congress, Mr. 
Fornance resumed the practice of law, and 
devoted the remainder of his life to that 
profession, acquiring a large and responsi- 
ble practice. In 1851 he was nominated by 
the Democracy of Montgomery county as a 
candidate for president judge of the Seventh 
Judicial District. Bucks county, then part 
of the district, also presented a Democratic 
candidate, Henry Chapman. The party 
strength in the district being thus divided, 



Biographical Sketches. 



283 



both Democratic candidates were defeated 
by the Whig candidate, Hon. I). M. Smyser, 
of Gettysburg. For a number of years Mr. 
Fornance served as a member and president 
of the town council of Norristown, holding 
that position at his death. He was active 
in promoting the welfare of the town, and 
procured the passage of several important 
laws to lay out and improve the streets. In 
recognition of his services, one of the streets 
was named for him after his death. 

During his first congressional term he 
formed the acquaintance of Miss Anne B. 
McKnight, a daughter of Captain John Mc- 
Knight, of Alexandria, Virginia, to whom 
he was married in Washington City in 1840. 
Her ancestors were all Pennsylvanians. 
Her great-grandfather, John McKnight, 
was one of the Scotch-Irish pioneers, who 
settled in the Cumberland valley, near 
Chambersburg, Pa., in 1735. Her mother 
was a daughter of Christian Piercy, a 
prominent citizen of Philadelphia, and a 
captain in the Revolutionary war. To their 
union was born a family of seven children, 
four sons and three daughters : Joseph, 
whose name heads this sketch. John, a 
pupil at Treemount seminary, Norristown, 
afterwards graduated as a civil engineer at 
the Polytechnic institute of Philadelphia in 
1861, at the age of eighteen, and immedi- 
ately entered the United States navy as an 
engineer. He was in active service during 
the entire Civil war, in the Gulf of Mexico 
and on the Atlantic coast, taking part in 
several engagements, and was on the United 
States steamer Nyack at the capture of Fort 
Fisher in January, 1865. He continued in 
the navy after the war, and was two years 
in the South Atlantic squadron. In 1867 
he was assigned to duty on the United 
States steamer Oneida, of the Asiatic squad- 
ron, and after a cruise of three years met a 



heroic death on that vessel, when with her 
crew of one hundred and twelve officers and 
men, she was sunk by collision with the 
British iron steamship Bombay, near Yoko- 
hama, Japan, on January 24, 1870. At this 
time he was in the twenty-seventh year of 
his age. James, graduated from West Point 
Military academy in 1871, served as a lieu- 
tenant in the 13th United States infantry, 
in the Indian troubles on the western plains, 
and afterwards as instructor in the United 
States military school at Fort Leaven- 
worth. 

He is now captain in the 13th infantry, 
United States army, stationed at Governor's 
Island, New York harbor. Thomas, one 
time sheriff of Wood county, Wisconsin, 
and afterwards a resident of Tacoma, Wash- 
ington. Elizabeth, widow of Edward Price 
Jones, of Lower Merion, this county, now 
resides at Norristown. Catharine, wife of 
Captain Frank H. Edmunds, of the 1st 
United States infantry, whose father, Hon. 
Newton Edmunds, was at one time gover- 
nor of Dakota Territory. Captain Ed- 
munds is now stationed at David's Island, 
New York. Mar}', unmarried, now residing 
in Philadelphia. Hon. Joseph Fornance 
died at his home in Norristown, November 
24, 1S52, in the forty-eighth year of his age. 
In person he was tall and well formed, with 
dark, ruddy complexion, dark hair and eyes, 
regular features, and an habitual expression 
of gravity and dignity. His widow sur- 
vived him nearly forty years, and died on 
May 27, 1892, and was buried in Mont- 
gomery cemeterv. 

Joseph Fornrnce, the eldest son, who was 
named for his father, was reared in Norris- 
town, Montgomery county, and received 
his primary education in the public schools. 
He afterward entered Treemount seminary, 
and later pursued special studies there 



284 



Biographical Sketches. 



under the care of Rev. Samuel Aaron. 
After completing his education, he engaged 
in teaching, and followed that occupation 
for several years. He was afterwards, for a 
short time, employed as a clerk in the office 
of the clerk of the United States District 
court in Philadelphia. He then determined 
to devote himself to the profession of his 
father, and began the study of law with 
Gilbert R. Fox, Esq., of Norristown. Pass- 
ing the usual examination, he was duly ad- 
mitted to the bar of this couuty April 12, 
1866, and began the practice of law. In 
1877 he removed to St. Louis, Mo., with a 
view of locating there. After a year's trial, 
however, he returned to Norristown, where 
he has ever since resided, practicing in his 
profession. 

He has met with very gratifying suc- 
cess and acquired an honorable standing 
at the bar. In politics he adheres to the 
traditions of his family and is a Democrat, 
though he has never taken an active part 
in political affairs. He was president of the 
Montgomery County Centennial association, 
which celebrated, in 1884, the centennial of 
the foundation of Montgomery couuty. His 
labors in that cause materially promoted its 
great success. He is now vice president 
and an active member of the Historical so- 
ciety of Montgomery couuty, in which he 
takes great interest. 

On February 22, 1881, Joseph Fornance 
was married to Ellen, daughter of Colonel 
Thomas P. Knox, of Norristown, Pennsyl- 
vania, ex-State senator from Montgomery 
county. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Fornance have been 
born three children, only two of whom 
survive : Joseph Knox, born September 16, 
1882 ; Eleanor, born November 15, 1883, 
and died July 10, 1893 ; and Lois, born Oc- 
tober 28, 1885. 



TAMES P. FAMOUS, contractor and 
*J inventor, a son of John R. and Re- 
becca (Peters) Famous, was born August 31, 
1859, in Lower Merion township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. His pater- 
nal grandfather, Jacob Famous, was a far- 
mer by occupation and lived nearly all his 
life in Lower Merion township. He was a 
Republican in politics. He was the father 
of a family of five children. One of his sons 
was John R. Famous (father), who was born 
on the old homestead in Lower Merion, 
where he grew to manhood and was edu- 
cated in the common schools. He engaged 
in farming and followed that occupation for 
a number of years, but finally entered the 
employ of the Philadelphia and Reading 
Railroad company. He was a Republican 
politically and a Baptist in religious belief. 
His death occurred in 1863, when he was in 
the thirty-seventh year of his age. In 1854 
he married Rebecca Peters, a daughter of 
James Peters, of Lower Providence, and by 
that union had a family of three children, 
two of whom are still living : Jacob A, 
James P., and Man - Emma, who became 
the wife of William C. Benner, is now de- 
ceased. 

James P. Famous lived in Lower Provi- 
dence township until he was ten years of 
age, attending the public schools. In 1869 
he entered Girard College in Philadelphia, 
from which institution he was graduated in 
1877. He was then apprenticed to his step- 
father, William Hallowell, to learn the trade 
of bricklayer. After serving an apprentice- 
ship of four years, he worked at the trade 
for his step-father for seven years, and then 
embarked in business for himself as a gen- 
eral contractor and builder. He has fol- 
lowed this business ever since and has been 
successful. In 1894 he erected the large 
Hartranft school house in Norristown, and 



Biographical Sketches. 



285 



is now (1895) engaged in constructing the 
new brick market house in the same bor- 
ough. He has executed contracts for brick- 
work for many of the leading builders of 
Norristown, and also erected the Norristown 
Steel works in 1S91. His work has always 
given satisfaction, and he is winning repu- 
tation as a contractor and builder. 

In politics Mr. Famous is a staunch Re- 
publican and has served three years as a 
member of the Norristown council, in which 
he was chairman of the fire committee. He 
is an active and influential member of the 
Lutheran church, and is also a member of 
Curtis Lodge No 239, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all the 
chairs, and is likewise connected with the 
Patriotic Order Sons of America. 

In connection with his contracting and 
building business, Mr. Famous is something 
of an inventor, and claims the honor of in- 
venting the spirit level and inclinometer 
for builders' use. He is a member of the 
Pennsylvania Steel Casting company, of 
Norristown, and of the association of Ameri- 
can inventors. 

On February 27, 1884, Mr. Famous was 
united in marriage to Ella E. Henninger, 
a daughter of David J. and Rachel A. Hen- 
ninger, of Norristown. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Famous have been born four children, one 
son and three daughters The eldest, a son, 
and the youngest daughter are living : 
George H. and Marian A. The others were 
twin daughters : Evelyn E. and Rachel A., 
and both died in infancy. 



HORACE AUGUSTUS K. THOMAS, 
a good business man, of Norristown, 
Pennsylvania, is the only son of the late 
Augustus and Elizabeth (Koons) Thomas, 



and was born July 18, 1863, at Tylersport, 
Montgomery county, Pa. The family is of 
Welsh descent and has been resident in 
eastern Pennsylvania since early times. 
William Thomas, paternal grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, was born at 
Swamp, this county, in 1807, and died at 
Tylersport in 1876, aged sixty-nine years. 
He was reared in his native place, but 
latterly removed to Tylersport and retired. 
He was a popular hotel man and conducted 
numerous hostleries throughout this section 
of the Keystone State, becoming well and 
favorably known in the greater part of east- 
ern Pennsylvania. A man of character and 
purpose, he was a devoted member of the 
Reformed church and early identified him- 
self with the Jacksonian wing of the Demo- 
cratic party, which he supported all his life. 
He married Rebecca Fritz and reared a fam- 
ily of four sons : Lucian, now deceased ; 
Augustus (father), also dead ; Henry and 
Frank. Augustus Thomas (father) was born 
at Swamp, this county. He secured a good 
common school education, and then engaged 
in mercantile pursuits, which, together with 
auctioneering, he followed during nearly all 
his active life. The last twelve years of his 
life was passed at Norristown, where he died 
September 21, 1892, at the age of sixty-two 
years. For fifteen years he was a director 
in the Souderton National bank. He was 
a Democrat in politics and for thirty years 
served as postmaster at Tylersport, being 
exempt from military duty during the war 
on account of holding this office. In relig- 
ion he was a strict member and for many 
years a trustee of the Reformed church. He 
was also for man}- years a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He 
married Elizabeth Koons, a native of this 
county and a daughter of James Koons. By 
that union he had a family of three child- 



286 



Biographical Sketches. 



ren, one son and two daughters : Horace A. 
K., the subject of this sketch; Annie and 
Naoma. 

Horace Augustus K. Thomas, was reared 
at Tylersport, this county, and in the pub- 
lic schools there received his elementary 
education, which was afterward supple- 
mented by two terms in Ursinus college. 
He first came to Norristown about 1882, re- 
maining here until 1S88, when he formed a 
partnership with Frank Thomas, an uncle, 
under the firm name of F. & H. Thomas, 
and embarked in the general mercantile 
business at Argus, Bucks county, Pa. In 
1S90 he returned to Xorristown, where he 
became a partner in the mercantile firm of 
Geiger & Thomas, and has ever since been 
engaged in general merchandising in this 
borough. Their place of business is at Xo. 
523 Main street, where by careful attention 
to business and energy, these gentlemen 
have succeeded in building up a valuable 
trade which is even - year becoming larger 
and more profitable. 

On November 28, 1S94, Mr. Thomas was 
married to Anna Morrison, a daughter of 
George Morrison, of Philadelphia. In poli- 
tics Mr. Thomas is a Democrat, and in re- 
ligious faith also adheres to the traditions of 
his ancestors, being an active member and 
deacon of the Trinity Reformed church, of 
Xorristown. He is also a member of Mont- 
gomery Lodge Xo. 57, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, of Xorristown. 



THOMAS J. BUTCHER, manager of the 
sheet-iron department of Alan Wood 
company's large rolling mill at Consho- 
hocken, is a son of Benajah and Sarah 
( Jones) Butcher, and was born at Fee Fee, 
near St. Louis, Missouri, July 4, i860. The 



Butcher family is of English origin and the 
founder of the American branch was a mem- 
ber of the Quaker colony that settled in 
Burlington, X. J., about 1677. His grand- 
son, whose Christian name was Benajah, sr., 
was the father of Benajah Butcher, jr., who 
was a quiet and steady farmer and died in 
1850, at sixty-five years of age. He mar- 
ried Abigail Roberts, of Marlton, X. J., and 
of the twelve children born unto them in 
their Xew Jersey home, one was Benajah 
3rd, the father of the subject of this sketch. 
Benajah Butcher was born February 2, 1836, 
received a good English education, and in 
1859, removed to Fee Fee, St. Louis county, 
Missouri, where he purchased a farm. He 
was a Friend and a Republican, and died 
May 31, 1864, at the early age of twenty- 
eight years. He married Sarah Jones, and 
to their union were born two children, a son 
and a daughter : Thomas J. and Caroline 
L., who is the wife of William L. Reynolds, 
a merchant of Gwynedd, this county. Mrs. 
Butcher afterward married Elwood Holbert 
of Abington, this county, and went with 
him to Xeodesha, Kansas, where she died 
September 12, 1871, in the thirty fifth year 
of her age. She was the daughter of John 
and Phoebe (Buckman) Jones, of Gwynedd, 
this county. 

Thomas J. Butcher, after the death of his 
mother, when but eleven years of age, came 
alone to Pennsylvania and made his home 
principally on the farm of Chalkley Styer, 
his uncle, in Whitpain township. After 
being graduated from the Xorristown public 
schools in 1S79, he took a course in mathe- 
matics at Treemount seminary under Prof. 
John W. Loch. Leaving school at the age 
of twenty-one, he began teaching in the 
upper end of this county. In 1882 he was 
elected principal of the public schools of 
Rahu Station but resigned that position to 




/C. d^M. 



Biographical Sketches. 



287 



take charge of the sheet-iron department of 
Alan Wood company's rolling mill at Con- 
shohocken, and has continued in that po- 
sition ever since. 

On November 15, 1883, Mr. Butcher mar- 
ried Mary L. Blakey, who was a daughter 
of Paxson Blakey and Letitia (Smith) 
Blakey, of Quakertown, Pa., and died May 
8, 1892, at thirty-five years of age, leaving 
three children, two sons and a daughter : 
Chalkley S., Anna S. and T. Herman. Mr. 
Butcher has since wedded Anna E. Moore, 
a daughter of William M. and the late Jane 
( Wakefield) Moore, of Philadelphia. 

Thomas J. Butcher is a very careful and 
reliable manager, intelligent, studious and 
industrious. Pleasant, energetic and ac- 
commodating, he is popular in social and 
business circles. He is a Republican in 
politics, and has been for main' years a 
member of Plymouth meeting of the So- 
ciety of Friends. 



HENRY BOBB, M. D., a successful prac- 
titioner of medicine and a prominent 
business man of East Greenville, Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Henry and 
Elizabeth (Hillegas) Bobb, and was born 
at the old Hillegas homestead, in Upper 
Hanover township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, on December 9, 1846. 

In the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, a company of German emigrants, led 
by the Reverend George Michael Weiss, a 
Reformed minister, and a graduate of the 
University of Heidelberg, seeking to better 
their fortunes, set sail for America. Sailing 
from Rotterdam in the ship William and 
Sarah, they landed at Philadelphia, Sep- 
tember 18, 1727. Three days later they 
took the oath of allegiance to the Province 



and immediately thereafter settled in 
what is now Upper Hanover township, 
Montgomery county, in a region named by 
the Indians "Goshenhoppen." 

Among this band of pioneers and fore- 
runners of civilization, were John Frederick 
Hillegas, his wife Elizabeth, his sister Bar- 
bara, and his brother Michael, whose son, 
Michael, in 1775, was appointed one of the 
Continental treasurers. Continuing in this 
position for two years, he was appointed 
treasurer of the United States, in which ca- 
pacity he served until 1789, thus being the 
first treasurer of the United States. John 
Frederick Hillegas took up a large tract of 
land along the Perkiomen creek, in the re- 
gion known as Goshenhoppen, which is 
near the present borough of East Green- 
ville. Among his children were George 
Peter, who was the maternal great-grand- 
father of Dr. Bobb ; Leopold, who came to 
this country in 1730, was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. He afterwards settled 
in the State of New York ; John Adam, 
who emigrated to the United States in 
1732, settled in Goshenhoppen, and holds 
the honor of having built the first grist-mill 
in at least the upper end of Montgomery 
county ; and Conrad, who was born at sea. 
George Peter Hillegas was born February 
2, 1735, and died September 24, 1810. For 
many years he was a prosperous farmer of 
Upper Hanover township, and a prominent 
member of the New Goshenhoppen German 
Reformed church. His marriage with Anna 
Barbara Hornecker resulted in the birth of 
the following children : Eve, John, Jacob, 
Frederick, Catharine, Elizabeth, Magdalina 
and Maria Margrath, who married John 
! George Hillegas, the maternal grandfather, 
! being a grandson of John Adam. He was 
J born in Lower Milford township, Lehigh 
j county, Pennsylvania, on the twenty-eighth 



288 



Biographical Sketches. 



day of February, 1771. In early manhood 
he moved to Upper Hanover township, 
Montgomery county, where he engaged in 
agriculture and a general mercantile busi- 
ness. He was possessed of rare business 
tact and ability, and amassed a considerable 
fortune. He was one of the most influen- 
tial men in the upper part of the county, 
a Democrat in politics, and an official mem- 
ber of the New Goshenhoppen German Re- 
formed church. He died May 8, 185 1, and 
bequeathed his estate to his six children : 
Charles, George, Jacob, Maria, Elizabeth 
and Catharine. 

Dr. Bobb traces his paternal ancestry to 
John Conrad Bobb, who came from Ger- 
many prior to 1744, for in this year he 
bought from Christian Beidler one hundred 
acres of land, including a grist and oil mill, 
in what is now known as Forgedale, Wash- 
ington township, Berks county, Pennsylva- 
nia. He died in 1760, intestate, but the 
mill continued to be operated by his 
youngest son, Daniel, great-grandfather, 
(who was only in his fourteenth year), until 
1774, when he bought it, continuing its 
operation until 1827, when he sold it to his 
son Daniel, (grandfather), born July 26, 
1781. The mill placing him in comforta- 
ble circumstances, he retired in 1857. He 
died February 27, 1866. His oldest son, 
Henry Bobb (father), was born in Washing- 
ton township, Berks county, October 10, 
1809, and died August 13, 1891, at East 
Greenville. In early life he learned the 
saddler trade, which he followed until about 
1840, when he engaged in farming on the 
old Hillegas homestead, following this oc- 
cupation successfully until 1868, when he 
retired. He was a staunch Democrat, and 
an official member of the Lutheran church. 
His marriage with Elizabeth Hillegas re- 
sulted in the birth of five children : James 



Daniel, John, who died in infancy ; John 
II, who died at the age of ten ; George, who 
died at the age of twenty-nine ; and Henry 
Bobb. James Daniel died in his fifty-third 
year, leaving three children, the eldest of 
whom, Dr. W. G. Bobb, is now a prominent 
practitioner in Philadelphia. 

Henry Bobb obtained a good elementary 
education at East Greenville, Ouakertown, 
and Washington Hall, Trappe. He taught 
in the public schools of Upper Hanover 
township for two years, after which he was 
for several years a clerk in a general store. 
Resigning his clerkship, he began to read 
medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. 
John G. Hillegas, of Pennsburg, Pa., and 
was graduated from the University of Penn- 
sylvania at Philadelphia in 1868. The seven 
succeeding years he practiced successfully 
at Herfordville, Berks county, besides 
yielding a strong influence in building up 
the town. In the spring of 1875 he moved 
to East Greenville, where he opened a drug 
store, conducting it with his practice. He 
was the preceptor of quite a number of 
medical students, who are now successfully 
practicing in various parts of the State. He 
is also treasurer of the borough, which po- 
sition he held for fifteen years, of the East 
Greenville Factory Company (Ltd.), and of 
the East Greenville Water works. Politi- 
cally, he affiliates with the Democratic 
party ; religiously, he is prominently iden- 
tified with the New Goshenhoppen Re- 
formed church, and is president of St. 
John's Reformed chapel at East Greenville. 
The doctor possesses one of the most beau- 
tiful homes in the borough, to which he has 
attached a valuable conservatory, containing, 
among others, many rare and beautiful 
tropical plants. On the fourteenth of May, 
1868, he was married co Maria Catharine, a 
daughter of Peter Hillegas, a linseed oil 



Biographical Sketches. 



289 



manufacturer, residing in Upper Hanover 
township. To them were born five chil- 
dren : Vincent Peter, Nevin and Henry 
Hillegas, all dying in infancy ; Eugene 
Hillegas, born July 6, 1875, graduated 
from Franklin and Marshall college in 
1895, and now studying medicine at the 
University of Pennsylvania; and Mary 
Mabel, born August 5, 1882, who is now at- 
tending school at Perkiomen seminary. 



MARK R. SUPPLEE, a veteran 
wounded Union soldier of Upper 
Merion township, and superintendent of 
Ridge Avenue market of Philadelphia, is 
a son of Alexander N. and Jane M. (Rambo) 
Supplee, and was born at Swedes Ford, in 
Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, April 11, 1836. 
Zimmerman Supplee, the paternal grand- 
father of Mark R. Supplee, was a resident 
of near Matsunk, in the lower part of Up- 
per Merion township. He was a farmer by 
occupation, and a Democrat when the 
Democratic party was in its infancy. His 
son, Alexander H. Supplee, was born and 
reared in Upper Merion township, where he 
passed his life as a farmer, and where he 
died September 1, 1882, aged seventy nine 
years. He was a member of the Christian 
church, and a prominent and active man in 
township affairs. In 1830 Mr. Supplee 
married Jane Rambo, who was a daughter 
of Jonathan Rambo, of Upper Merion 
township, and died in May, 1881, at seventy- 
four years of age. They reared a family of 
four children, three sons and a daughter: 
Jonathan R., Andrew, Mark R. and Han- 
nah, wife of Hon. Austin L,. Taggart. 

Mark R. Supplee was reared on a farm, 
received his education in the common 

19 



schools and was engaged in farming until 
1861, when he enlisted in Company I, Fifty- 
first Pennsylvania infantry, as lieutenant, 
commanded by Colonel John F. Hartranft, 
major general and afterwards governor of 
this State. The Fifty-first, under its dis- 
tinguished commander, made a brilliant 
record, and Mr. Supplee took part in all of 
its long exhausting marches and severe and 
hard fought battles until November 15, 
1864, when he was discharged from the 
Federal service on account of wounds. He 
participated in the battles of Roanoke 
Island, Newbern, Second I Hill Run, Chan- 
tilly, South Mountain, Antietam and Fred- 
ericksburg, where he was wounded and 
sent to a hospital at Alexandria. Recover- 
ing from his wound, he re-joined his regi- 
ment at Paris, Kentucky, and was with it 
in the siege of Vicksburg, and in the expe- 
dition that drove Johnson from Jackson, 
Mississippi. The fatigue of this campaign 
rendered him unable for a time for active 
field service, and he was placed in the in- 
valid corps, where he remained until his 
first term of enlistment expired. He then 
re-enlisted and joined the regiment at Nor- 
ristown, Pa., under Hartranft, took part in 
the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylva- 
nia, Cold Harbor, North Anna, South 
Anna and Petersburg, and then had charge 
of the brigade ambulance until his old 
wound became so troublesome that he was 
discharged for disability on that account. 

Returning home from the army, he was 
engaged in farming until 1865, when he 
was appointed assistant revenue collector 
for the township of Upper and Lower 
Merion and the borough of Bridgeport. 
Three years later he retired from that office 
and resumed farming at the place where he 
now resides, near the village "t Abrams, 
and two miles from Bridgeport. His farm- 



290 



Biographical Sketches. 



ing operations brought hirn in contact with 
many of those interested in the Farmers' 
market of Philadelphia, and in 1887 he was 
elected to his present position as superin- 
tendent of the Ridge Avenue Farmers' 
market of that city. Mr. Supplee is a 
Democrat, has held various offices, and has 
been for thirty years a member of Charity 
Lodge Xo. 190, Free and Accepted Masons, 
in which he has passed all the chairs. 

On February 17, 1869, Mr. Supplee mar- 
ried Hannah Baker, a daughter of Benjamin 
Baker, of Xorriton township, Montgomery 
county, Pa. To their union have been born 
eight children : Florence, deceased ; Benja- 
min Baker, Linford R., Frank A., Bertha 
K., Warren E., Man - C. and H. Ethel Sup- 
plee. 



EDWARD ELSEXHAXS, clerk of the 
board of supervisors of Montgomery 
county, is a native of Xorristown, where he 
was born December 12, 1858. He is a son 
of Gotlieb and Susanna (Laufer) Elsen- 
hans, the former born at Wurtemberg, 
Germany, and the latter a native of Switzer- 
land. Mr. Elsenhans has resided in 
Xorristown all his life, being educated in 
the public schools here. After leaving 
school he learned the trade of baker, in- 
cluding all kinds of fancy cakes, and 
carried on that business for a period of six 
years. He then became a transcriber in 
the commissioners' office at Xorristown, 
and in 1887 was appointed to the position 
of clerk to the county commissioners, 
which place he has acceptably occupied 
ever since. He is now serving his third 
term in that position, and for six years was 
assessor in the Second ward, of Xorristown. 
For a number of years Mr. Elsenhans 
has been identified with several secret 



societies, being a member of Charity 
Lodge Xo. 190, Free and Accepted Masons; 
Montgomery Lodge Xo. 57, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows ; Beaver Tribe Xo. 
62, Improved Order of Red Men ; and also 
of the Ancient Order of Good Fellows, 
Brotherhood of the Union, and Knights of 
Friendship. He is a Republican in politics, 
and takes an active interest in everything 
connected with political or public affairs. 

On June 6, 18S1, Mr. Elsenhans was mar- 
ried to Dianna Schlotter, a daughter of 
George and Mary Schlotter, of Xorristown, 
and to them were born three children : 
Wallace, now deceased ; George and Edith. 
Mrs. Elsenhans died in 1885, and on Janu- 
ary 23, 1890, Mr. Elsenhans was again 
married, wedding for his second wife Ella 
Hunsicker, a daughter of George Z. Hun- 
sicker, of Franconia township, this county. 
To this union have been born two children: 
Edward, deceased : and William R , now 
in the third year of his age. 

The Elsenhans' are descended from an 
old German family, residing in Wurtem- 
berg, where John Elsenhans, paternal 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
lived and died. His son, Gotlieb Elsen- 
hans (father), was reared and educated in 
the fatherland, but while yet a young man, 
in 1854, crossed the ocean and settled with 
his young wife at Xorristown, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. He was a black- 
smith by trade and followed that occupation 
all his life. In politics he was a Republi- 
can, and in religion an active member and 
trustee of the Evangelical church. In 
1852 he married Susanna Laufer, a native 
of Switzerland, and by that tinion had a 
family of seven children, four of whom 
died in infancy. Those who lived to reach 
maturity are . Edward, whose name intro- 
duces this sketch ; Emma, now the wife of 



Biographical Sketches. 



291 



William Hendricks, and Mary who married 
Charles Robeson. Gotlieb Elsenhans died 
in [87 5, at the age of forty-six, and his 
wife still survives, being now in the sixty- 
second year of her age. 



DR. AMBROSE C. HERMAN, who for 
the past seven years has been in the 
active practice of medicine at Lansdale, 
Montgomery county, Pa., was born at Maxa- 
tawny, Berks county, on May 24, 1858. He 
comes from a family that has been dis- 
tinguished in Pennsylvania historv for over 
a century. This family is noted for 
having given to this and their original 
native country a minister of the gospel or 
a teacher in each generation for the last two 
hundred years, and the subject of this 
sketch is the first of the family to go out to 
another profession in taking that of medi- 
cine. The Herman family has for the last 
one hundred years and over, done a great 
deal for the spiritual welfare of Mont- 
gomery and other nearby counties. The 
first member of this family to emigrate to 
America was Rev. Lebrecht Frederick Her- 
man, who was a Doctor of Divinity in the 
Reformed church. He was the great-grand- 
father of Dr. A. C. Herman, and was 
sent to this country in 1786. He was born 
in Guesten, principality of Anhalt-Cothen, 
October 9, 1761, and was a son of Frederick 
Gottlieb and Dorothea (Wartman) Herman. 
Having finished his studies in 1782, he was 
called to Bremen as an assistant preacher. 
Three years later the deputies of the synods 
of Holland, who had charge of the Re- 
formed church in America, called on him 
to go to Pennsylvania, to assist in minister- 
ing to the people of the German Reformed 
church in that State. In February, 1786, 



he was ordained for the foreign service at 
the Hague, and landed in America in 
August of the same year. This earnest 
worker in the cause of Christ immediately 
began the service of his life, and from that 
time until January, 1848, he was indefatiga- 
ble and tireless in his religious labors. 
Commencing with the congregations at 
Easton, Plainfield, Dryland and Greenwich, 
he worked year after year spreading the 
gospel and making many converts. For 
twelve years, dating from 1790, he served 
the congregations of Germantown and 
Fraukford, preaching both in English and 
German. He then went to Swamp, Potts- 
town and St. Vincent, where he preached 
to those three congregations in the German 
language. In the meantime, as the educa- 
tional facilities were of so mediocre and un- 
satisfactory character, Dr. Herman prepared 
many young men for the ministry. Among 
these were five of his own sons, and many 
divines, who became noted in the Reformed 
church . The year after he came to America 
he was joined in wedlock with Mary Johanna, 
daughter of Daniel and Mary Fiedt, and 
they had several children. He died on Janu- 
ary 30, 1848, aged eighty-six years, three 
months and twenty-two days. For sixty 
years he labored in the vineyard, and during 
that time he baptised 8,555, confirmed 4,600, 
married 2,600 couples, buried 2,280, and 
preached 10,080 times. 

Rev. Charles Gebler Herman was the 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
He was born October 24, 1792, in German- 
town. He studied under his father and 
was ordained at Swamp church, May 1810. 
His first chaiges were the Kutztown and 
DeLong's congregations in Berks county. 
More congregations were soon added until 
he was attending to ten with the help 
of his son, Rev. J. S. Herman. The 



292 



Biographical Sketches. 



charges that he filled from 1810 to 1861, 
when ill-health compelled him to retire, 
were as follows: DeLong's, Kutztown, 
Hnft's, Oley, Windor, Gernaut's, St. Peter's, 
Drinkers, Weiss' Zion, Fogel's, Mertztown 
and Lehigh. He was present at twelve 
corner-stone layings, twenty chnrch dedica- 
tions, and organized five new congregations. 
He married Esther, daughter of Jacob and 
Maria Sassaman, on January 14, 1815. They 
had six children, three sons and three 
daughters. His wife died in 1851, and he 
ended a busy and beautiful career on Au- 
gust 4, 1863, aged seventy years, nine 
months and eleven days. His death oc- 
curred on the homestead at Maxatawny. 

Rev. Alfred Jasper Herman, a son of 
Rev. Charles Gebler Herman, and the fa- 
ther of the subject of this sketch, was born 
at Maxatawny, Berks county, and resides 
there at the present time. He attended the 
common schools of his day, and then took 
a several year's course at a New York col- 
lege. He was ordained to the Reformed 
ministry, and has been an able successor of 
his father and grandfather in the great 
work. He is known as the Reformed min- 
ister of the Fogelsville, Seiberlingsville, 
Weisenberg and Wessnerville churches. 
This is only half of the churches that were 
in his charge a few years ago. He was 
married to Isabella Grim, and three chil- 
dren were born to bless this union. These 
are Anna, wife of Dr. Richard H. Beck, of 
Hecktown, Pa. ; Dr. Ambrose C, our sub- 
ject ; and George C, who is a resident of 
Berks county. 

Dr. A. C. Herman was also born on the 
old homestead, and passed his early life at- 
tending the common schools of the district. 
He then took a two years classical course at 
the Keystone State Normal school, prepara- 
tory for college, leaving there when he was 



fourteen years old, he entered the sophomore 
class of Franklin and Marshall college, 
Lancaster City, Pa., and graduated from 
that institution in 1S77. He decided on 
medicine as a profession, and read for it 
under Dr. A. L. Hottenstine, of Kutztown, 
Pa. He then entered the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, 
graduating in March, i88r. He immedi- 
ately began the practice of his profession at 
Topton, Berks county, and remained there 
nine years, when he came to Montgomery 
county, and located at Lansdale. Here he 
soon built up a large practice, and to-day is 
one of the most successful men of his pro- 
fession in the county. He is a physician of 
superior ability and commands the respect 
and esteem of everyone in his vicinage. 

( hi the first of August, 1882, Dr. Herman 
and Alice Breinig, daughter of Thomas C. 
Breinig, of Breinigsville, Lehigh county, 
Pa., were joined in wedlock. Three chil- 
dren have been born to them as follows : 
Alfred J., Thomas B. and Marion. 



CHARLES O. F. TREICHLER, one 
of the founders, editors and proprie- 
tors of the Perkiomen Ledger, at East 
Greenville, this county, is a son of Joseph 
M. and Matilda (Gery) Treichler, and was 
born June 17, 1864, at Palm, this county. 
The family is of German origin, and his 
grandfather on the paternal side of the 
family, Samuel Treichler, was one of the 
earlier settlers in the vicinity of the present 
village of Treichlersville, Berks county, 
which village was named after the family. 
He was a man of enterprise, and possessed 
a thorough going spirit. He was a mer- 
chant and farmer, and owned the greater 
portion of the land upon which the village 



Biographical Sketches. 



293 



now stands. There he spent an active and 
industrious life, and there also he died. 
He was a Republican and a member of the 
Reformed church. In the villiage which 
bears the family name, Joseph M. Treichler 
(father) was born, April 25, 1825. When 
a young man just starting on the rugged 
road of life, he assisted in the store and 
huckstered for a number of years. He 
was married to Matilda Gery in 1855, 
daughter of John W., and Kate (Glauser) 
Gery. They were blessed with eight 
children: Sarah J., who died in 1S61 ; 
Catharine, who died in 1858 ; the third 
was born dead; Laura O, who died in 
1861 ; John S. , who is a member of the 
firm of J. S. Treichler & Bro., publishers 
and proprietors of the Perhiomen Ledger, 
but is employed as a printer on the Even- 
ing Bulletin, in Philadelphia ; Charles 
O. F , subject ; Rosa R., and Phoebe H. 
In 1855 he went into the hotel business at 
Emaus, Lehigh county, and a few years 
later moved on a small farm near Palm, 
this county. In 1864 he went into the 
store business at Palm, where he continued 
until 1874 In 1873 he opened the Palm 
hotel, and conducted the same several 
years, when he retired to private life. He 
is a Republican, and served as postmaster 
at Palm from 1864 to 1874, and is a member 
of the Reformed church. 

Charles O. F. Treichler in his early years 
obtained a common school education, and 
when fifteen years of age he started to learn 
the printing trade in the office of the Bauer n 
Freund, Pennsburg, and later worked on 
the Daily Times and Norristown Herald, 
at Norristown. Afterward for two and 
one-half years he was foreman on the 
Weekly Times, at Springtown, Bucks 
county. In November, 1890, he became 
one of the principal founders of the Perkio- 



tnen Ledger, a paper of Republican princi- 
ples, and devoted to the local interests of 
the community and the surrounding 
counties. In connection with the publi- 
cation of the Ledger, he does a prosperous 
business as a job printer. He is an active 
worker in the Republican party, and is 
secretary of the Perkiomen Valley Republi- 
can Club, of which he was one of the chief 
organizers. He is a member of Washing- 
ton Camp No. 649, P. O. S. of A.; Green- 
ville Lodge No. 232, Knights of Pythias, 
and a member of the New Goshenhoppeu 
Reformed Church. 



TRVIN B. SPATZ, superintendent and 
I electrician of the Citizens' Passenger 
railway company, of Norrisiown, is a son 
of Cyrus K. and Catharine (Bernhardt) 
Spatz, and was born March 14, 1S69, near 
Reading, Berks county, Pennsylvania. 

Grandfather, on the paternal side of the 
family, William Valentine Spatz, was born 
in Bern township, Berks county, this State. 
He was a farmer by avocation, owning two 
hundred and ten acres near Reading, upon 
which he lived most of his life and where 
he died. He was a Democrat politically, 
and religiously he subscribed to the dogmas 
of the Reformed church, in which he was 
prominent as a member and as an official, 
holding the offices of deacon and elder. 
He married Elizabeth Kauffman, and seven 
children were born to this union : Cyrus 
K., Levi, William, Jonathan, Lavina, 
Helen and Amelia. The father of Irvin 
Spatz, Cyrus K. Spatz, was born on the old 
Spatz homestead, in Bern township, upon 
which he resided until marriage, and after- 
ward moved upon his own farm, in Muhl- 
enberg township, upon which he still 



294 



Biographical Sketches. 



resides, an industrious and intelligent 
fanner. He is also a member of the Re- 
formed church, and like his father, has 
always manifested an enthusiastic spirit in 
all forms of church work. He is a member 
of Muhlenberg Castle, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle ; a member of the Muhlen- 
berg school board, and has been treasurer 
of that body for the past six years, which 
office he is still holding. His marriage to 
Catharine Bernhardt, daughter of John 
Bernhardt, of Muhlenberg township, re- 
sulted in the birth of two sons and three 
daughters : Irvin (subject), Wilson, Katie, 
Ella and Florence. 

Irvin Spatz was educated in the public 
schools of his native township, the Reading 
business college, at Reading, Pennsylvania, 
and the West Chester State Normal school, 
at West Chester, Pennsylvania. After 
leaving the Normal school he taught two 
terms of school, and then for a short time 
was engaged by Shepp brothers, publishers, 
of Philadelphia. Then after a short ex- 
perience of about one year as a meat mer- 
chant, at Reading, he took a position for a 
similar time in the machine department of 
the Philadelphia and Reading railroad 
company, at Reading. Leaving this em- 
ployment he was next engaged for three 
years in the service of the Reading and 
Southwestern electric railway company, of 
the same city, and on August 14, 1893, 
became superintendent and electrician for 
the Citizen's Passenger railway company, 
of Norristown, a position he has held ever 
since. In addition to the above, Mr. Spatz 
is a director of the Conshohocken railway 
company, and the Alfred Slocum Printing 
company, of Philadelphia. He is a Demo- 
crat in political texture, and a member of 
the Reformed church, and of Lexington 
Commandery No. 2, P. O. S. of A. 



To the marriage, on May 14, 1889, of Mr. 
vSpatz and Mary Shepp, daughter of John 
Shepp, of Reading, have been born three 
children : Mabel I, Charles I, and Laura M. 



IRVIN H. BARDMAN, editor and pro- 
1 prietor of the Schwenksville Item, is a 
son of John S. and Matilda S. (Hauck) 
Bardmau, and was born in Frederick town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
August 22, 1858. The Bardmans can claim 
and point with pride to their old world 
home in a province of the present great 
German Empire, whose unification was 
achieved by William I. and Prince Bis- 
marck. The paternal great-great-grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was a 
native of Germany, and became one of the 
earlv settlers of the northern part of Mont- 
gomery county, where his grandson, James 
Bardmau, was born September 11, 1809, 
and died December 3, 1887. James Bard- 
man was a farmer and blacksmith in New 
Hanover township, where he was a member 
of the Swamp Lutheran church. He was 
married four times, and reared in all a 
family of nine children. By his first wife, 
Polly Shoenly, he had one son, John S. 
Bardmau, who was born in Douglas town- 
ship, February 2, 1834. John S. Bardmau 
is a blacksmith by trade, and since attain- 
ing his majority, has resided in Frederick 
township, where he owns and cultivates a 
small, but productive farm. He is a mem- 
ber of Keelor's Lutheran church ; Zieglers- 
ville Lodge No. 247, Knights of Pythias ; 
and Perkiomenville Lodge No. 367, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a 
Democrat, and served two terms as school 
director, while he is now serving his fifth 
vear as constable and tax collector of his 




J 



V <r^ l < wo / // r I 



Biographical Sketches. 



295 



township. Mr. Bardman married Matilda 
Samsel Hauck, whose father, Simon Boyer 
Hanek, is a comfortably situated farmer of 
Frederick township. Mr. and Mrs. Bard- 
man have reared a family of four children, 
one son and three daughters. 

Irvin H. Bardman was reared on the 
small farm, received his education in the 
public schools of Frederick township, Potts- 
town, and Washington Hall Collegiate in- 
stitute, of Trappe, and taught in the public 
schools from 1876 up to 1883. In the last 
named year he succeeded Rev. N. B. Grubb 
as editor and publisher of the Schwenks- 
ville Item, which was founded in 1877. The 
Hem was started a four-column folio, 15x22, 
but now, under Mr. Bardman's manage- 
ment, it has been increased to eight columns 
to the page, 26x40 inches. The former 
circulation of the paper was about one 
thousand copies, but the energy and enter- 
prise displayed by its present proprietor, has 
increased the subscription list to over twen- 
ty-two hundred. The Item is an indepen- 
dent weekly paper, and presents fully the 
general news of the day and local happen- 
ings of the country, while it does not fear 
to attack an}' evil, and advocates all needed 
reforms. In connection with his newspaper, 
he conducts a large and well-equipped job 
printing office. Mr. Bardman is a Republi- 
can in politics, but he never held any 
political office, except a local one in the 
township, but he was a delegate to the Re- 
publican State convention in 1S92. He is 
a member of the Schweuksville Lutheran 
church, of whose Sunday-school he has 
been superintendent since its organization 
in 1889. He is a member of Perkiomenville 
Lodge No. 367, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows ; Washington Camp No. 387, Pa- 
triotic Order Sons of America ; Zieglerville 
Lodge No. 247, Knights of Pythias ; Iron 



Bridge Castle No. 104, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle ; and Schweuksville Circle 
No. 117, B. U. (H. F.)of Pa. 

On October 18, 1881, Irvin H. Bardman 
married Mahala Hummel, a daughter of the 
late Samuel Hummel, of Nescopeck, Lu- 
zerne county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Bardman 
have one child, a sou, named Jay Stanley, 
who was born December 29, 1883. 



JAMES Ml )IR, president of the Consho- 
hockeu Woolen company, and one of 
the leading woolen manufacturers of Penn- 
sylvania, was born in Aberdeenshire, Scot- 
land, July 18, 1820. He received a limited 
education, which he afterwards supple- 
mented by reading and self-study. In 1841, 
he came to this country, where he first lo- 
cated at Watertown, Jefferson county, New- 
York. He resided in New York State four- 
teen years and was engaged in manufac- 
turing. In 1856 he went to Philadelphia, 
and in 1859, removed to Conshohocken, as 
superintendent for Thomas Hershaw, who, 
in 1861, sold out to Bullock's Sons. Until 
1873 he was manager of this firm, when he 
entered into partnership with George and 
James Bullock, under the firm name of 
George Bullock & Company. The partner- 
ship continued under that heading until 
1881, when the partners organized a joint 
stock company under the name and title of 
the Coushocken Worsted mills. This new 
company operated the Conshohocken 
Woolen mills, the Norristown Woolen mills 
and the Conshohocken Worsted mills. In 
the interest of the last named mills, Mr. Moir 
went to France to examine and study French 
worsted machinery, which was afterward in- 
troduced into the worsted mills at Consho- 
hocken. Mr. Moir acted as superintendent 



296 



Biographical Sketches. 



and general manager of all the mills up to 

1888, when he withdrew from the company. 
The next vear George Bullock died, and 
Mr. Moir was appointed assignee of the 
company and took charge of its affairs 
and closed up its business, which he did 
in a satisfactory manner. 

In iSqi Mr. Moir organized the Con- 
shohocken Woolen company, of which he 
is president. Their plant is thoroughly 
equipped, has thirteen sets of machines with 
a capacity of seven thousand yards of goods 
per week. They employ a force of two 
hundred and seventy men, and manufacture 
diagonals, tweeds and government blue 
cloth. In addition to conducting the ex- 
tensive business of this large plant, he is 
interested in cotton manufacturing at Pied- 
mont, Alabama. 

Aside from manufacturing, he has en- 
gaged in other lines of business. He is 
interested in the prosperity of his borough 
and county, and has been for some years a 
stockholder in the Montgomery County 
Trust company, the First National bank of 
Conshohocken, and the First National bank 
of Norristowu. 

Mr. Moir is a member of the Con- 
shohocken Gas and Longmead Iron com- 
panies, and owns a stock farm of six hun- 
dred acres of land in Goochland county, 
Virginia, upon which he raises a large num- 
ber of horses, mules and cattle. He is a 
Republican in politics, but not a politician. 
In educational affairs he takes a deep in. 
terest, and has served for eighteen years as 
a member of the West Conshohocken school 
board, of which he was president for sev- 
eral terms. Mr. Moir lias been for many 
years a prominent Free Mason, having 
passed through lodge, chapter, commandery 
and consistory, and is now a thirty-second 
degree or Scottish Rite Mason. 



James Moir has been the architect of his 
own fortune in the busy and important 
sphere of business life in which lie moves 
and lias been so useful. In every position 
which he has occupied, both in the old and 
the new world, he has made an enviable 
record for ability, judgment and untiring 
industry. 



HOWARD WOOD, the president of the 
Alan Wood company of Conshohocken, 
is a resident of the town, in which the 
sheet and plate iron mills of which he is the 
manager, are situated. To Mr. Wood's re- 
cent ancestors and to members of his family 
of the present generation, Conshohocken 
owes much, if not nearly all, of its develop- 
ment and prosperity, and of whatever at- 
tractive qualities it may possess. 

Mr. Wood was born in Philadelphia, the 
son of Alan Wood, sr., and Ann (Hunter) 
Wood, on February 8, 1846. He was edu- 
cated in the University of Pennsylvcnia, 
graduating from that institution at the age 
of eighteen years, with the highest honors, 
in 1864. He then visited Europe, and upon 
his return entered the iron mills of Alan 
Wood &: Co., to prepare himself for par- 
ticipation in the business. Mr. Wood is 
fifth in descent from James Wood, who 
came from Dublin and settled in Mont- 
gomery county about 1720. His mother 
was a grand-daughter of Colonel William 
Dewees, who owned Valley Forge and lived 
there when Washington made his winter 
quarters there during the Revolution. Col. 
Dewees distinguished himself in that war 
in many ways, and interesting stories are 
told of the valor displayed by his wife in 
defending and protecting her personal pro- 
perty during the British occupation of Val- 
ley Forge. The first ancestor of Mr. Dewees 



Biographic a i. Sketches. 



297 



in this country was Cornelius, who came 
from Holland about 1700 and settled in 
Gennantown. Another of Mr. Wood's an- 
cestors was Jasper Fanner, who purchased 
from William Penn, by a patent, dated 
January 31, 16S3, a tract of land containing 
5,000 acres, now Whitemarsh township, Pa. 
Alan Wood, sr., father of Howard Wood, 
was born on Christmas day of the year 
1800, near Blue Bell, Montgomery county. 
In 1823 he went to Philadelphia- and en- 
gaged in the iron business with his father, 
under the firm name of James Wood & 
Son. Afterwards he purchased the Dela- 
ware Iron works, on Red Clay creek, near 
Wilmington, Delaware. In 1856 the firm 
of Alan Wood & Co. was formed, and a 
small rolling mill was built, which has 
been steadily enlarged until the works now 
have a capacity of 20,000 tons of sheet and 
plate iron, and employ about six hundred 
hands. The establishment occupies fifteen 
acres, and it is fitted throughout with the 
latest improved machinery. The first regu- 
lar position taken by Howard Wood under 
his father was that of shipping clerk, and 
he then came in for regular promotion until 
1886, when the firm of Alan Wood & Co. 
was incorporated under the name of the Alan 
Wood Company, with Mr. Wood as presi- 
dent. The other directors of the eompanv 
were and still are Alan Wood, jr., Charles 
Lukens, Thomas Wilkinson, and Jonathan 
R. Jones. 

In politics Mr. Wood is a staunch Repub- 
lican, and has always taken an active in- 
terest in the affairs of his party. He is a 
member of the following societies : Ameri- 
can Society of Mining Engineers, Engi- 
neers' Club, Pennsylvania Genealogical So- 
ciety, Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
Franklin Institute, Union League of Phila- 
delphia, Art Club, the University Club, 



Manufacturers' Club, the Sons of the Revo- 
lution, and others. 

On January 28, 1869, ^ Ir - Wood married 
Mary, daughter of William Canby Piddle, 
a hardware merchant of Philadelphia. 
They have had nine children : Piddle, 
Helen B., Alan 3d, Howard, jr., Clement 
B., Owen B., died in infancy ; Rachel P., 
Marion 15., and Dorothy, died in infancv. 

Mr. Wood devotes himself closely to the 
large and successful operations conducted 
by his company. He is active, industrious, 
energetic, possessing in a marked degree 
the qualities which enable him to direct in 
an effective manner considerable bodies of 
workmen, and to manage not only the 
wider movements, but the details of a diffi- 
cult and complicated business. The rather 
remarkable success of the mills in his 
charge has been owing to the merits of 
their products, and the fact that they have 
never been allowed to decline. 



ANTHONY H. SEIPT, of Skippack, is 
without question one of the best known 
and most widely respected business men in 
Montgomery county. He was engaged in 
the general merchandise business for mam- 
years, having been very successful, and 
held a high place in the mercantile 
world. He came from good old German 
ancestry — his paternal grandfather was a 
Schwenkfelder, who emigrated from .Silesia 
to America, and was named David (Seibb) 
Seipt, who with his wife Judith, landed at 
Philadelphia, September 22, 1734, with a 
number of other Schwenkfelders. The 
following is a genealogical record, giving 
the names of his paternal forefathers : 
David (Seibb) Seipt, Caspar Seipt, Abra- 
ham Seipt and George Seipt. Anthony 



298 



Biographical Sketches. 



H. Seipt, son of George Seipt, was born 
October 2, 1825 ; married Lydia, daughter 
of Abraham Detweiler, March 6, 1852. 
Children : Mary Ann, born October 29, 
1853, died June 17, 1854; Emma Jane, 
born February 10, 1855, married to Dr. 
Samuel Wolfe, of Philadelphia ; Mauilius 
D., born May 31, i860, unmarried. His 
wife Lydia died in Jacksonville, Fla., 
March 1, 1883. On November 20, 1888, he 
married Mrs. Mary Heckler. 

Mr. Seipt was engaged in farming until 
1847, when he removed to Elroy and took 
charge of a store he purchased. After re- 
maining at Elroy three years, he purchased 
a store at Providence Square, and remained 
in business there four years, subsequently 
he bought a store at Skippack, where he 
conducted business for twenty nine years, 
up to 1884, when he retired to private life. 
Mr. Seipt was president of the Perkiomen 
R. R. for twenty-one years, and also served 
as a director in several other roads. He 
has served as a director for a number of 
years in several of the largest banking in- 
stitutions of the county. Since 1884 he 
has lived in Skippack, in retired life. 



ABRAHAM HARLEY CASSEL, the 
founder of the Cassel Library and one 
of the most noted of the American antiquar- 
ians and collectors of rare and priceless books, 
pamphlets and documents, has a life history 
that is full of pathos and romantic incident. 
( )n the 2 1st of last September he celebrated 
the seventy-fifth anniversary of his life, and 
no doubt on that day he looked back over 
the three-quarters of a century that he has 
spent so busily on this sphere and to such 
good advantage, and could say, " What I 
have been enabled to accomplish in my 



chosen work is due solely to my own ex- 
ertions, blessed by a divine providence that 
gave me strength and energy." There is 
not in history a more striking example of 
the self-made man than is found in this man. 
Many have come from lowliness and reaped 
garlands of fame on the battle-field and in 
the forum, both popular places that play on 
the patriotism and enthusiasm of the people, 
but there is little sympathy for the man 
who devotes his life to books and only when 
his life work has been accomplished and 
crowned with success, is he at last recog- 
nized as a great man and a hero, for it is 
only by the results that his stupendous and 
glorious work can be appreciated. The 
general on the field of battle is constantly 
encouraged by the huzzas of his soldiers and 
his fellow-countrymen as he gains victory 
after victory and climbs the ladder of fame; 
the statesman scores triumph after triumph 
with every new speech on every new topic, 
but the "book worm," the man of letters, 
the bibliophile, stands alone against the 
many. He is tolerated by the accounted 
wise, looked on with suspicion by the igno- 
rant, and the daily, monthly, yearly 
triumphs he scores go by unnoticed until all 
at once it is discovered that without sword 
or tongue, a man has scored a great point 
in the world of letters and at once the honor 
and credit that have been denied when it 
might have been an encouragement to fresh 
exertions, is showered upon him ; the peo- 
ple have at last come to realize that there is 
something beyond the beat of the drum and 
the bombast of the political platform. And 
so it was with Abraham Harley Cassel. 
Forbidden even to read a book by his stern 
parents, who exerted themselves to keep 
him from getting an}- education whatever, 
he showed a determination when still a 
child, that would have seemed wonderful 



Biographical Sketches. 



299 



in one of much older years. There was an 
inward longing for knowledge that no pa- 
rental reproof, no hardship imposed, was 
severe enough to quench, and under the 
most discouraging difficulties his studies 
were prosecuted and his love of books was 
nourished and he prepared for the great 
work of his life. And now at the sunset 
time of a long and industrious career, 
Abraham Cassel lives in peace and quie- 
tude, away from the tumult of business 
strife, happy in the love and respect of the 
literary world of his native country and the 
esteem of all who have had the good fortune 
to know him and call him friend. 

Mr. Cassel is a descendant of Johannes 
Cassel, one of the original German Menno- 
nite emigrants, who, in 1684, accepted the 
personal invitation of William Penn and 
came to this country and located in Penn- 
sylvania, where they settled first at German- 
town. Hubert Cassel, a nephew of Johan- 
nes, is the direct ancestor of Abraham. It 
is perfectly clear that our subject inherited 
his love of knowledge and literature from 
his maternal ancestry, for he is the great- 
great-grandson of Christopher Saur or Sower, 
who was a noted scholar and the first Ger- 
man printer of that name in Germantowu, 
or so far as known of the Province. Peter 
Becker, also a prominent man and the first 
elder of the German Baptist church in 
America, was also his great-great-grandsire. 
His own parents were of that sturdy German 
yeomanry, who at that early time looked 
with suspicion and fear on anything of an 
educational character as something that was 
closely allied with the enemy of religion and 
Christianity. When Abraham Cassel was 
born, September 21, 1820, this feeling was 
deeply rooted in the bosoms of his parents 
and as he early showed an inclination for 
study and the pursuit of knowledge, ever}' 



effort was made to crush that spirit out of 
him. In the process, his father came very 
near the verge of unnatural cruelty. The 
little lad was frail at birth and they feared 
that they would never rear him. At eight 
years of age he was taught to read by his 
sister, and when his father saw him take- 
eagerly to books, he put him to work on 
the farm and caused him to perform such 
labor as was ill-fitted even for a strong boy, 
let alone one who was in delicate health. 
The parent was only doing his duty, as he 
saw if, and his severity was only the out- 
come of a natural desire to benefit his son, 
but his rigor in no small degree helped to 
make the student an invalid for life, while 
it stimulated rather than warped his am- 
bition to obtain a good education. Long 
after the mistakes were seen and when the 
zealous youth had made way for the savant 
and literateur, those who first dreaded his 
desire for knowledge, showed him greatest 
homage for his triumphs. He became and 
is still the head man of his neighborhood, 
whose counsels in the Dunker church are 
always listened to and followed by his 
brethren, and who is looked upon as an 
authority on all business and worldly mat- 
ters by his neighbors. 

Mr. Cassel first saw the light of day at his 
father's farmhouse in Towamencin town- 
ship, near Kulpsville, Montgomery county, 
and here he spent the first fourteen years of 
his life. His father, in 1835, bought the 
farm on the banks of Indian Creek, where 
our subject is now living in happy content- 
ment, surrounded by main- of the books and 
pamphlets he loves so well and which cost 
him so many years of labor. Six miles 
from the din and rattle of railroad traffic, in 
fact in a section of virgin husbandry, no one 
not acquainted would ever dream of look- 
ing there for one of the most complete and 



3oo 



Biographical Sketches. 



rare collections of old English and German 
works of a theological, historical and scien- 
tific character. Yet here he lived and here 
he remained and prosecuted his life work, 
only leaving the farm long enough to travel 
in search of some rare book, newspaper, 
pamphlet or document of which he had 
heard and he often traveled man} - thousands 
of miles to secure the work he wanted. 
With the exception of the training in read- 
ing that he had received at the side of his 
elder sister's spinning wheel, the only edu- 
cational advantage Mr. Cassel enjoyed was 
an attendance of six weeks at a pay school, 
and this was secured through the help of 
strangers. It appears that a Philadelphia 
gentleman, Isaac Wampole by name, Dr. 
Fronefield and others, hearing of his strug- 
gles for knowledge, ventured to talk with 
the boy's father and told him how wrong he 
was doing in not letting him go to school. 
He made excuses that he could not spare 
him and that he could not afford it. Then 
Mr. Wampole said, " Only give your con- 
sent and I will pay what it costs," but the 
father would not do so. Others also remon- 
strated with him until he got out of humor 
and said he meant to raise his children ac- 
cording to the dictates of his own conscience, 
but since it appeared to be everybody's busi- 
ness how lie raised one, he guessed he would 
have to go to school, but he, the father, 
would, like Pilate, wash his hands of the 
whole matter and that he would be innocent 
if the education would prove the lad's ruin. 
Abraham had his first taste of knowledge 
and he worked hard on the farm in order to 
gain time to study. He tells many 
. interesting anecdotes of his early struggles. 
He learned to write with a pen made from 
a chicken feather-quill, and as books were 
very scarce and costly he had great trouble 
to get fresh ones, and often he was obliged 



to keep them away from his father. He 
was denied a corner at the fire-place to read 
and when he stole off to his bed room and it 
was later learned that he was engaged in 
study there instead of being in bed he was 
bereft of light. In this dilemma he saved 
twenty-five cents, enough money to buy a 
box of matches, and a kind-hearted store- 
keeper for whom he did chores gave him a 
pound of candles, and then he was able to 
prosecute his studies. But soon other diffi- 
culties arose. But in this way he became a 
fine English and German scholar and was 
familiar with Greek and Latin. He never 
had any instruction of any account (cer- 
tainly none outside of English), but he had 
the happy faculty of working out the diffi- 
cult problems for himself, and his education, 
though obtained under such great diffi- 
culties, was thorough. 

He worked on the farm with his father and 
at the tender age of fourteen years was placed 
in charge of the market wagon and every 
two weeks made a three days trip to Phila- 
delphia with a one and sometimes a two- 
horse load of produce. At the age of 
eighteen years he was selected as the district 
school teacher. Before his time the schools 
in the farming district were kept open only 
a couple of months during the winter and 
the teachers were for the most part illiterate 
and incompetent. Abraham took charge of 
his school and immediately there was a 
change. He became known as a thorough 
instructor, and pupils came far and near to 
learn from him and his school was kept 
open six to eleven months out of every 
year. He continued as a teacher until 1848, 
when he went to work on his father's farm 
and continued there ever since. He made 
a good farmer and by his work on the old 
homestead amassed a competency. In 1843 
Mr. Cassel married Elizabeth Rhoades, an 



Biographical Sketches. 



301 



English member of the Society of Friends. 
They had eight children, one son and five 
daughters are still living, all married bnt 
one daughter. 

Mr. Cassel's great life work is his rare 
library, and on this he began before he was 
ten years old, though, of course it is not to 
be supposed that he had, at that tender age, 
any idea of collecting a big library. Still 
his great thirst for knowledge and inherent 
love for books showed itself even then, for 
he worked at all sorts of odd chores for 
people who paid him, and he saved his 
small earnings and bought books. It was 
not until he began to teach school, however, 
that he really began to realize what an op- 
portunity he had for making a collection of 
rare books. He was particularly interested 
in the history of his church and the people 
who settled his district and the German 
language. As it was customary in those 
days, and even up to very recent years, the 
country school teachers " boarded around" 
among the families of their pupils. That 
is, they would spend one night at one house 
and the next night at another and so on 
until the whole school term was finished. 
This custom gave Abraham a splendid op- 
portunity to search the houses, and especially 
the garrets for old books and he secured 
many, especially rare Bibles and books that 
had been brought from Germany, and many 
of these books were very valuable and are 
not to be found in duplicate at any price. 
In this way he also learned where many 
other books were to be found and he secured 
them afterwards, often encountering much 
difficulty and expense. From this time on 
he gave all the time he could possibly spare 
to the collection of books and documents and 
often sacrificed the comfort of himself and 
family and deprived them of necessaries of 
life in order to gain his object. In this 



search for books he has traveled in 
all parts of the country. Many times he 
went on foot and covered every part of Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and 
went west even beyond the Mississippi river. 
On one occasion he set out to trace certain 
works of which he had heard and was de- 
sirous of possessing, and when he returned 
home he had covered six thousand miles. 
Mr. Cassel had but one idea in getting to- 
gether the works that formed his library 
and that was the desire to study. He gave 
the literary world a surprise when it be- 
came known that he had a collection of fifty 
thousand books, pamphlets and documents. 
Among this vast collection are to be found 
the most complete collection of the publi- 
cations of Schwenkfeld, Ephrata, Saner and 
Franklin, With the help of his library he 
aided his early friends, I. D. Rupp, the his- 
torian, and Watson, the annalist, greatly in 
getting together data for their works. 

As stated before, Mr. Cassel's library, in 
its entirety, contains fifty thousand volumes. 
This includes bound books, pamphlets, docu- 
ments, besides over one thousand specimens 
comprising complete sets of the principal 
American almanacs from 1714 to the pres- 
ent day. There were also many ancient 
magazines and early periodicals of Penn- 
sylvania and American newspapers of the 
earliest days. The collection contained 
over sixty rare Bibles. One of these is a 
copy of King James' Bible, printed in 1611; 
another printed in the German language 
from wooden blocks at Zurich, Switzerland, 
is dated 1470. There is also a copy of the 
autograph edition of Luther's German 
Bible, which was printed in parts at Basel, 
dated 1523, 1524, 1526. The "Rival Bible," 
ordered by the Pope to counteract the effects 
of the Luther work, printed in 1537, the 
"Purgatory Bible" printed in 1670, the 



3° 2 



Biographical Sketches. 



"Curse Me God Bible," a very rare edition 
printed in 1604, are also in the collection. 
Two books that are bound in human skin, 
dated 1650, and a Gothic manuscript four- 
teen hundred years old are also found in the 
library. This, of course, only gives an idea 
of the way in which the earnest antiquarian 
went to work to accomplish his purpose. 
Having finished this collection, Mr. Cassel 
thought to dispose of it in a manner that 
would make it valuable to many genera- 
tions. So he, in part, donated to the Breth- 
ren's Collegiate Institute, at Mount Morris, 
Illinois, about twenty-seven thousand books 
and documents, and to the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania about three thousand valu- 
able books and papers relating to the early 
history of this State. He also made very 
large donations to Ashland college, Ohio, 
and Bridgewater college, Virginia, and yet 
he has over eight thousand bound volumes 
and about sixteen thousand pamphlets and 
documents of diverse character at the old 
homestead. 

One of the biographers said of him : " He 
is universally recognized as the historian of 
his church, which is that of the German 
Baptist or Duuker. For half a century he 
has been a wise counsellor in his church, 
and his decisions on important questions 
are accepted as final. He is the personifica- 
tion of benevolence, and has a gentleness of 
manner and kindliness of heart, which 
wins for him recognition among all classes 
of people, who find in him a worthy friend 
and charming companion. Crowning all 
his noble qualities, is the spirit of humility 
in all his daily acts. He has a certain, 
simple eloquence of speech, which is made 
impressive by his earnestness, and to which 
is lent a united charm by a slight German 
accent. He dresses in the plain habit of 
his brethren, and possesses a clean-cut face, 



which is lit up with intelligence and kindled 
with enthusiasm when he discourses on his 
favorite themes. It is one of the best evi- 
dences of the complete development of Mr. 
Cassel's mind and character, that he is held 
in the highest esteem by his prosaic neigh- 
bors, who care little for books but every- 
thing for the crops and for thrift and 
economy. This is partly due to the fact 
that he has thrived by ' holding the plow 
himself,' and has accumulated a competency, 
but the universal respect in which he is 
held by a large circle of acquaintances in 
all classes of society, is mainly due to his 
sincere and noble character. The atmos- 
phere of piety pervading his home, the 
beautiful simplicity of his manners, the 
endurance of his friendship, and the story 
of his remarkable career have kindled a 
love for him which is not bounded by the 
county or the State, but which even ex- 
tends to foreign lands." 



JAMES ABRAHAM is among those who 
have turned their attention entirely and 
successfully to agricultural pursuits in the 
beautiful, wealthy and historic Schuylkill 
valley, where he owns and resides upon the 
old Abraham homestead, that has been in 
continuous possession of the family for the 
last two centuries. James Abraham, who 
bears the Christian name of his grandfather 
and also of his great-grandfather, is a son of 
Joseph and Ann (Davis) Abraham, and was 
born at what is now Merion or Abrams, in 
Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1824. 
The founder and original ancestor of the 
Abraham family in this county was the 
husband of Sarah Abraham, whose Chris- 
tian name is supposed to have been Isaac — a 



Biographical Sketches. 



303 



fact that is left in doubt by the want of 
some early family records. This Sarah 
Abraham and her husband came from 
Wales in 1682, and settled in Bucks county, 
where they were among the earliest pioneer 
settlers of Eastern Pennsylvania. Their 
sou, James Abraham, senior, came to the 
site of Merion, in all probability as early as 
the beginning of the eighteenth century 
and built the old mansion house, still stand- 
ing, whose roof has since sheltered seven 
generations of his descendants. His son, 
Isaac Abraham, married Dinah Harvard, 
and their son, James Abraham, junior, was 
born in 1751. He married Hannah George 
and succeeded his father in the ownership 
of the family mansion and homestead. He 
was an industrious farmer, and is beyond 
doubt, the James Abraham who was as- 
sessed in 1780 with one hundred and ninety 
acres of land and three horses and eight 
cows. He reared a family of sons and 
daughters, and his son, Joseph Abraham, 
was the father of the subject of this sketch. 
Joseph Abraham was born December 31, 
1788, and died March 25, 1850, aged sixty- 
two years. He succeeded his father as the 
owner of the homestead, and following the 
example of his ancestors, was a farmer by 
occupation. He was an active Democrat in 
the early days of the existence of that 
present great political party. He was reared 
a Baptist and died in the faith and teach- 
ings of that religious denomination. Jo- 
seph Abraham married Ann Davis, of Welsh 
descent, whose father, Benjamin Davis, was 
a member of the early settled and highly re- 
spected Davis family of Montgomery count}-. 
Mrs. Abraham was an amiable and indus- 
trious woman, and passed away from earth 
on March 30, 1S73, when in the seventy- 
fourth year of her age. To Joseph and Ann 
Abraham was born a family of five sons 



and six daughters : Hannah, wife of James 
Shannon, of Norristown, Pa. ; Sarah, who 
married Jonathan Phillips, of Upper Me- 
rion ; James, whose name appears at the 
head of this brief sketch ; Benjamin D., a 
farmer of Upper Merion township ; Isaac 
G., who married Mary Wager, and went to 
Wayne county, Pa., in 1854; Thomas D., a 
paper manufacturer ; Eliza, wife of Jona- 
than Supplee, of Upper Merion ; Anna, 
married Owen Evans, a resident of Phila- 
delphia ; Matilda, who died in infancy ; 
Emma, passed away when young ; and Jo- 
seph, who died in infancy. 

James Abraham grew to manhood on his 
father's farm, and received his education in 
the early common schools of his neighbor- 
hood. He assisted his father in the man- 
agement and cultivation of the home farm 
until the death of the latter, and then suc- 
ceeded him as owner of the ancestral home. 
His farm consists of eighty-seven acres of 
land in the most fertile part of the town- 
ship. It lies adjoining Merion station, on 
the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, and 
two miles from Bridgeport. Here he has 
lived a long and quiet life, devoting his 
time to the prosecution of agricultural pur- 
suits and the discharge of the duties of good 
citizenship. 

On January 9, 1851, James Abraham mar- 
ried Susan Eastburn, who was a daughter 
of Benjamin Eastburn. She died August 10, 
1876. Ten years later on December 17, 1885, 
he wedded Elizabeth Rambo, whose ances- 
tors were among the pioneer settlers of the 
county. By his first marriage he had five 
children, of whom two died in infancy. The 
three that lived to maturity were two sous 
and a daughter: Martha, wifeof Dr. James 
B. Walker; Joseph, and Benjamin Eastburn, 
who was named forCapt. Benjamin Eastburn 
of Revolutionary fame, and died in 1879. 



3°4 



Biographical Sketches. 



In politics Mr. Abraham is a Democrat 
like his father and grandfather before him. 
He has served his township as school direc- 
tor for several years. He is a member of 
Merion Grange Xo. 112, Patrons of Husban- 
dry. He takes delight in farming, has his 
work done well, and is honest, hospitable 
and industrious. 



WILLIAM K. HIMMELWRIGHT, 
miller and farmer of Xiantic, this 
county, is a son of John R. and Maria 
(Kile) Himmelwright, and was born June 
22, i860, near Xiantic, in Douglas town- 
ship, this county. The paternal great- 
grandfather of William Himmelwright was 
Philip Himmelwright, of German parents 
He was born about the year 1725, on a 
vessel coming up the Delaware river, on 
the vovage from the fatherland to the 
United States. His parents settled in what 
is now Germantowu, and there Philip grew 
to manhood. He learned the trade of a 
shoemaker, and plied that trade there all 
his life. His death came of drowning in 
the Wissahickon, in 1798. He lived at 
Germantown during the Revolutionary 
war, and assisted in burying the. fallen 
patriots, victims of the battle of German- 
town. He married Hannah Dickerson, of 
Welsh nativity, and of the Society of 
Friends Their children were as follows : 
Joseph (grandfather), born in 1751, and 
died in 1823; David, born in 1754, and 
went to England when nineteen years of 
age; William, born in 1759, went West. 
One of his sons now lives near Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania; Sarah, born in 1763, and 
died in 1854 ; John, born about 1765, lived 
and died at Germantown ; Samuel, born in 
1769, died in 1816 ; Charles, born in 1774, 



lived and died at Germantown ; Mary, 
born in 1780, Isaac and Philip died young. 

His paternal grandfather, Joseph Him- 
melwright, was a native of Bucks county, 
and passed all his life at Milford Square, 
where he owned a farm and a mill. 

John R. Himmelwright, father, was born 
at Milford Square, in 1816, and died on 
June 12, 1894. During his earlier life he 
was engaged in the milling business at 
Milford Square, but later came to near 
Xiantic and purchased a mill, the one now 
owned and operated by the subject of 
this sketch. The mill site and property 
purchased included a farm, upon which he 
resided the remainder of his life. He was 
a Republican, and a devout member of the 
Lutheran church, at Xiantic, holding at 
different times the offices of trustee and 
elder. To his marriage with Maria Kile 
were born eight children : Elizabeth 
Bechtel, deceased ; Charles, Isaac, James, 
John, Joseph, Harrison and William K. 

William K. Himmelwright received such 
education as was afforded in the country 
schools of his district and Perkiouien semi- 
nary, was reared upon his father's farm and 
assisted upon the farm and in the mill 
until the latter's death, when he and his 
brother Joseph purchased in partnership, 
the homestead farm and mill, and he now 
lives upon it, engaged with his brother in 
operating the farm, saw and grist mill. 

Mr. Himmelwright is a Republican, but 
has never been in any sense a seeker after 
office. He is a member of the Lutheran 
church, and for a number of years was a 
deacon and was tendered the office of trustee 
but refused to accept the proffered office. 

He married, on Xovember 20. 1S80, 
Mary Hoffman, and six children bless their 
union: Olivia, James, Henry, John, 
I Daniel, Elizabeth and Charles. 



Biographical Sketches. 



305 



HON. I. ERR STEINER, justice of the 
peace of Rudy post office, is a young 
man who is rapidly winning his way to 
prominence in his neighborhood. His 
family are of the old Montgomery county 
stock, and have resided there for many gen- 
erations. Squire Steiner is very popular in 
his neighborhood, and displays great earn- 
estness for enterprise and progression in all 
public movements. His grandfather, George 
Steiner, was born in Berks county, Pa., in 
1766. He owned and worked a very large 
farm all his life and was greatly revered in 
the community. He was an earnest mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church, and was a good 
Christian worker. In politics he was a 
Democrat. He died in 1S22. Squire Stei- 
ner's father was Henry H. Steiner. He was 
educated in the public schools, learned 
the trade of a miller and followed it for two 
years. Then he went to farming in Limer- 
ick township. He removed to Upper Sal- 
ford township in 1865. Like his paternal 
parent, he believed in the doctrines of 
the Democracy. He has always been a 
member of the Lutheran church and an ac- 
tive worker, having been deacon, elder, and 
holding other church offices and encouraged 
Sunday-schools. He was the father of six 
children, as follows : John, Henry, Samuel, 
Elizabeth, now Mrs. William Walford ; 
Levina and I. Erb. He died April 10, 1890. 
Squire Steiner is the son of Henry and 
Levina (nee Erb) Steiner, and was born in 
Frederick township on May 23, 1862. He 
went through the public schools and then 
spent two terms in Ursinus college. He 
was a close student, and, on leaving college, 
became a teacher. He has been a teacher 
now for fifteen years and is still presiding 
over a large school and holding the confi- 
dence of the school directors and the people. 
Mr. Steiner resides in a beautiful home of 



his own at Salford station, Rudy P. ()., and 
is the central figure in a beautiful home 
circle. 

He has always been a hard worker in the 
ranks of the Democratic party and was 
elected justice of the peace in 1891. He is a 
member of the Lutheran church and is sec- 
retary of the board of the trustees, and has 
been superintendent of the Sunday-school 
for nine years. 

On May 7, 1885, he married Annie R., 
daughter of Jesse Zepp, of Sumneytown. 
Four children have blessed their union : 
Henry, aged nine ; Francis, aged six ; Alice, 
aged four ; and John, aged two. 



HIRAM W. RITTER, M. D., of Souder- 
ton, has been practicing medicine 

since 1877, and for the last four years has 
been located at his present home, where he 
has become very popular and successful in 
his professional career. He is a native of 
Berks county and is a descendant of Ger- 
man ancestors, some of whom emigrated to 
America prior to the Revolution. He was 
born at Boyertown, on the twenty-second of 
December, 1853, and is the eldest child of 
Louis and Levina (Worman) Ritter. His 
grandfather Ritter was the owner of a very 
large farm. He was a Democrat and an 
active member of the Lutheran church. 
He was the father of nine children : Joseph, 
deceased ; Daniel, Henry, deceased ; John, 
deceased ; George, Sal lie, wife of Daniel 
Mover ; Rebecca, Louis and Esther. He 
was married twice, and the last two children 
are by his second wife. 

Louis Ritter was born at Boyertown on 
the twenty-second of February, [824. He 
was given a good common school education 
and then adopted farming. He owned a 



3 o6 



Biographical Sketches. 



very large farm in Berks county and worked 
it all his life. In polities he was a Demo- 
crat, and in religion a member and elder of 
the Lutheran church. He was the father of 
four children : Dr. Hiram W., Rosey, who 
married Levi Lefever ; Calvin and Thomas, 
who died young. Mr. Ritter died on Feb- 
ruary 22, 1866, at the exact age of forty- 
two years. 

Dr. Ritter was brought up in Berks 
county on his father's farm, and secured the 
rudiments of his education in the common 
schools of his township in which he lived. 
He then attended the Boyertown seminar) 
for several years, and, on leaving that insti- 
tution of learning, took up the study of 
medicine under Dr. T. Z. B. Rhoads, of 
Bovertown. He attended the lectures at 
Jefferson college, and graduated with honor 
from that institution in 1S77. For one 
year after graduating he practiced medicine 
with Dr. Rhoads, and then located in Perka- 
sie, Bucks county, where he remained thir- 
teen years and built up a large practice. 
He then came to Souderton, where he has 
remained ever since, and where he is re- 
garded with the greatest respect by every- 
body, and where he has found a large and 
splendid field for the practice of his profes- 
sion. 

Dr. Ritter is an active member of the Re- 
formed church, and takes a deep interest in 
church woi'k. He is a Democrat in politics, 
but does not take more interest than the 
average citizen, satisfied simply to vote for 
the best interests of local, State and na- 
tional government, according to the princi- 
ples in which he believes. 

On September 1, 1881, Dr. Ritter and Ida 
N., daughter of Jacob Kehm, were married. 
Six children have come to bless this union : 
Miriam, the eldest, was burn July 4, 1882 ; 
Jacob C, born November 13, 1883 ; Blanche, 



born September n, 1885, and died February 
12, 1887 ; Florence L., born September 3, 
1887; Elura May, born June 17, 1889; and 
Paul R., born August 21, 1891. 



PROF. JOSEPH KULP GOTWALS, 
A. M., the popular and efficient super- 
intendent of the Norristown public schools, 
is a son of Joseph and Anna (Kulp) Got- 
wals, and was born in Lower Providence 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, October 15, 1S32. The family of 
which Prof. Gotwals is a worthy scion, is of 
German lineage, and the name was origi- 
nally spelled Gotwalds, but it is thought 
was changed by the grandfather to the 
present form, Gotwals. The paternal grand- 
father of our subject was Henry Gotwals, 
who was a prosperous farmer of Upper 
Providence township, this county, and an 
active worker in the Menuouite church. 
His marriage with Elizabeth Funk resulted 
in an issue of six children : Adam, John, 
Christian, Henry, Elizabeth, and Catha- 
rine. 

Joseph Gotwals (father), was a native of 
Montgomery county, born in Upper Provi- 
dence township, April 10, 1789, and died in 
Lower Providence township on April 14, 
1S71. He, following in the footsteps of his 
ancestors, was a tiller of the soil, a member 
the Mennonite church and a Democrat in 
politics. He married Anna Kulp, who be- 
came the mother of twelve children : 
Henry, died in infancy ; Martin, Margaret, 
deceased, was the wife of Lewis Rhodes ; 
Esther, died in 1894 ; Sarah, deceased, was 
the consort of Jonah L. Fudge ; Anna, 
Elizabeth, was the wife of John B. Horn, 
and is now dead ; Joseph K., subject ; 
Isaac, Charlotte, deceased, was the wife of 



Biographical Sketches. 



307 



John Shearer; Roger D. and Jane, who 
was married to Jesse Z. Reimer. 

Professor Gotwals attended the public 
schools of Lower Providence township 
until fifteen years of age. At the expira- 
tion of this time, he entered the private 
school of Rev. H. S. Rodenbach, under 
whose tutilage he studied four consecutive 
winter terms. He was a diligent student 
and an apt pupil, and at the early age of 
nineteen years, he had made such rapid 
progress that he passed a creditable teacher's 
examination, and was elected as a teacher 
in the public schools of Schuylkill county, 
this State. He taught this term success- 
fully and then entered the Millersville 
State Normal school. Here, however, he 
remained but a short time until he again 
engaged in teaching. He taught five years 
in Lower Providence township, this county, 
and in 1859, went to Orwigsburg, Schuyl- 
kill county, this State, where he reviewed 
the higher branches under the direction of 
Professor Schneider, who was conducting a 
private school, and at the same time as- 
sisted the professor, instructing in the in- 
termediate grades. There he remained 
about one and a half years. In i860 he- 
went to Norristown and was elected princi- 
pal of the Cherry street school. In 1865 
he was elected principal of the boys' high 
school. He held this position until 1 s - 2 , 
when he was made superintendent of the 
entire borough schools, which responsible 
position he has since ably and efficiently 
filled. 

Under the wise supervision of Prof. Got- 
wals, tlie schools have been thoroughly or- 
ganized, employing a corps of sixty-six 
competent teachers. The most modern 
methods of instruction have been intro- 
duced, and to-day the work done in these 
schools will compare favorably with the 



schools of any similar borough or city in 
the State. In recognition of Prof. Gotwals' 
long service as a teacher and his superior 
educational attainments, Franklin and Mar- 
shall college conferred upon him the honor- 
ary degree of Master of Arts in 1872. Since 
that time he has been an elder in the First 
Presbyterian church of Norristown. 

Prof. Gotwals and Jennie, a daughter of 
Dr. James Galbraith, of Perry county, were 
happily married. The progeny of this mar- 
riage was two daughters : Jennie, who died 
in infancy ; and Anna, the wife of Rev. R. 
H. Taylor, a prominent Presbyterian minis- 
ter. 



GEORGE D. ALDERFER, member of 
the Harleysville school board, and 
manager of the Line Lexington Insurance 
company, is well known throughout Mont- 
gomery county as a progressive citizen and 
a man of broad gauge principles and sound 
intellectual attainments. He is a native of 
this county, and was born on a farm in 
Lower Salford township, on the 18th of 
January, 1836. He is a son of Isaac O. and 
Mary (I)elp) Alderfer, and is of American 
parentage and German ancestry. His grand- 
father was Isaac Alderfer, who was raised 
on a farm and tilled the soil with profit all 
his life. He was a member and an earnest 
Christian worker in the Menuonite church, 
and was highly respected by all who knew 
him. He married Elizabeth Oberholtzer, 
of the same county, and they had six chil- 
dren : Abraham, Henry, Elizabeth, Isaac, 
Mary and Annie. Mr. Alderfer's father was 
born in December, 1808, and was sent to 
the public schools to secure the rudiments 
of an education. He then went to work on 
his father's farm and later farmed on his 
own account, continuing in this avocation 



3 o8 



Biographical Sketches. 



all his life. He was a Republican in politi- 
cal belief, was a strong party leader in his 
district, and for many years held the posi- 
tion of assessor. He was married to Mary 
Delp in 1832, and their union was produc- 
tive of a family of four children : George 
D., Snsan, who married George R. Landis, 
now deceased ; and Mary, who was the 
wife of M. A. Overhalt, also deceased ; and 
Isaac, who died in November, 1868. 

George D. Alderfer, of whom this sketch 
principally treats, was given every possible 
advantage for gaining a sound education, 
and he made the best of his opportunities. 
He first attended the common schools of his 
district and then spent three terms at Kulps- 
ville academy. He then attended the Potts- 
town seminary for one term and graduated 
at the age of twenty-one years. On finishing 
his scholastic course, he determined on be- 
ing a teacher, and had no difficulty in se- 
curing the principalship of a school at 
Lower Sal ford. He taught for nineteen 
years and combined the pedagogic career 
with farming. He is at present a director 
of the Schwenksville National bank, hold- 
ing that position since 1880, and is also 
manager of the Line Lexington Insurance 
company. In politics Mr. Alderfer followed 
in the footsteps of his father and became 
one of the most influential Republican 
leaders in his district. He is a member of 
the Republican county committee, has been 
school director of the Harleysville public 
schools for twenty years, and has been a jus- 
tice of the peace since 1872. In educational 
matters he has always taken a leading part, 
and his opinions are always treated with the 
greatest respect. 

On March 13, 1862, Mr. Alderfer was 
united in marriage to Mary, daughter of 
Garrett Clements, of Lower Salford, and to 
this couple were born six children : Alvin, 



born November 9, 1869 ; Garrett, born 
September 4, 1871, now dead ; Lizzie, born 
June 24, 1873, who became the wife of Ro- 
manus H. Allebach ; Anna Marie, deceased ; 
George, born March 8, 1877 ; and Harry, 
born April 23, 1881. 



AUGUSTUS H. SMITH, the oldest and 
most prominent resident and mer- 
chant of Salfordville, Pa., was born on 
August 26, 1S36, and is a son of Fred- 
erick K. and Mary (Hiltebeitel) Smith. He 
can boast of a long line of honored Ameri- 
can ancestry, his forefathers having been 
among the early settlers of the county, and 
having taken prominent parts in all its 
public affairs. Mr. Smith himself has made 
his own way in the world, and from an er- 
rand boy in a store he rose to become a 
proprietor, and for many years past he has 
been prosperous His paternal grandfather 
was Jacob Smith, who was a farmer, and 
owned a very large and fertile tract of land. 
In politics Jacob was a Democrat, and was 
a zealous worker in the party ranks. He re- 
sided in Upper Salford, and was a consistent, 
upright Christian, and a constant attendant 
at the Reformed church of that place. He 
was married to Kate, daughter of Jacob 
Kline, of Upper Salford, and they had 
seven children : Frederick, Jacob, John, 
Valentine, deceased ; Samuel K., George 
and Seth H. He died in 1823. 

Frederick, the oldest son and father of 
Augustus, was born on March 1, 1801. He 
was a shoemaker by trade, and was a highly 
respected member of the community. He 
was a staunch defender of the principles of 
the Democratic party, and worked hard in 
the interest of his party ticket. He was 
very popular in political circles, and was 



Biographic a i. Sketches. 



3o 



elected justice of the peace, a position he 
held for over forty years. Like the rest of 
the family, he was a member of the Re- 
formed church. He married Mary Hilte- 
beitel, and their union bore fruit in twelve 
children : Frederick, deceased ; William H., 
Jacob, deceased ; Hannah, Daniel, Augustus, 
Valentine, Anna, George, John, Benjamin 
F. and Mary F. He died April 28, 1S73. 

Augustus H. Smith was sent to the com- 
mon schools of the vicinity, but at the 
tender age of eleven years was put to work 
in a store. He soon became clerk and 
remained there for nine years, giving en- 
tire satisfaction to his employer, and get- 
ting a perfect knowledge of the business. 
In 1856 he and his brother started a general 
store at Salfordville, under the firm name 
of Smith and Brothers. This afterwards 
became Smith and Shoemaker, and then 
Smith and Gable, his partner being his 
brother-in-law, Henry R. Gable. He has 
a large store and carries a general line, 
and the business has always been very 
profitable. Politically Mr. Smith is a 
Republican, and he has been the post- 
master at Salfordville continuously ever 
since 1863. He is a member of the Re- 
formed church, and a very active worker, 
having been secretary and treasurer for 
twenty-five years. 

He was married to Elizabeth, daughter 
of Jonas Shoemaker, on August 2, 1862, 
and they have reared three children : Addie, 
Mahlon and Flora. Mahlon died when 
twelve years of age. 



CAPTAIN HENRY H. FETTEROLF, 
the subject of this brief sketch, widely 
and favorably known as an upright citizen, 
and ranking high as a successful agricul- 



turist, owns and manages the farm in Col. 
legeville, Montgomery county from which 
was taken the land on which Trinity 
Reformed Church, Ursinus College, the 
president's house, and a number of fine 
private residences of the village, are now 
located. 

Mr. Fetterolf is the eldest son of the late- 
Gideon and Elizabeth Fetterolf, and mater- 
nal grandson of the late Mennonite bishop, 
John Hunsicker, and was born in Perkio- 
nien township, September 24, 1839, and 
spent the earlier years of his life on his 
father's farm, near Graters Ford, doing what 
is still generally clone in similar circum- 
stances, that is, worked on the farm in 
summer and attended public schools in the 
winter. As he was growing up towards 
manhood, and desiring a better education 
than the public schools afforded, he became 
a student of Freeland Seminary, now 
Ursinus College, and attended the same 
until fully qualified to be a teacher in the 
public schools of the count}-. He followed 
the calling of teacher during four consecu- 
terms till the breaking out of the late Civil 
war. 

When the country called for firm and 
brave men to preserve her greatly imperiled 
life -and the honor of " the dear old flag," 
Mr. Fetterolf 's patriotism at once con- 
strained him to become a soldier in the 
Union army, and, therefore he enlisted 
August 13, 1862, in Co. I, 129th Pennsylvania 
volunteers, and for soldierly bearing in the 
service, he was successively promoted 
orderly sergeant and first lieutenant, and it 
was while lieutenant of Co. I, he actively 
participated in the battles of Fredericks- 
burg and Chancellorsville. At the expira- 
tion of the time for which he enlisted, he 
was honorably discharged May 18, 1863, at 
Harrisburg, from the Federal service. 



3io 



Biographical Sketches. 



After being home some time, and the war 
for the Union not yet ended, he again of- 
fered his services to his country, and 
recruited Co. C, 34th regiment Pennsyl- 
vania militia, of which he became the 
commissioned captain. 

The war being over, he and his brother, 
Adam H. Fetterolf, now president of Girard 
College, became the lessees of the popular 
and flourishing boarding school, Freeland 
Seminar}-, which they successfully con- 
ducted for a term of years, until it was 
sold to representatives of the Reformed 
(German) Church. 

January 1st, 1865, Mr. Fetterolf married 
Elizabeth, daughter of farmer Charles 
Garber, of Black Rock, this county, and 
unto them were born three children, two 
daughters and one son, viz : Adah, widow 
of Horace F. Miller; Harriet and Roscoe 
Conkling. 

In politics Mr. Fetterolf has been a 
staunch life-long Republican, and has the 
high honor of being the youngest man in 
the history of the county nominated for 
the office of prothonotary, being only 
twenty-five years of age when made the 
nominee of his partv. 

In church affiliations Mr. Fetterolf is a 
member of Trinity Reformed Church, 
Collegeville, the Rev. J. H. Hendricks, 
pastor, since 1858, of which he has been a 
trustee and deacon for a number of years. 
He was also a superintendent of the widely 
known Garwood Sunday school for ten 
years, while residing near Black Rock. 

Mr. Fetterolf holds office in a number of 
organizations in the community. He is a 
school director of the Trappe independent 
district; a director of the Schwenksville 
National bank; a member of the board of 
managers of the Perkiomen and Sumney- 
town Turnpike company ; a member of the , 



George B. McClellau Post, G. A. R., No. 
515 ; a member of Washington Camp No. 
267, Patriotic Order Sons of America ; and 
at present, Master Keystone Grange, No. 2, 
Patrons of Husbandry. 

The Fetterolf family is of German de- 
scent. Gideon, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, was one of a large family born 
in Berks county, but early in life came to 
Montgomery county, where he spent the 
balance of his life, dying at his home in 
Collegeville, April 22, 1894, aged eighty- 
seven years, seven months, twenty days. 
Gideon Fetterolf was twice married, his 
second wife, Esther, being the daughter of 
the late Rev. Abraham Hunsicker ; by his 
first marriage he was the father of Susan, 
wife of Abraham R. Tyson, Rovers Ford; 
Sarah, wife of Abraham K. Grimley, Nor- 
ristown ; John, deceased ; Henry H., of 
Collegeville ; Adam H, President of 
Girard College, Philadelphia. By his 
second marriage he was the father of Abra- 
ham D., Collegeville, chief clerk of the 
House of Representatives; Gideon, deceased; 
Andrew Curtin, shipper in New York City; 
Horace G., with J. B. Lippincott Co., 
Philadelphia. Father Fetterolf, as he was 
familarly called in the later years of his 
life, was originally a member of the Men- 
nonite Church, but subsequently became 
one of the incorporators of what is now 
known as Trinity Reformed Church, at 
Collegeville, Pa., in whose full fellowship 
and communion he died, having served in 
it many years as trustee and elder. 



ALFRED WILKINSON, an active busi- 
ness man and a well known engineer 
and inventor of Norristown, is a son of Jo- 
seph and Margaret (Lintott) Wilkinson, and 





**c. yfrxU 



Av. <^? 



Bl< KtRAPHICAL Sketc 1 1 ES. 



3" 



was born at Stockport, Cheshire, England, 

May 17, 1845. His paternal grandfather, 
Dr. William Wilkinson, was a minister and 
colporteur in the Baptist church at Stock- 
port, England, where he was president of 
the Baptist Union society, composed of 
clergymen. He was a man of high and 
honorable standing, and served as high 
mayor of his native city of Stockport, and 
was a magistrate for over half a century. 
He was a Free Mason and a man of educa- 
tion, culture and ability. He died in 1884, 
at the ripe old age of ninety-six years. He 
married Elizabeth Wilkinson, who passed 
away at eighty-four years, in 1872. Dr. 
and Mrs. Wilkinson had a family of twelve 
children : Joseph, (father) ; James, John, 
Daniel, Reuben, Sarah, deceased; Ann, 
Lizzie, Mary, and three who died in early 
infancy. Joseph Wilkinson was born in 
1806, and received his education with a 
view of fitting for the ministry of the Bap- 
tist church, but before reaching his majority 
he abandoned the idea of becoming a cler- 
gyman and turned his attention to mechani- 
cal pursuits, in which he soon became an 
expert. In 1856 he came to South New 
Market, New Hampshire, where he patented 
the " America " cook stove, which he had 
invented in England. Three years later he 
made a visit to England and brought back 
with him his wife and two children. He 
was a fine engineer and mechanic, and a meri- 
torious inventor. He invented and patented 
an automatic oil cup for steam engines, 
which was of such value and utility that it 
soon went into use in every civilized coun- 
try and on all steam sailing vessels. He 
died at Boston, Massachusetts, where he 
was engaged in the manufacture of his oil 
cup. His death occurred in the fall of 
1888, when in the eighty-second year of his 
age. He was a Republican in politics, 



served as a private messenger to President 

Lincoln during the late war, and afterwards 
wrote and published a work entitled 
" Views on the War by a Soldier," which 
had a large sale. He took an active part 
in forming Grand Army Posts in the East 
after the close of the war. He was a Bap- 
tist, contributed articles to religious and 
other journals, and in many and various 
ways was a useful man. He married Mar- 
garet Wilkinson, who was a daughter of 
Richard Lintott, of England, and lived to 
reach her seventy-eighth year, dying in 
August, 1S88. They had two children : 
Alfred and Edwin. 

Alfred Wilkinson received his education 
at Stockport, England, and in Philadelphia, 
and after coining to this country, in 1859, 
completed learning the trade of engineer. 
In [861 he went on the United States gun- 
boat Octorora, as a yeoman or engineer's 
clerk. He served at New < hrleans under 
Farragut, was made third assistant engi- 
neer and ordered to the Chickasaw, where, 
in 1864, he was promoted to second assistant 
engineer for meritorious service. He re- 
signed at New Orleans on December 9, 
1886, and returning home, became mechani- 
cal engineer at the Port Richmond shops of 
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 
company. Two years later he opened an 
office at Philadelphia for steam engineering 
which he conducted up to 1891, when he 
came to Norristown and organized a stock 
company for the manufacture of the Wil- 
kinson automatic stoker, which he had in- 
vented and patented some time previously. 
The company built a plant sixty by one 
hundred and twenty feet in dimensions at 
Bridgeport, which has a present capacity of 
one automatic stoker machine per day. 
They employ forty men, and are shipping 
these machines to every part of the conn- 



312 



P.iocraphical Sketches. 



try. They shipped two of them to ex- 
President Harrison, at Terre Haute, Indiana. 
The automatic stoker is a machine that 
feeds furnaces and cleans them of their 
ashes. The Baldwin Locomotive works use 
seventeen of them, which feed and clean 
seventeen furnaces, and only require the at- 
tention and time of one hand. A wide 
field lies before this company in the future, 
and already the capacity of its plant is 
taxed to fill the orders now sent in for 
stokers. Mr. Wilkinson is general manager 
of the works and treasurer of the company. 
He has also been active in making inven- 
tions in steam machinery. In 1879 he in- 
vented a flexible metallic stuffing box to 
take the place of packing piston rods ; in 
1862 he patented the " Land Engine Ejector 
Condensor" for steam engines ; in 1886 he 
patented a gas consuming •bridge-wall for 
boiler furnaces, and in 1889 invented a bal- 
ance slide valve for steam engines. Mr. 
Wilkinson has had but little time to con- 
tribute articles to the press or mechanical 
journals upon his special field of work, yet 
in 1862 he issued a work entitled "Steam 
Economy," which was a series of tests made 
by him as consulting engineer. It was a 
work of one hundred and fifty-four pages, 
eight by ten inches each, and had a rapid 
sale until the edition was exhausted. He 
is a member of the Franklin Institute, 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
and the Manufacturers' Club of Philadel- 
phia. 

On April 22, 1866, Mr. Wilkinson was 
united in marriage with Mary J. Sykes, a 
daughter of William Sykes, of Chester City, 
Delaware county. To their union have 
been born two children : Emma S., born 
April 4, 1869 ; and Margaret Ellen, born 
March 16, 1871, and died in March, 1874. 

In political opinion Mr. Wilkinson is a 



Republican. In 1866 he was a candidate 
for chief engineer of the city water works, 
but was defeated bv a combine. He is a 
member of the Baptist church of Philadel- 
phia, has served two years as a Sunday- 
school superintendent, and is a member of 
the Christian Endeavor Society of Phila- 
delphia He is a Templar Mason, being a 
member of Roxboro Lodge No. 135, Free 
and Accepted Masons ; Jerusalem Chapter 
No. 3, Royal Arch Masons ; and Corinthian 
Coininandery No. 32, Knights Templar. 



WILLIAM STAHLER, proprietor of 
the leading drug store in Norristown, 
and a well known business man of eastern 
Pennsylvania, was born in Milford town- 
ship, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, Feb- 
ruary 5, 1826, and is a son of Elias and 
Catharine Stabler, both born in Lehigh 
county. As indicated by the name, the 
Stahlers are of German extraction, the emi- 
grant ancestor being one of the earliest set- 
tlers in Lehigh county. Mr. Stabler re- 
ceived a good common school education, 
and at the age of sixteen entered a drug 
store in the city of Philadelphia and began 
learning the business with which his name 
has ever since been so prominently identi- 
fied. In 1856 he came to Norristown and 
purchased an apothecary shop which had 
been established on Main street by Dr. M. 
G. Kerr and Amos W. Bertolet. This es- 
tablishment he conducted until 1876, build- 
ing up meanwhile a large drug trade. In 
the latter year he removed to the large 
building, now known as "The Central 
Drug Store," at the corner of Main and 
Swede streets, which he had purchased 
during the previous year. This building 
had been erected in 1840 by David E. 



Biographical Sketches. 



3 r 3 



Wood & Co., for a dry goods house, and 
after its purchase by Mr. Stahler, he pro- 
ceeded to add a fourth story with mansard 
roof, placed in the first story a new and ex- 
pensive iron front, and paved the two side- 
walks with heavy flagstones. The ground 
floor is laid in white marble and the room is 
furnished with two counters, supporting six 
plate glass show cases, between each of 
which the counter is laid with polished 
Italian marble. The rear is divided into 
prescription room, office and packing de- 
partment, while the second story is fitted 
up as a complete laboratory for compound- 
ing drugs and medicine. 

The total cost of the building and im- 
provements aggregated twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars, and it is now one of the finest 
and best appointed drug houses in the Key- 
stone State, and stands as a monument to 
the ability- and energy of its proprietor. In 
addition to his immense drug trade, which 
is conducted wholesale and retail, and is 
probably one of the largest in eastern Penn- 
sylvania outside of Philadelphia, Mr. Stahler 
has been for twenty-five years the agent in 
Norristowu for E. T. Dupont de Nemours 
& Co., powder dealers, of Wilmington, 
Delaware, and is also agent for the Repauno 
Chemical Company, of the same city. 

In 1869 Mr. Stahler erected his present 
residence, on a lot previously purchased, on 
DeKalb street, below Airy. It is a large 
and handsome brick structure, with bay- 
windows and beautiful grounds, and with 
its fine appointments and numerous appur- 
tenances, constitutes one of the most de- 
sirable homes in Norristown. On the rear 
of the lot, facing Green street, he has also 
built a convenient and ornamental carriage 
house, with stables attached, the whole 
building faced with hewn sandstone. 

Politically Mr. Stabler adheres to the 



I temocratic party, but has never taken an 
active part in public affairs, preferring to 
devote his attention strictly to the business 
in which he has been so successful. In 
i860 he was made a member of the town 
council of Norristown and served in that 
capacity for six years, since which he has 
! declined to have his name used as a candi- 
date for any official position. He is a 
member of Trinity Lutheran church, and 
has served his denomination in various 
places of trust and responsibility for many 
years, having been treasurer for nearly a 
quarter of a century. For twenty years he 
has been a director of the Montgomery bank, 
and occupies the same relation to the Mont- 
gomery Trust company. He is a member 
of Charity Lodge No. 190, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons ; Norristown Chapter No. 
190, Royal Arch Masons ; Hutchinson Com- 
mandery No. 32, Knights Templar ; and of 
Montgomery Lodge No. 57, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 

On June 3, 1856, Mr. Stahler was mar- 
ried to Savilla Eschbach, of Norristown, 
and to this union were born three sons : Eu~ 
gene A., born in 1857, married Ella Filbert, 
of the city of Philadelphia, and is now en- 
gaged in the drug business at Bridgeport, 
this county ; William E., born in 1858, 
educated in Pennsylvania college and Get- 
tysburg seminary, married Florence Allen, 
of Virginia, and is now a minister of the 
Lutheran church, located at Lebanon, Penn- 
sylvania ; and Harry Lincoln, whose natal 
day was the same as President Lincoln's 
first election, and who was graduated from 
the Pennsylvania college in 1882, and is 
now associated with his father in the whole- 
sale and retail drug business at Norristown. 

During the summer of 1895, Mr. Stahler, 
in conjunction with his son, Rev. William 
E. Stahler, made an extended tour of 



3i4 



Biographical Sketches. 



Europe and the Holy Land, from which he 
derived both profit and pleasure. The itin- 
erary included all the important countries 
and capitals of the continent, places of his- 
torical, religious and archaeological interest 
on the Mediterranean Sea and the modern 
scenes of unparalleled interest centering 
about Palestine and the Nile. Besides be- 
ing an excellent business man and a good 
citizen, Mr. Stabler proved himself an 
equally good tourist and traveler, keen and 
observant of every significant detail affect- 
ing present European life. He is to be 
congratulated that toward the evening of a 
busy life, he has been enabled to calmly 
view the field of a past activity out of 
whose throes all that is germinal in to-day's 
civilization, religion, literature civic and 
social life, was born. 



DR. V. Z. KEEEER, one of the widest 
known and most prominent physicians 
of Montgomery county, comes from one of 
the oldest families in this part of the 
State. His paternal grandfather was born 
at Salford Station, in the year 1806, was 
a farmer throughout his career, and died at 
the age of seventy-eight years. He had two 
farms, one of one hundred and twenty 
acres, and the other one hundred acres. He 
also ran a large grist mill at Salford Station, 
for over fifty years. He was an active Re- 
publican, and also a member of the Old 
Goshenhoppen Church, serving in the latter 
as a deacon, and an elder for many years. 
Six children were born to him. They are: 
Mrs. Boyer, Mrs. Hillegas, Henry, Sally, 
John and Caroline. The latter was drowned 
in the mill race at the age of five years. 
Dr. Keeler's father was born December 6, 
1830. 



He was sent to the public schools, 
and afterward to Washington Hall and 
Freeland Seminary (now Ursinus College), 
for a period of five years 

At the age of eighteen he began to read 
medicine with Dr. Geiger, and afterwards 
attended Jefferson Medical college, from 
which he was graduated in 1852. He 
opened an office in Harleysville, and has 
been practicing there ever since. He is a 
very well known physician and has been 
the preceptor of no less than twenty-one 
young physicians. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and in religious belief is an 
active member of the Reformed church. 
He married Sallie Ziegler, who is descend- 
ed from one of the old county families. 
Eight children have been born to this 
couple. They are: Drs. V. Z., and J. R., 
Mrs. Kate Souder, Richard, Allen, Mrs. 
Sarah Leidy, Harry and Harvey. 

Such is the stock from which Dr. V. Z. 
Keeler springs. He was born at Harleys- 
ville, January 30, 1858. He was educated 
in the the public schools, and for two years 
attended Brunner's Academy. For three 
years he attended Washington Hall, and 
then read medicine with his father. Grad- 
uating from Jefferson college in 1S80 he 
went back to Harleysville and began the 
practice of his profession with Dr. Groff. 
At the end of three years he left Dr. Groff, 
and in 1888 formed a partnership with Dr. 
J. W. Groff, son of his former partner. 
This latter partnership has existed ever 
since, and they have built up a very large 
and lucrative practice. 

Dr. Keeler is a Democrat, like his an- 
cestors, and takes a very active interest in 
local politics. He is a member of the Re- 
formed church, and is an earnest worker in 
the congregation, being superintendent of 
the Union Sunday school for over six 



Biographical Sketches. 



315 



years. He is also president of the Benefi- 
cial Society. 

On May 10, 1881, Dr. Keeler married 
Alice G. Raudenbnsh, daughter of Charles 
S Raudenbush. They have an interesting- 
family of three children, though four 
were born to them : Howard was born 
February 24, 1882 ; Charles R. was bom 
March 21, 1884 and died March 27, 1885; 
Russel was born May 12, 1889, and Harold 
was born February 27, 1894. 



JOHN P. HILLEGAS, M. D., of 1617 
J West Dauphin street, Philadelphia, is a 
descendant of the old Montgomery family of 
that name, and is at present a rising general 
practitioner and eye and ear specialist. He 
is a native of Montgomery county, and is 
the second son of Dr. John G. and Cathar- 
ine (Ziegler) Hillegas, and was born at the 
old homestead in Upper Hanover township, 
near Pennsburg, on the second of March, 
1866. The ancestral history of Dr. Hille- 
gas is given more fully in the sketch of 
his father, that appears elsewhere in this 
volume. 

Dr. John P. Hillegas secured his early 
education at the Perkiomen Seminary, and 
afterward attended the Washington Hall 
Collegiate Institute at Trappe, Pa. Like 
his brothers he showed a decided preference 
for his father's profession and the latter be- 
came his preceptor while he read for col- 
lege. In the fall of 1883, he entered the 
University of Pennsylvania, and graduated 
with high honor from that institution in 
1886, after taking a three years' full course. 
Having received his diploma, Pr. Hillegas 
immediately returned to Pennsburg and 
entered upon the active practice of his pro- 
fession. His skill and high attainments 



met with ready recognition, and he was 
soon in the enjoyment of a large and well 
established practice. Being of an ambitious 
and progressive temperament, however, this 
field did not seem to offer the opportunities 
he desired, and he looked for a location that 
would give him a wider scope. This he 
found in Philadelphia, where he removed 
in the fall of 1893, and located at 161 7 
West Dauphin street. On locating in 
Philadelphia, Dr. Hillegas took up the 
special practice on the eye and ear, and be- 
came the assistant of that eminent eye 
specialist, Prof. L. Webster Fox, of 1304 
Walnut street, and was afterwards appoint- 
ed as one of the Dispensary Staff in the 
Opthalmological Department of the Medieo- 
Chirurgical Hospital. 

Dr. Hillegas was married to Minnie, only 
daughter of I). S. Kern, of Pennsburg, and 
this union has been blessed by three 
children . Leroy Agnew, Alda and Glenna 
Marie. He is a member of Meridian Sun 
Lodge No. 158, Free and Accepted Masons, 
of Philadelphia, and of the Reformed 
church. He is also a member of the 
Knights of the Golden F^agle No. 298, of 
East Greenville, and of Victory Lodge No. 
294, I. O O F., of Philadelphia. 



J EWIS G. STRITZINGER, a well 
L< known citizen and leading confectioner 
and caterer of Norristown, was born on 
September 7, 1863, and is a son of F. G. 
and Anna C. (Derwichter) Stritzinger. He 
was brought up in his native town, and 
after a preliminary preparation in the pub- 
lic schools, attended the Allentowu Busi- 
ness college, at which institution he 
completed the regular course of business 
and commercial training. Shortly after 



316 



Biographical vSketches. 



leaving school he learned the trade of baker, 
and continued to assist his father in that 
business for several years. For a period of 
two years subsequent to this, he was en- 
gaged in the retail confectionery and bak- 
ing business at Wayne, Pennsylvania, 
where he was well and favorably known. 
At the expiration of this time he returned 
to Norristown, and since 1889 has had full 
charge of the present confectionery and 
catering establishment, located at the 
corner of Main and Cherry streets, Norris- 
town. 

Mr. Stritzinger is a young man of 
marked activity and promise. He votes 
the Republican ticket, takes a commend- 
able interest in the municipal affairs of 
Norristown, and is prominent in fraternal 
circles. He is a member of Charity Lodge, 
Free and Accepted Masons ; Norristown 
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; Hutchinson 
Commandery, Knights Templar, and Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Curtis 
Lodge, of Norristown. 

On May 14, 1885, Mr. Stritzinger was 
joined in the bonds of matrimony with S. 
Ella Kneas, a daughter of John Kneas, a 
grocer of Norristown. Their family con- 
sists of three children: Raymond K. and 
Mary Lewanna and F. G. the third. In his 
religious views Mr. Stritzinger adheres to 
the Evangelical church of Norristown. 



TAMES WOOD HARRY, a thoroughly 
<J qualified and leading druggist of Con- 
shohocken, is a son of Benjamin and Lydia 
(Wood) Harry, and was born at Cousho- 
hocken, Montgomery count)-, Pennsylvania, 
January 26, 1844. His paternal grand- 
father, David Harry, was of Welsh descent, 
and owned a farm of one hundred acres, on 



which the heart of Conshohocken was after- 
wards laid out. His possessions lay along 
what is now Fayette street. He also owned 
a grist mill on the site of the Albion Print 
works, and was among the first settlers on 
the site of Conshohocken. He was a Fed- 
eralist in politics and a Friend in religion. 
He was a man of means for his day and 
married Ann Davis. He died in 1851, aged 
eighty years, and his wife passed away 
some years subsequent. Their children, 
three in number, were : Benjamin, Reese 
and Mary Yerkes. Benjamin Harry was 
born in May, 1809, and died in 18S9. He 
received an ordinary English education and 
was connected with his father in operating 
the mill until the death of the latter. After 
the death of his father he was engaged in 
brick-making and in the flour and feed 
business in the old Temperance Hall until 
1850. He was a Whig, served as one of the 
first burgesses of the borough, and was 
elected several times a justice of the peace, 
but would never lift his commission. He 
was a member of Plymouth Friends' Meet- 
ing, and helped to operate the " under- 
ground railroad" during the days of 
slavery. He always took an interest in the 
building and loan associations of his bor- 
ough, or in any other enterprise calculated 
to benefit Conshohocken. He married Ly- 
dia Wood, whose father was James Wood, 
of Conshohocken. Mrs. Harry lived to be 
seventy-seven years of age, dying in 1891. 
Mr. and Mrs. Harry reared a family of five 
sons and two daughters: David, William, 
deceased ; James W., Winfield Scott, John 
W., Anna and Mary. 

James Wood Harry received his elemen- 
tary education in the public and private 
schools of his native town, and then took a 
full academic course at Prof. John W. 
Loch's school on Air)- street, at Norristown. 



Biographical Sketches. 



317 



At the close of his school clays he entered 
the Philadelphia college of pharmacy, from 
which he was graduated in the class of 
1865. Returning to Philadelphia, he pur- 
chased his brother David's drug store on 
Fayette street, where he did a good busi- 
ness until 1889, when he disposed of his 
store and stock. He was variously engaged 
up to 1894, in which year he opened' his 
present drug house at First avenue and 
Fayette street. He does a general drug and 
prescription business, and handles paints, 
oils, glass, paper and other articles. He has 
a good trade and aims to meet the wants of 
his patrons. In addition to the drug busi- 
ness he has been interested in several home 
enterprises. He helped organize the Con- 
shohocken Tube company, of which he 
was secretary until 1895, when he parted 
with all of his stock in that organization. 
He has been manager of the telephone sta- 
tion and its branches at Conshohocken ever 
since its establishment. 

On April 2, 1S73, Mr. Harry wedded 
Elizabeth Maxwell, whose father, Hamilton 
Maxwell, was a former cotton manufacturer 
of Conshohocken. Mr. and Mrs. Harrv 
have two children : Howard and Maxwell. 

Mr. Harry is a charter member and the 
second oldest living past master of Fritz 
Lodge No. 420, Free and Accepted Masons. 
He is a Republican in politics, was burgess 
for one term, and served as postmaster of 
Conshohocken from 1S65 to 1873, under 
commissions issued by Presidents Lincoln 
and Grant. 



REV. WILLIAM B. WERNER, pastor 
of the Reformed churches of Schwenks- 
ville and Limerick Square, is a son of Jonas 
and Abigail (Bauscher) Werner, and was 
born in Albany township, Berks county, 



Pennsylvania, December 7, 1862. His pa- 
ternal grandfather, John Werner, was of 
German origin, and resided in Schuylkill 
count}-, where he married and reared a 
family. His son, Jonas Werner, was born 
October 21, 1824, learned the trade of tailor 
with Isaac Woomer, of Sternsville, Lehigh 
county, and removed to Albany township, 
Berks county, in which he followed tailor- 
ing and farming. He owned a farm of one 
hundred and sixty acres of good land, and 
died February 23, 1893. He was an Odd 
Fellow, a Democrat, and a member of the 
Reformed church, in which he had served 
as a deacon and as an elder for many years 
before his death. He married Malinda 
Woomer, who was a sister to Isaac Woomer, 
and passed away April 14, 1857, leaving 
three children : Mary A., wife of Benjamin 
Hamm, of Allentown, Lehigh county ; 
Jaenette, who married John Miller, of 
Schuylkill county ; and James A., a gradu- 
ate of Kutztown State Normal school, and 
now a fanner of Carbon county. After his 
first wife's death, Mr. Werner wedded Abi- 
gail Bauscher, who is now in the seventieth 
year of her age, and whose father was 
Christian Bauscher, who was an extensive 
farmer of Albany township, Berks county. 
By his second marriage Mr. Werner had 
four children, two sons and two daughters : 
Rosa A., Rev. William B. , Emma J. and 
Jonathan. The widow and Jonathan and 
the two daughters reside on the home farm. 
Rev. William B. Werner was reared on 
the farm, and after attending the public 
schools, entered the Kutztown State Nor- 
mal school, from which he was graduated 
in the class of 1883. He then taught six 
terms in the public schools and took the 
four years course of Franklin and Marshall 
college, of Lancaster, this State, from 
which institution of learning he was 



3i8 



BlOGRA PHICA L SKETCHES. 



graduated in 1889. Shortly after gradu- 
ation he was so unfortunate as to break his 
left leg, and was thus prevented from taking 
a further collegiate course, which he had 
contemplated. The next year he became a 
student in the Reformed Theological semi- 
nary, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was 
«raduated from that religious institution 
May 11, 1893. After leaving the seminary, 
he was employed in supply work of the 
church until the following September, when 
he was called to the pastorate of his present 
charge, consisting of the Heidelberg Re- 
formed church, of Schwenksville, and the 
St. James Reformed church, of Limerick. 
On the 17th of September, 1893, he was 
solemnly set apart by the act of ordination, 
as a minister of the Reformed church and 
installed pastor of the Schwenksville charge 
by the venerable Dr. C. Z. Weiser, Dr. L. 
D. Leberman and Rev. S. M. K. Huber. 

On March 27, 1894, Rev. Werner was 
united in marriage with Sallie I. Fahren- 
bach, a daughter of George Fahrenbach, 
the present sheriff of Berks county. Their 
union was blessed with one child, a daugh- 
ter, named Helen Margaret, who was born 
January 20, 1895. 

In political opinion Rev. William B 
Werner is a Democrat. He has been earnest 
and active in his pastoral labors for the up- 
building of his important charge. 



WILLIAM POTTS JONES, a prosper- 
ous lumber manufacturer and coal 
dealer of Conshohocken, is a son of Evan 
D. and Anna (Potts) Jones, and was born at 
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, September 
15, 1S61. Evan D. Jones was born in Ply- 
mouth township, Montgomery county, this 
State, on February 9, 1828, and died at 



Conshohocken February 8, 1890. He ac- 
quired his scholastic training in Reverend 
Samuel Aaron's select school and Tree- 
mount seminar}' at Norristown. This, 
however, constituted but a mere beginning 
of his education, which was essentially ac- 
quired by self-study and attrition with the 
world. He was a close student of men and 
events all his life, and thus acquired a supe- 
rior practical education. About 1850 he or- 
ganized the firm of Jonathan Jones & Son, 
lumber manufacturers and large wholesale 
and retail dealers in the same. In 1858 he 
and his brother started in the same busi- 
ness in Conshohocken under the firm name 
of E. D. & E. Jones, and continued until 
1871, when Joseph C. Jones was taken into 
the firm, and the name changed to Evan D. 
Jones S: Co. This business was operated 
successfully under his personal supervision 
until death ended his labors. He was a 
thorough-going, careful and conscientious 
business man, and for many years was presi- 
dent of all the building and loan associa- 
tions of the town ; also president of the 
First National bank of Conshohocken for 
several years. He was a strict member of 
the Society of Friends, a staunch Republi- 
can, and bore the distinction of being the 
first burgess of Conshohocken. 

On October 15, 1857, he and Anna, a 
daughter of William Potts, of Plymouth, 
were united in marriage, the progeny of 
which union are five children, two sons and 
three daughters : Eliza, who died at the 
age of three years ; William P., subject ; 
Evan, deceased at the age of eighteen ; 
Martha, the wife of Herman P. Miller, who 
was librarian for many years of the Penn- 
sylvania State senate, still holding that 
office ; and Lillian, who resides at home. 

William Potts Jones obtained a good edu- 
cation in the public schools of his native 



Biographical Sketches. 



3 r 9 



city and in Swarthmore college. Leaving 
college in 1880, he became associated with 
his father in business and continued with 
him until the latter died, when he suc- 
ceeded to the business. Subsequently the 
business was conducted under the firm 
style of E. D. Jones & Co, until January 1, 
1891, when the firm was amicably dis- 
solved, Mr. Jones taking charge of the 
planing mill and coal yards, and Air. Jo- 
seph C. Jones the lumber department. He 
is a director in the Progress and Enterprise 
Building and Loan associations, a Republi- 
can in politics and a member of the Society 
of Friends. 

On March 28, 1888, Mr. Jones and Miss 
Elizabeth Coulston, a daughter of James 
Coulston, a prosperous farmer of White- 
marsh township, this county, were happily 
married, and to them have been born two 
children : Evan D. and Frances C. 



AW. ROSENBERGER, of Skippack, is 
• one of the most successful and best 
known merchants of inland Montgomery 
county. He has been actively engaged in 
the store business ever since he was a boy 
and now is at the head of a large and thriv- 
ing general store. He is descended from 
old German ancestry and is the son of David 
D. and Kate (Clemmer) Rosenberger. He 
was born September 2, 1S62, at Green 
Square, this county. 

Mr. Rosenberger can well feel proud of 
his ancestry for they have always taken a 
high place in the society of the county. 
His paternal grandfather was John Rosen- 
berger, a successful farmer owning a large 
property. He was actively identified with 
the Republican party and was one of the 
leaders in his section. He was also an active 



christian worker, being an adherent of the 
Menuonite faith. He died at an advanced 
age. 

Mr. Rosenberger's father received the ad- 
vantage of the common schools of his dav, 
but was obliged to take up the active work 
of life when still quite young. Later on he 
became engaged in mercantile pursuits and 
for fifteen years successful)- conducted a 
large store, which he abandoned to take up 
farming. He was an active Republican and 
a member of the Reformed church. He was 
a good citizen and always commanded the 
respect and esteem of the people of his sec- 
tion. Mr. Rosenberger was married three 
times and was the father of six children. 
These are : John, and Mrs. Mary Hagy by 
the first marriage; and Mrs. Kate Keck and 
Mrs. Mary Hardeufelter, Samuel C. and the 
subject of this sketch by his second wife. 
The mother of A. W. Rosenberger died in 
1867, and David D. Rosenberger in 1876. 

The gentleman whose biography is re- 
corded here, was given a few years schooling 
in the public institutions of his section, but 
was forced at an early age to start out in 
life and carve out his own career. This he 
has been eminently successful in doing. He 
was first employed as a clerk for W. O. 
Crouthamel, of Bucks county, who kept a 
general store. After three years he accepts 1 
a clerkship in the store of Isaac Fritz, of 
Philadelphia. Later he returned to Skip- 
pack and became a clerk in W. F. Hall- 
man's store. He then clerked for R. 
Scheetz, of Norristown, leaving there to 
go to Centre Square, where he was en- 
gaged as a store clerk for four years. 
For three years after that Mr. Rosenberger' 
was a clerk for J. C. Kulp, at Skip- 
pack, and only left that gentleman's employ 
to engage in the general store business for 
himself as the partner of Mr. Keeler, the 



3 20 



Biographical Sketches. 



firm name being Rosenberger & Keeler. 
During the last three years this store has 
rapidly grown in prominence and pros- 
perity and to-day is one of the most com- 
plete mercantile stores in this region. Mr 
Rosenberger holds a prominent place in his 
community as an enterprising citizen and 
the firm advocate of progress. He is a Re- 
publican in politics and is earnest in his 
advocacy of the principles of the party. He 
is a prominent member of the Reformed 
church and is an active worker in the 
church. He was married to Anna Kulp, 
daughter of S. Kulp, who is a well known 
and respected citizen of this county. 



HORACE C. JONES, a prominent manu- 
facturer of Conshohocken, this county, 
is a son of Ell wood and Rachel C. (Conrad) 
Jones, and was born June 16, 1857. To the 
principality of Wales man}' of the sub- 
stantial, thrifty and prosperous citizens of 
the United States trace their ancestry. An 
early emigrant from that country to this was 
Isaac Jones, the great-grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch. He located on a 
farm in the vicinity of Conshohocken, then 
Whitemarsh township and upon this farm 
he operated extensive limestone quarries, 
doing a large and prosperous business and 
lived there the remainder of his days. One 
of his sons, Jonathan Jones, grandfather, 
was born on this Whitemarsh township 
farm, took up the pursuits of farming and 
lumbering in that vicinity with his sous, 
under the firm name of Jonathan Jones and 
Sons. In his latter days he removed to 
Plymouth township, where he died. He- 
was a man of good business capacity, and 
was successful in amassing a very handsome 
competency. He was a great admirer of 



Clay and- the political principles he repre- 
sented, hence was an ardent Whig, whilst 
religiously, he was a member of the Society 
of Friends, belonging to the Hicksite di- 
vision of the Meeting. He married Eliza 
Davis, daughter of John Davis, and had six 
children, three sons and three daughters : 
Elizabeth, Anne, Evan D., Ellwood, Esther 
and Davis. 

Ellwood Jones, father, profited by a com- 
mon school education and then learned the 
lumber business with his father and pursued 
it as the major part of his life work in 
Plymouth township, where he owned and 
operated a saw mill. Latterly the business 
was carried on in Conshohocken under the 
firm name of Jonathan Jones and Sons, and 
later, upon the death of Jonathan Jones, by 
Ellwood and Evan D. Jones. The father 
died in Conshohocken in June 1869, at the 
age of forty-two years. His children were 
as follows : Horace C, subject ; Abbie, wife 
of Henry D. Cranor, a resident of Con- 
shohocken ; Hettie, died in childhood ; A. 
Conrad, in the employ of I. P. Thomas & 
Company ; and Elwood C, a resident of 
Conshohocken, a clerk in the employ of his 
brother Horace C. 

Horace C. Jones received his mental train- 
ing in the public schools of Conshohocken 
and in the University of Pennsylvania, in 
which latter institution he spent one year 
as a member of the class of 1877. Leaving 
college he entered the employ of E. D. & 
E. Jones, lumbermen of Conshohocken. He 
remained with that firm until 1880, when 
he entered into a business partnership with 
Stanley Lees, under the firm name of Horace 
C. Jones iS: Company. Mr. Lees went out 
of the firm in 1885, when H. C. Jones gave 
Mr. Booth an interest in the business under 
the same firm name. Later they purchased 
the Whitton Cotton and Woolen mills at 



Biographical Sketches. 



321 



Conshohocken, which they have operated 
ever since. They manufacture a high grade 
of cotton and woolen goods, the capacity of 
their mills being one half million yards per 
year, which affords employment for one 
hundred hands. In addition to his manu- 
facturing interests, Mr. Jones is prominently 
identified with a number of other financial 
and industrial enterprises of his town. He 
is a director in the First National bank of 
Conshohocken, director in the Norristown 
Title, Trust and Safe Deposit company, 
secretary and treasurer of the Conshohocken 
Electric Light and Power company, director 
of the Conshohocken Gas company and 
Conshohocken Woolen company and treas- 
urer of the West Manayunk Gas light com- 
pany, and is largely interested in real estate 
in and around Conshohocken. He is a Re- 
publican politically, but has never had time 
nor inclination to enter actively the arena 
of politics. Like his ancestors, he is a 
member of the Society of Friends. 

On February 5, 1889, Mr. Jones married 
Miss Linda, a daughter of John W. Loch, 
president of the Norristown Title and Trust 
company. One child, Spencer, has been 
horn to this marriage union. 

Mr. Jones, by sheer force of a strong in- 
dividuality and a will power that recognizes 
no lion in the way, coupled with a natural 
aptitude for business and industrial develop- 
ment, has won an enviable business success. 
He is popular as a business man and highly 
respected as a citizen and is frequently called 
upon to act in the capacity of executor, ad- 
ministrator and guardian. 



HARVEY F. SCHOLL, M. I)., who 
is a graduate of the Jefferson Medi- 
cal college and who is now actively 

21 



engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion at Green Lane, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, is a son of Henry N. and 
Hannah (Frederick) Scholl, and was born 
in Upper Salford township, Montgomery 
county, this State, April 3, 1871. The fam- 
ily of which Dr. Scholl is a worthy repre- 
sentative is of German lineage, and was 
founded in Eastern Pennsylvania, during 
early colonial times. They were a hardy, 
industrious and frugal family and con- 
tributed largely to the early development 
of the State. 

Philip Scholl, the paternal great-grand- 
father of Dr. Scholl, was a blacksmith and 
farmer of Franconia township, this count)-, 
and one of his sons Jonathan Scholl, was 
for many years a prosperous farmer of 
Marlborough township. He married Sallie 
Nice, who bore him seven children : Jessie, 
Jacob (deceased), Henry N., Lena, Mary, 
Sarah and Kate. Henry N. Scholl, father, 
was born in Upper Salford township, Penn- 
sylvania, on March 7, 1842. 

Dr. Scholl attended Ursinus college and 
Sumneytown academy and after acquiring 
a good academic education, took a com- 
mercial course in Pierce's Business college, 
at Philadelphia, graduating in the class of 
'86. Subsequently, he decided on a pro- 
fessional career and accordingly entered the 
office of Dr. J. K. Planck, of Green Lane, with 
whom he read three years, when he matricu- 
lated in the Jefferson Medical college, Phila- 
delphia, from which renowned institution 
he was graduated in 1893. Immediately 
after his graduation, he located at Green 
Lane, where he has since been successfully 
engaged in the practice of his chosen pro- 
fession. Dr. Scholl is a close student of 
the leading medical literature of the day, a 
careful practitioner, and from the energy 
and skill already displayed, bids fair to be- 



322 



Biographical Sketches. 



come one of the leading physicians of east- 
ern Pennsylvania. He is a member of the 
Sumneytown Reformed church. On May 
2, 1895, Dr. Scholl and Laura, a daughter 
of Jacob and Sallie (Markley) Allebach, 
were happily united in marriage. 



EPHRAIM FRITZ, of Pottstown, is 
known as one of the most progressive 
and enterprising men of Montgomery county 
as well as a man whose philanthropy and 
liberality have made him beloved and es- 
teemed by everybody in his neighborhood. 
He is a native of Douglass township, Berks 
county, and was born January 15, 1828, his 
parents beingjohn and Catharine (Sassaman ) 
Fritz. The name is of German origin, but 
for many years the Fritz family have been 
residents of this section of the State, having 
emigrated to this countrv early in the eio-h- 
teenth century. The family settled in Doug- 
lass township, Berks count}', and here grand- 
father John Fritz was born and lived all 
his life. He was a farmer and tilled a prop- 
erty of one hundred rich acres. He was 
not active in politics but always voted the 
Democratic ticket. He was a very active 
churchman, however, and was a member of 
the Lutheran denomination. He married 
Sarah Sands, who bore him six children : 
Samuel, Joseph, David, Catharine Hollman, 
Sarah Reiser and John. He died at the age 
of eighty years. John, father of the subject, 
was born on the homestead, in Douglass 
township, Berks county, in 1S02, and was 
brought up as a farmer, the occupation he 
followed all his life. He was, like his 
father, a supporter of Democratic principles 
and a member of the Lutheran church of 
Pottstown. He married Catharine Sassa- 
man, of Douglass township, on September 



4, 1820, and the fruits of their union con- 
sisted of six children : Ephraim, John S., 
Nathaniel, deceased ; Almira, Amelia, de- 
ceased ; and Sarah. He died at the age of 
forty-two years. 

Ephraim, the oldest, was unfortunate in 
being unable to get more than the scantiest 
of school-room practice and as his father 
died when he was fifteen years old, he early 
went to work on the farm and remained 
with his mother until he was twenty-three 
years of age. He then married and worked 
at various industrial pursuits for a number 
of years. When still a young man he be- 
gan to take a great interest in politics and 
soon became a very popular leader in the 
Democratic party. His first office was that 
of tax collector of Douglass township, Berks 
county, and he was afterward appointed 
mercantile appraiser. In 1857 he was taken 
up by the partv and elected clerk of the 
courts, receiving the highest majority of any 
of the successful candidates that year. In 
his own township he got every vote but one, 
a sure test as to his popularity and the re- 
spect with which his neighbors considered 
him. 

Sometime after serving his term of office, 
Mr. Fritz came to Pottstown, where he has 
since made his home. He engaged in the 
lumber and coal business as one of the firm 
of Fritz, Egolf & Company, and was active 
in the business for twenty-two years. Be- 
sides his interest in the lumber and coal 
business, Mr. Fritz became very active in 
enterprises and has been a director of the 
Glasgow Iron company for eight years, a 
director of the Old National bank of Potts- 
town for fifteen years and was treasurer of 
the Union Savings and Building and Loan 
association for many years. His great busi- 
ness ability and tact aided in making all of 
these enterprises highly successful and his 



Biographical Sketches. 



323 



uprightness of character secured for him the 
respect and confidence of the whole com- 
munity, and he is now serving his twenty- 
second consecutive year as treasurer of the 
town. Mr. Fritz is a member of the Trans- 
figuration Lutheran church of Pottstown. 
He loves his church above all else and has 
ever been a zealous worker in the vineyard. 
He has held all the official positions in it, 
such as deacon, trustee and elder and has 
been a most liberal subscriber to all its 
various funds. He contributed three thou- 
sand dollars toward the parsonage and 
eleven hundred dollars toward wiping out 
the church indebtedness and is a very lib- 
eral and regular weekly contributor to the 
general fund. In his private life he is a 
man of great philanthropy. 

On the 1st of September, 1857, Mr. Fritz 
and Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Egolf, of 
Pottsgrove township, were joined in wed- 
lock. This marriage was productive of only 
one child, a son, John, who died aged three 
years. This bereavment was a sad blow to 
both of these amiable people. Mr. Fritz 
was, however, called upon to bear a more 
crushing blow in later life, when the com- 
panion of his married life died on January 
2, 1894. Mrs. Fritz had lived to be sixty- 
four years and hers was truly a beautiful 
Christian career. 



SQUIRE I. H. JOHNSON, justice of the 
peace at Creamery P. O., has had a 
very busy and active life, especially in the 
political world. He is a descendant of fine 
old Pennsylvania stock and was born at 
Creamery P. ()., November 7, 1834. His 
parents were Henry G. and Sallie (Hun- 
sicker) Johnson. His grandfather, William 
Johnson, was born June 7, 1752. He was 



educated in the common schools and spent 
his life in active work on his farm, and was 
also a deacon of the Mennonite church. He 
was the father of ten children : Jacob, John, 
William, Henry, Ann, Catharine, Mary, 
Sarah, Elizabeth and Susanna. He died in 
Upper Providence and has always lived and 
practiced in the faith of the Mennonite 
church. Henry G. Johnson, the father of 
the subject of this sketch, was born in Up- 
per Providence township on March 13, 1806. 
He was sent to the public schools and then 
became a teacher. He taught school thirty- 
three years and also during that time worked 
his farm. He was a preacher and member 
of the Mennonite church, and an active 
Sunday-school worker. In politics he was 
a Republican. He was the father of two 
children, the subject of this sketch and 
Henry. He died July 25, 1879. 

Squire I. H. Johnson is the personification 
of a self-made man. He was educated in 
the public schools and then, like his father, 
became a teacher. He taught several terms 
and also farmed while teaching. Mr. John- 
son has always been very prominent in pub- 
lic enterprises. He was one of the board of 
directors of the shirt factory at Skippack- 
ville and a member of the board of mana- 
gers of the hat factory at Iron Bridge. He 
is also a director in the Schwenksville bank 
from its organization some twenty years 
ago. In politics Mr. Johnson has always 
been a very prominent Republican and has 
held numerous offices in the gift of the 
people. He was an auditor for thirteen 
years and a school director for twenty-four 
years. He has held the post of judge of 
elections for many years and was for four 
years a notary public. At present he is a 
justice of the peace, enjoying a large and 
lucrative practice. 

Squire Johnson has always been an ener- 



324 



Biographical Sketches. 



getic worker in the Mennonite church and 
has for years led the singing in the congre- 
gation. On February 5, 1852, he married 
Sarah Ziegler, daughter of Abraham Ziegler 
and they have two children. 

Besides the other enterprises already 
enumerated, Mr. Johnson is one of the 
managers of the Perkiomen Valley Insur- 
ance company and was one of the founders 
of the creamery and had been treasurer 
since its organization fifteen years ago at 
his place of residence, all of which things 
tell how he has spent an active life and has 
gained the respect of the people of the 
district. 



ALBERT HELFFENSTEIN, a resident 
of Norristown, and ex-register of wills 
of Montgomery comity, is a son of Jonathan 
and Emeline (Bush) Helffenstien, and was 
born near North Wales, Montgomery coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, February 10, 1840. He 
was reared at his birthplace until he was 
fourteen years of age, and then came to 
Norristown, where he served as a clerk 
until he reached his eighteenth year. He 
learned the trade of printer in the office of 
the National Defender, then a native Ameri- 
can paper and at that time under the con- 
trol of Colonel William P. Seymour. He 
remained on the paper until 1864, when he 
and his eldest brother, Samuel B., purchased 
it from General Schall, then its owner, and 
soon ran its circulation from six hundred 
up to sixteen hundred copies. In 1872 he 
sold his interest in the paper to his brother 
Samuel B., and then acted as foreman on the 
Norristown Times up to 1890, in which year 
he was nominated for register of wills by the 
Democratic part}-. He was elected and 
served from 1891 to 1894, and then at the 
expiration of his term engaged in his pres- 



ent business (job printing) on Main street. 
He is an active Democrat, a member of the 
Humane Fire company, and served for eight 
weeks as an emergency soldier in Company 
H, 34th Pennsylvania militia, being sta- 
tioned successively at Harrisburg, Reading 
and Philadelphia. 

In 1861 Mr. Helffenstein married Matilda 
Earl, a daughter of Lawson Earl, of Norris- 
town. They have three children : Emily, 
wife of Charles Howe, of Camden, New Jer- 
sey ; Mary, who wedded Thomas J. Stiles, 
of Norristown ; and Katie, wife of Thomas 
M. Williams, of Philadelphia. 

The Helffenstein family is noted and 
prominent in the history of the German 
Reformed church of Pennsylvania, as the 
Muhlenberg family was distinguished and 
active in connection with the Evangelical 
Lutheran church in the Keystone State. 
Rev. John Conrad Helffenstein was born 
February 16, 1748, in the Palatinate, Ger- 
main', and in 1772 came to Germantown, 
where he was settled over the German Re- 
formed church of that place and where he 
died May 17, 1790, when in the prime of 
manhood. Three of this patriarch's sons, 
Samuel, Charles and Jonathan, were distin- 
guished ministers of the Reformed church, 
while in the succeeding generation, Samuel, 
Albert and Jacob, sons of Rev. Samuel, 
became noted ministers of their father's and 
grandfather's church. Rev. Samuel Helf- 
fenstein, the elder, married a Miss Kircher, 
of Philadelphia, and was the father of Rev. 
Samuel Helffenstein, D. D., who, when a 
sickly child, was dedicated to the Lord, by 
his mother, like Hannah of old. She gave 
him in charge of the synod to be educated 
and he was ordained in 1797. He was pas- 
tor of the Race street church from 1798 to 
1832 and then removed to near North Wales, 
where he died October 17, 1866, aged ninety- 



Biographical Sketches. 



325 



one years. He published a volume on di- 
dactic theology, had twenty-seven young 

men under his charge, who were preparing 
for the ministry, and retained his full men- 
tal force until the last. At twenty-two 
vears of age he married Anna Christina 
Steitle, who died in i860, aged eighty-one 
years. Their sou, Jonathan Helffenstein, 
was born in Philadelphia, in 1814, and died 
in March, 1847. He married Emeline Bush, 
a daughter of Henry Bush, and reared a 
family of five children : Samuel B., editor 
of the Norristown Defender ; Albert, the 
subject of this sketch ; Annie, who married 
Thomas B. Evans, of Norristown ; Emanuel 
and Emily. 



OLIVER M. EVANS, the efficient teller 
of the First National bank of Lans- 
dale, is one of the foremost and most highly 
respected citizens of that town. He is a 
native of Hatfield township, Montgomery 
count} - , and is a descendant of Welsh an- 
cestors, the original emigrant of whom was 
John Evans, who emigrated from Wales and 
settled in this country in 1696. He landed 
at Philadelphia and afterwards located in 
Chester county. The first of the family 
born in this country was John Evans, a son 
of the emigrant, who was born April 14, 
1700, and died April 14, 1738. He married 
Jane Howell, daughter of Robert Howell, 
and among their children was a son, Peter 
Evans, who was born September 28, 1722, 
and was a doctor by profession. During 
the Revolution he was a commissioner of 
supplies for the Continental army, the depot 
for which was located at the old meeting- 
house below South Wales, Montgomery 
county. During this time he served as jus- 
tice of the peace and tried some of the 



members of the Hill Town Baptist church 
for refusing to carry anus in the Revolu- 
tion, but it is alleged that he discharged 
them. He married Rachel Evans, of 
Gwyuedd township, Montgomery countv, 
who is thought to have been a daughter of 
David Evans. John Evans, the grand- 
father of our subject, was one of the off- 
spring of this marriage. He was born 
February 13, 1767, and was a farmer by oc- 
cupation. He married Elizabeth Evans, a 
relative of Hon. Henry S. Evans, State 
senator of Chester county. Grandfather 
Evans died ( )ctober 15, 1824. 

Jonathan Evans, M. D., (father), was born 
January 28, 1793, on his father's farm. He 
was sent to the pay schools of the district 
and then took a course in the medical de- 
partment of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia. After graduating, he practiced in Hat- 
field township for a number of years, and 
then went to Philadelphia, where he resided 
until his death, on July 7, 1851. He was a 
very active Whig in politics, and was a man 
of broad views and sterling qualities. He 
was married twice. His first wife was 
Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Mathias, 
of Bucks county, and they had one child, 
Julia, now deceased. His second wife was 
Jane Jenkins, daughter of Owen Jenkins. 
Two children bless this union : Oliver M., 
our subject ; and Sally J., who is the wife 
of Dr. John S. Jenkins. 

Oliver M. Evans was born on April 28, 
1831, and is therefore in the sixty-fifth year 
of his age. He received a common school 
education, and then went to Philadelphia, 
where he became engaged in the mercantile 
business. He remained here fifteen years 
and then went to Eansdale and accepted the 
post of teller in the First National bank, a 
position that he has held for thirty-one years. 
In politics Mr. Evans is a Republican, and 



326 



Biographical Sketches. 



has been very active for the interest oi his 
party. He has held even- local office in the 
gift of the people, and is at present treasurer 
of the borough. He is also president of the 
board of health, and is greatly respected in 
the community for his progressive ideas, 
straightforward business methods and thor- 
ongh honesty 

Mr. Evans was married January 31, 1871, 
to Ella, daughter of Charles Todd Jenkins, 
of this county, and they have three chil- 
dren : Jennie, born January 25, 1872 ; Eve- 
lyn, born January 8, 1874 ; and O. Morris, 
born March 17, 1882. The Evans family 
have always been consistent and active 
members of the Baptist church. 



HENRY G. GROFF, M. D., of Harleys- 
ville, for the past forty years has been 
one of the foremost and most widely known 
physicians of his native count}', and to-dav 
is enjoying good health and an abundance of 
important practice. He was born near Sal- 
ford station, in Upper Salford township, a 
district that has known his ancestors for 
three generations. His parents were John 
and Sarah (Gable) Groff. His grandsire on 
the paternal side was Jacob Groff, who was 
born in Upper Salford township in 1751. 
By occupation the elder Groff was a fuller 
and dyer, and he carried on this business all 
his life in connection with working a very 
productive farm of one hundred and eighty 
acres He was an active Democrat politi- 
cally, and was an earnest and energetic 
member of the Lutheran church. He was 
married in December, 1773, to Elizabeth 
Huebner, and this union resulted in the 
following family of children : Jacob, Joseph, 
Henry, John, Abraham, Elizabeth, who be- 
came the wife of George Daub ; and Mary, 



who wedded John Leidy. He died in 1824. 

John Groff, the father of Dr. Groff, was 
born in Upper Salford township in Decem- 
ber, 1796. He was educated in the public 
schools, and became a fuller, dyer and far- 
mer, which he followed all his life. He 
was married twice, his first wife being Sarah 
Gable, and his second, Kate Frederick. By 
his first marriage there were four children : 
Philip, Augustus, Henry and Jesse ; and 
three children were the result of the second 
marriage : John, Angeline, who was married 
to Joseph Huber ; and Franklin, who died 
young. Three children by the first wife 
are living, Augustus is dead, while all but 
one by the second are dead. Mr. Groff was 
a Democrat. He was also a member of the 
Lutheran church, and always held a promi- 
nent place in the affairs of the congregation, 
having been an elder, a trustee and a dea- 
con. He died in 1875, aged seventy-nine 
years, four months and twenty days. 

Dr. Groff, the subject of this sketch, com- 
menced his education in the common 
schools of his native town, and afterwards 
attended Freeland seminary. He then en- 
tered the office of Dr. H. Geiger for the 
purpose of studying medicine, and gradu- 
ated from the Philadelphia Medical college 
in 1852. He then began the active prac- 
tice of his profession with Dr. Reinhart K. 
Keeler, with whom he has been in partner- 
ship ever since. He has been in the profes- 
sion forty-three years, and during that time 
has gained a reputation that is confined to 
neither town, township nor county. He is a 
man of ripe experience in all of the branches 
of his profession, and he has always enjoyed 
the highest esteem of his neighbors. In 
politics he is a Republican, and in his earlier 
years devoted some time and energy in aid- 
ing the success of his party, He has been 
a life long member of the Lutheran church, 




/£ 



>6v7^y 




Biographical Sketches. 



327 



and has ever worked faithfully for it. He 
has been treasurer of the church for a num- 
ber of years, and also an elder. It was 
through his influence that the beautiful 
union chapel was erected at Harleysville, 
and there are many other things to show 
that he was prominent in church and pub- 
lic affairs. He owns a farm in this place- 
that he has successfully operated for years. 
In October, 1S56, Dr. Groff married Han- 
nah, the only child of Rev. Isaac Clements. 
This marriage, which has been marked by 
the greatest happiness and felicity, resulted 
in the birth of seven children. They are : 
Mary, who intermarried with Garret Lan- 
dis ; Olivia, who became the wife of John 
Moyer ; Dr. John Groff, Ida, now the wife 
of Sheridan Metz ; Hannah, who espoused 
Wilson Alderfer ; Kate, who was married to 
I. Stover; and Henry Groff. His son John 
studied medicine and graduated from Jef- 
ferson Medical college in 1890. He then 
took his father's place, and is maintaining 
the high standard of the paternal profes- 
sional name. 



JOSEPH J. McGINLEY, secretary and 
business manager of the Times Pub- 
lishing Company, of Norristown, is a son 
of Francis and Mary (Walters) McGinley, 
and was born on the old McGinley home- 
stead at Norristown, Pennsylvania, August 
20, 1868. His paternal grandfather, Bern- 
ard McGinley, was a native and life long 
resident of Count}' Donegal, Ireland, where 
Francis McGinley (father), was also born 
and lived until fourteen years of age. The 
latter then came to America with relatives, 
and lived at Frankford, Philadelphia county, 
this State, until he had attained his fifteenth 
year. He improved such opportunities as 



came in his way for obtaining an education, 
but they were meagre, as he had to make 
his own way in the world and could only 
Study during evenings and at odd times. At 
the age of fifteen he came to Norristown, 
Montgomery county, and began learning 
the trade of shoemaker. After completing 
his apprenticeship, in 1852, he worked as a 
journeyman for several years. He then em- 
barked in business as a shoemaker on his 
own account, at 270 East Main street, 
where he still carries on the business, 
though now in the sixtieth year of his age. 
He is a Democrat in politics and a Catholic 
in religion. In 1854 he married Mary 
Walters, a daughter of Daniel Walters, of 
Norristown, and to them were born ten chil- 
dren : Daniel, now engaged in the printing 
business in New York City ; John, died at 
the age of seventeen ; Frank, deceased in 
1892, aged thirty ; James, died in infancy ; 
Clara, married Charles Dale, of Norristown ; 
Joseph J., subject of this sketch ; Annie, 
died in childhood ; Bernard, died in infancy ; 
Edward, a paper roller by trade ; and Mary, 
a stenographer. Mrs. McGinley is a native 
of Ireland, and is now in the sixty-second 
year of her age. 

Joseph J. McGinley was reared in his na- 
tive borough of Norristown, where he at- 
tended the public school one year, and after- 
wards studied in the parochial schools until 
thirteen years of age. He then went into 
a woolen mill and worked for three years, 
after which he again entered the parochial 
school for one year, and, on leaving school, 
began learuing the carpenter trade with 
Michael Murdy at Norristown. He com- 
pleted his trade in the planing mill of Guest, 
Grater & Co. During this time he was at- 
tending night schools, endeavoring to secure 
a better education, and among other things 
took up book-keeping at Schissler's College 



328 



Biographical Sketches. 



of Business. He also solicited orders and 
advertising for newspapers and periodicals, 
and in every way tried to advance himseli 

in the world. In -March, 1S92, he was 
offered and accepted a position as book- 
keeper with the Times Publishing Com- 
pany of Xorristown, and at once entered on 
his duties with enthusiasm and a determi- 
nation to make himself indispensable to his 
employers. He strictly adhered to his pur- 
pose, and by industry and careful attention 
to business, gradually advanced himself to 
his present position as secretary and business 
manager of the company. He is recognized 
as one of the young business men of his 
borough, and is everywhere credited with 
having fought a good fight with opposing 
circumstances. 

In politics Mr. McGinley is a Republican, 
and in religion a member of the Catholic 
church. He is also a member and vice- 
president of the Catholic F. A. B. society of 
Xorristown, and takes an active interest in 
matters pertaining to the public welfare. 
Mr. McGinley is unmarried. 



WILLIAM H. SHOFFXER, a promi- 
nent builder and contractor of Xor- 
ristown, Pennsylvania, was born August 9, 
1853. He is a son of Abraham and Sarah 
A. Shoffner, and is a native of Xorristown. 
His paternal grandfather, Alexander Shof- 
fner, came from Germany to this country 
and located on a farm near Lionville, 
Chester county, this State, where he con- 
tinued to reside uninterruptedly until his 
death. Among his children was Abraham 
Shoffner, the father of William H. He 
was reared in Chester county, was educated 
in the common schools near Lionville, and 
when he became of sufficient age to learn 



a trade was apprenticed to a carpenter and 
learned the craft of carpentering and join- 
ing. He was engaged in the pursuits of 
his trade the greater part of his life, and did 
considerable contract work, but subsequent- 
ly removed to Xorristown, of which place 
he was a resident up to the time of his 
death. He was firmly attached to the 
Lutheran church in which he held member- 
ship, and was equally strong supporter of 
the Democratic party. By his marriage a 
family of nine children resulted. 

William H. Shoffner, whose name ap- 
I pears at the head of this sketch, was ed- 
ucated in the common schools, and at the 
time of the last illness of his father, suc- 
ceeded to the management of the contract- 
ing business, which he undertook in 
partnership with his brother, James K., 
under the firm name of Shoffner and Brother. 
This firm has built a large number of 
handsome residences and public buildings, 
largely in the borough of Xorristown. 
Among those worthy of mention are the 
residences of Wallace Boyer, George W. 
Rogers, Charles Paist, H. K. Reagar, Theo. 
White. In addition to these they con- 
structed the buildings of the Xorristown 
Steel company and the Star Glass works of 
Xorristown. 

On July 1, 1894, the firm of Shoffner & 
Bro. broke ground for the City market 
house, situated between Airy and Marshall 
streets, Xorristown. This building, when 
Completed, will be one of the best structures 
of its kind in the State, and contains the 
offices and council rooms for the borough 
government, a public hall ninety-six by 
forty-six feet, a military armory and an 
annexed club room, besides a variety of com- 
mission and market stalls. The building 
is to be furnished with all the modern and 
best improved equipments necessary to 



Biographical Sketches. 



329 



each department. The total cost of the 
erection is in the neighborhood of sixty 
thousand dollars. 

In June, 1880, Mr. Shoffner married Ida 
Krepps, a daughter of Henry Krepps, of 
Norristowu. They have two children : 
Wallace B. deceased ; and Helen May. 

At seventeen years of age Mr. Shoffner 
enlisted in Company H, Sixteenth regi- 
ment, national guard of Pennsylvania, and 
served for a period of twelve years. He 
was discharged as a first lieutenant. Dur- 
ing the great railroad strike of 1877, the 
militia was called into service at Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, where Mr. Shoffner experi- 
enced the practical and arduous routine of 
the soldier's life until the termination of 
the strike. In politics he is a Democrat, 
but in local affairs aims to support the man 
rather than the party. He is a member of 
the Shield of Honor ; Improved Order of 
Red Men ; Knights of the Golden Eagle ; 
and Curtis Lodge, I. O. O. F. He is also 
a member of the Excelsior Saving, Trust, 
Building and Loan association, and served 
a number of years as a member of the 
board of trade. He is a member of the 
Protestant Episcopal church. 



HENRY W. GRAUL, an ex-teacher, 
justice of the peace, and a civil engi- 
neer and conveyancer, of Green Lane, this 
county, is a son of Levi and Lydia 
(Blanck) Graul, and was born at Hop- 
penville, Montgomery count)', Penn- 
sylvania, November 8, 1839. Mr. Graul 
is of German descent on his father's 
side and British on his grandmothers side. 
His paternal grandfather, Jacob Graul, was 
a life-long resident of Lehigh count} - , this 
State, where he was engaged in agricultural 



pursuits. He married Miss Wetzel who 
bore him three children : Levi, father ; 
Jacob, and a daughter, who was kidnapped 
in her childhood. 

Levi Graul, father, the eldest of a family 
of three children, was born in Weisenburg 
township, Lehigh county, Penna. His 
father dying when he was a small boy, he- 
was indentured to his uncle who gave him 
a good education. After passing through 
the public schools of his native township, 
he attended various academies and finally 
entered Lafayette college Here, however, 
he remained but a short time. Leaving 
college he apprenticed himself to learn the 
merchant-tailoring trade for four full years. 
Thorough and reliable in his workmanship, 
artistic in his tastes, and understanding 
well the philosophy of dress, he made this 
his life-work. He was a Democrat in poli- 
tical opinion, and a member of St. Luke's 
Lutheran church, at Pennsburg. He was 
an earnest and zealous worker in the church 
and a liberal contributor to all benevolent 
and charitable institutions. His marriage 
in 1838, resulted in the birth of one son, 
Henry W., the subject of this sketch. Mr. 
Graul died at Green Lane, Montgomery 
county, this State, on December 7, 1881, aged 
sixty-nine years, five months, twenty days, 
and his wife Lydia passed away February 
28, 1867, aged fifty years. 

Henry YV. Graul was educated in the 
public schools of Upper Hanover township, 
this county ; select schools at Allentown, 
this State ; Washington Hall, at " The 
Trappe," this count}', and the Bucks 
count)' Normal and Classical School, at 
Ouakertown, in the latter of which lie pre- 
pared himself for the Sophomore year at 
college. Subsequently, in 1861, he en- 
gaged in teaching, and continued success- 
fully until 1883, when he abandoned his 



33° 



Biographical Sketches. 



profession. During this time he taught in 
Upper Hanover, East Greenville and Sum- 
nevtown, and was assistant principal of the 
Bucks county Normal and Classical Insti- 
tute, and from 1875 to 1883 inclusive, was 
principal of the Green Lane school. 

Politically he is a Democrat, and in 
1879, he was elected justice of the peace, 
in which office he has since been continued. 
In conjunction with this he is engaged in 
surveying and conveyancing. He is pos- 
sessed of rare musical talent and has made a 
specialty of both vocal and instrumental 
music. He is a prominent member of the 
Sumneytown Lutheran church and is or- 
ganist for the Sumneytown Union churches, 
Lutheran and Reformed. He takes an in- 
terest in secret and fraternal societies ; is 
a member of Green Lane Castle No. 202, 
K. G. E., and of Charity Lodge No. 190, 
Free and Accepted Masons, at Norristown, 
Pa. 

On March 21, 1861, he wedded Esther 
A., a daughter of Colonel Henry Dotts, a 
prominent farmer of Pennsburg, and to 
them have been born four children : Esther 
Janett, who is the wife of Jacob Allebach, 
a merchant of Green Lane ; Olive C, de- 
ceased in 1863 ; Lydia Margaret, deceased, 
and Philip Malancthon, who graduated at 
East Stroudsburg State normal school iii 
the class of "95. The latter was elected 
teacher of Lehighton " A " Grammar 
school soon after graduation. 



JOHN F. BE AN, who is the proprietor of 
a large general store at Creamery, post- 
master, and is also interested in several large 
business enterprises, is a son of Garret and 
Kate (Fryer) Bean. He was born on his 
father's farm in Skippack township, on De- 



cember 2, 1844. He is descended from 
German stock, but his ancestors have been 
in this country for at least five generations. 
His paternal great-grandfather, John Bean, 
was born in Philadelphia county in the year 
1 761. He was a farmer by occupation, and 
served in the War of 1812, dying in 1846. 
The paternal grandfather was born in Wor- 
cester township in 1788, and was a farmer 
all his life, operating a splendid tract of land 
containing one hundred and thirty acres. 
In politics he was first a Whig and later a 
Republican. The Bean family were all 
members of the Mennonite church, and 
Grandfather Bean was a preacher for a num- 
ber of years. He was married to Susan 
Ziegler, and they had only one child, the 
father of the subject of this sketch. Grand- 
father Bean died in August, 1854, aged 
sixty-six years Garret Bean was born on 
the old homestead in Skippack township on 
October 14, 181 1. He attended school until 
he was twenty years old, spending his vaca- 
tions in assisting his father on the farm. 
After leaving school, he devoted all of his 
time to farming, and at the death of his 
father, he came into possession of all the 
property. He was a Republican in politics 
and quite active in the local councils of his 
party. He served as bank director for thirty 
years in the old Montgomery and First Na- 
tional banks of Norristown, and for some 
years he served as a school director, and 
always took a deep interest in educational 
matters. Like his father, he was a member 
of the Mennonite church. Garret Bean was 
married twice. His first wife was Esther 
Hunsicker, and she bore him four children : 
Susan, who married John A. Drake ; Sarah, 
the wife of Henry Fryer ; Magdalina, the 
wife of Jonathan Wousetler ; and another 
who died in infancy. The mother died at 
the same time, and they were laid to rest 



Biographical Sketches. 



33i 



together. His second wife is Kate Fryer, 

and this union resulted in the birth of three 
sons : Henry, John and Garret, jr. Garret, 
sr., died May 31, 1892. 

John F. Bean was reared on the farm, but 
was given a good education. He attended 
the common schools, and then spent one 
year at Freeland seminary, now Ursinus 
college. After leaving this institution, Mr. 
Bean taught school in Skippack township 
for two years, leaving that position to be- 
come a clerk for William F. Hallman, with 
whom he remained two years. The follow- 
ing two years he clerked in H. M. Alder- 
fer's store, and three years for F. F. Hen- 
dricks ec Co., Schwenksville. Three years 
he was the proprietor of the store at Leder- 
achville, and in 1879 he came to Creamery 
and started in the general store business at 
this place, and two years later established 
the first post-office at this place, of which 
he has since been the incumbent. He has 
a very large store and .carries a large stock 
of goods of every line that are saleable in a 
store of that character. At this writing it 
will make his twenty-eighth year in mer- 
cantile life. 

Mr. Bean prospered from the very start, 
and is now one of the foremost busi- 
ness men of that section. He is not only 
interested in his general store, but he is 
also a heavy stockholder of the Royersford 
banks and Water company, and a member 
of other public enterprises. As a Republi- 
can in politics, he is a firm believer in the 
principles of the party platform and never 
misses an election. 

On January 23, 1869, Mr. Bean and Sarah 
H. Hallman were happily wedded, and 
they have had six children : Annie Laura, 
born August 28, 1870, and now wife of C. 
R. Hunsicker ; Katie May, born May 22, 
1876, deceased ; Clement H., born August 



16, 1877 ; John Wallace, born March 6, 
1881, deceased; Perry H., born May 21, 
1884 ; Sallie Pearl, born January 6, 1886. 



WILLIAM Z. KRFIBLE, one of the 
leading bakers of Norristown, Penn- 
sylvania, is a son of William and Marv 
(Zilling) Kreible, and was born in Worces- 
ter township, this county, September 19, 
1 85 1. The Kreible family are of German 
lineage, and trace back their ancestry to a 
member of the family who came to this 
country at an early period, and located in 
Worcester township. Samuel Kreible, pa- 
ternal great-grandfather, owned a large mill 
and farm in the township above mentioned, 
to which he devoted the major part of his 
life. He was a member of the religious 
sect called Schwenkfelters, and was twice 
married. By his first wife he had five chil- 
dren : Lydia Krause, Elizabeth Schultz, 
Sallie, Susanna Anders and William. After 
the death of Mrs. Kreible, he again was 
united in marriage, and by this union one 
child was born : Sophia Schultz. 

William Kreible (father), was born and 
reared on the old homestead farm, where he 
resides at present. He has recently sold a 
part of his landed property to his sons, 
Amos, Michael and Elmer, but has retained 
one of his farms. Politically, he is a Re- 
publican, and in religion has adopted the 
faith of his forefathers, that of the Schwenk- 
felders. He reared a family of twelve chil- 
dren : Samuel, Amos, Michael, Susannah, 
Francis, William, Elizabeth, Mary, Chester, 
Edwin, Elmer and Emma. 

William Z. Kreible received an elemen- 
tary education in the district schools and 
learned the trade of miller, in which busi- 
ness he was engaged for twenty-three years. 



332 



Biographical Sketches. 



In 1887 lie came to Norristown and started a 
bakery at 606 and 608 West Marshall street, 
where he is now located. Adjoining his 
business room he has erected a commodious 
three-story brick dwelling, forty by one 
hundred and forty feet, with all the con- 
veniences of a comfortable home. He has 
succeeded in building up a large trade, and 
has extended his business beyond the pre- 
cincts of Norristown itself, to the adjoining 
country districts. For this purpose he em- 
ploys three wagons. 

Mr. Kreible is an active Republican, and 
a member of the Reformed church of Nor- 
ristown. On September 13, 1873, he was 
united in marriage with Kate H. Swartley, 
whose paternal grandfather, Joseph Swart- 
lev-, was a large farmer, located in Skip- 
packville. Mr. Swartley was prominent in 
local politics. He was married to Catha- 
rine Reiff, by whom he had two children : 
Kate and Elias, father of Kate H. Swartley. 
Elias Swartley was reared in the vicinity of 
Skippackville, but later in life he removed 
to Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where he re- 
mained two years. Mr. Swartley has been 
twice married. In 1890 he removed to 
Orange county, Florida, where he resided 
until shortly before his death, September 
12, 1895. He married Eliza Striner, and 
they are the parents of five daughters : 
Emma J. Kratz; Kate H., Anna E. Mc- 
Cracken, Mary Kreible and Lillie Roshon. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kreible have had two chil- 
dren : Elmer and Mary L., both of whom 
are deceased. 



GEORGE ADAM AUTENRIETH, a 
veteran soldier of the late Civil war, 
and a resident of Norristown, is a son of 
Philip J. and Louisa (Buck) Autenrieth, 



and was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, 
October 7, 1829. His father was a member 
of the Lutheran church, and married Louisa 
Buck, who died January 21, 1850, at the age 
of forty-five years. Philip J. died Septem- 
ber 18, 1836. They had four children : 
William, Philip J., Adam and Margaret. 

Adam Autenrieth learned the trade of 
shoemaker in his native country, which vo- 
cation he pursued during his life. In 1858 
he bid adieu to his native shores and came 
to this country and located in New York 
City. Remaining there two years, he then 
removed to Norristown, where he has re- 
sided ever since. During the late Civil war 
he was in active service from September 24, 
1S63, until the close of the war. He en- 
listed in Company G, Ninetieth Pennsylva- 
nia infantry, and was captured on the 
Weldon railroad August 19th of the next 
year, and taken to Libby prison. Later he 
was removed to Belle Island, Virginia, and 
then to Salisbury, North Carolina. On No- 
vember 26, 1864, while yet a prisoner, he 
was transferred to Company H, of the 
Eleventh Pennsylvania veteran infantry, 
but was not exchanged until February, 
1865, and did not join the regiment until 
April 13, 1865. He was discharged June 10, 
of the same year. He served in quite a 
number of engagements, among the most 
important of which were the following : 
Battles of the Wilderness and Chancellors- 
ville ; the attack against Agna Landing ; 
in the expedition against Early ; battles of 
Bridge and Mitchell's Station ; campaign 
around Petersburg ; and the engagements at 
Rappahannock Station, Sulphur Springs, 
Thoroughfare Gap, Groveton, Second Bull 
Run and Chantilly. During General Lee's 
first invasion to the North, he witnessed 
the battles of South Mountain, Turner's 
Gap and Antietam. He was also on duty 



Biographical Sketches. 



333 



at Poatts Point, in the Mud March, Chan- 
cellorsville, and during Lee's second inva- 
sion he helped to win one of the great 
decisive battles of the world. In the Wil- 
derness campaign he took an active part in 
the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, 
Laurel Hill, Guinea Station, North Anna, 
Cold Harbor, and was at the siege of Peters- 
burg. He was in the assault on Norfolk, 
Ya., and in the engagements on the Weldon 
Railroad. Later he was in areconnoitering 
expedition to the Poplar Springs Church, 
and then was on garrison duty at Fort 
Dushaue until November 26, 1864. 

In all Mr. Autenreith spent about two 
years of military life, and became ac- 
quainted with its pomp and glory as well 
as its horrible butchery. For six months 
he was retained as a prisoner of war and 
suffered much insolent and abusive treat- 
ment at the hands of the enemy. 

Mr. Autenreith married Mary Bauer, a 
daughter of Frederick Bauer, and to this 
union have been born two sons and three 
daughters : Charles F., deceased ; George, 
Man-, deceased ; Matilda, Isabella and Anna 
Barbara. 



JOHN H. LATSHAW, treasurer of the 
Royersford Glass company, is a son of 
Daniel and Angeline (Bean) Latshaw, and 
was born in the village of Royersford, 
Montgomerv county, Pennsylvania, on 
Christmas day, 1875. The family is of 
French descent, but have resided in eastern 
Pennsylvania for several generations. Dan- 
iel Latshaw, father, was born and reared in 
Chester count)', this State, where he fol- 
lowed farming for a number of years. In 
later life he became a real estate dealer and 
conducted that business extensively at Roy- 
ersford, Montgomery county, where he 



owned large tracts of valuable land. To 
his energy and enterprise is largely due the 
growth and development of the village, 
much of which stands on land formerly 
owned by him. His death occurred in 1886, 
when in the sixty-seventh year of his age, 
and his remains sleep in the Fernwood 
cemetery at Royersford. Although a strict 
member of the Mennonite church, he was 
broad and liberal in his views, and this 
spirit was finally illustrated by his donation 
of a town lot in Royersford for the erection 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. His 
energy and determination were proverbial, 
and were never more clearly show than in 
the effort to establish the first stove foundry 
at Royersford, which was organized under 
the name of Francis & Companv, but is now 
known as Buekwalter 6c Company. His 
estate still owns much valuable land in and 
around the village. In 1850 he married 
Angeline Bean, a daughter of Samuel Bean 
of Montgomery county. By that union he 
had a family of nine children. 

John H. Latshaw was reared in his native 
place and acquired a good English educa- 
tion in the public schools of Royersford. 
He subsequently entered Treemount semi- 
nary at Norristown, from which he was 
graduated in 1884. He then took a course 
of training in Bryant and Stratton's Business 
college in the city of Philadelphia, being 
graduated from the latter institution in 1885. 
Returning to Royersford he entered the 
Spring City National bank in a clerical 
capacity and remained there five years. He 
then served for one year as vice-president of 
the Grandee Stove company, and afterward 
purchased an interest in the Royersford 
Glass company. Mr. Latshaw at once be- 
came the treasurer of this company, and has 
ever since occupied that position with great 
acceptability. Their plant is located on 



334 



Biographical Sketches. 



Second avenue, and employs, when running 
at its full capacity, about three hundred 
hands. They manufacture bottles of every 
size and kind. The company was chartered 
in 1886 and began business in a small way 
the same year. It has gradually increased 
until it now ranks with the most important 
industries of Montgomery county. 

In addition to his interest in the Rovers- 
ford Glass company, Mr. Latshaw is also a 
stockholder in the Grandee Stove company 
of Roversford, and the Keystone Light and 
Heat company of Philadelphia. In politics 
he is a Republican, and in religious faith a 
Methodist. He is a member of the Patriotic 
Order Sons of America, and has served as 
treasurer of the order. He is unmarried. 



SIGNOR ENRICO BARILI, a nephew 
of Adelina Patti, and choir master of 
St. Patrick's Catholic church of Norristown, 
is a son of Signor Ettore and Antoinette 
(Camps) Barili, and was born at Caracas, 
Venezuela, South America, January 2, 1857. 
He traces his ancestry back to the family 
of Cardinal Barili, who lived in the sixteenth 
century, and was the great-great-great-uncle 
of Signor Ettore Barili, whose paternal an- 
cestors for three centuries back, were musi- 
cians of note and distinction and served as or- 
ganists of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. We 
quote the following account of Signor Ettore 
Barili which was recently written. "Signor 
Ettore Barili was born in Rome, Italy, No- 
vember 5, 1828, and when ten years of age 
his father started to teach him music. By 
the time he was twelve years old he was 
playing the organ in St. Spirito church, 
over which his father presided. In 1843, 
the year his half sister, Adelina Patti, was 
1) irn, he went to Milan, where he studied 



under Maestro Mulze. In 1846 he ran away 
from home and went on the stage at Monza, 
Italy, in Due Foscon. From there he went 
to the Grand Theatre, Barcelona, and ap- 
peared in Rigolelto. In 1849, while in Spain, 
he married Antoinette Camps, and in 1850 
opened the theatre Rydiano in Florence, 
where he remained until 1854, and then 
came to America, landing in Boston in 
August, 1855. He appeared in Rigolctto at 
the Academy of Music in New York city, 
and then took his half sister, Adelina Patti, 
under his instruction. He taught her for 
four years and then put her on the stage in 
the opera of Martha^ in Philadelphia, at 
sixteen years of age. 

He then traveled in the United States 
until 1864, when he joined his brother An- 
tonio, who was a music teacher in New 
York city. The following year he went to 
Montgomery, Alabama, and remained there 
until 1868, teaching music. From there he 
went to Philadelphia, where he remained 
until his death November 12, 1884, at fifty- 
seven years of age. His voice was of re- 
markable power from upper B flat to lower 
E, and the scores he used to sing in Gettta 
Macbeth and other compositions lie idle to- 
day, because no one is capable of mastering 
them." 

Catharine Barili, the mother of Ettore 
Barili and Adelina Patti, was the only 
woman who was ever permitted to sing in 
St. Peter's cathedral at Rome. She was 
also a celebrated artist and several operas 
were composed in her honor, one being that 
of A r oruia. 

Signor Enrico Barili was born on board 
a vessel that was leaving the port of Caracas 
fi >r Xew York city, and as it was an Ameri- 
can ship and sailing under the flag of the 
United States, he is a citizen of this country 
bv birthright. At five vears of a°;e he was 



Biographical Sketches. 



335 



placed under the musical instruction of Al- 
fred Pease, who brought him out at ten 
years of age at Chiekering Hall, New York 
city, at the concert of Signor Brignolia, 
where he played a duet with Mr. S. B. 
Mills, now one of the celebrated pianists of 
the United States. Leaving New York 
city, he studied for four years under his 
father at Montgomery, Alabama, and then 
pursued the study of vocal music for some 
time at Philadelphia, where he assisted his 
father as organist at St. John's church. At 
the close of his studies in Philadelphia, in 
1878, he went on the operatic stage and was 
with the McCall, and Bennett and Moulton 
opera companies up to 1886, in which year 
he abandoned the opera and became organ- 
ist of St. Peter's cathedral in Wilmington, 
Delaware, where he remained for three 
years. He then came to Norristown and 
accepted his present position as choir mas- 
ter of St. Patrick's Catholic church. In 
connection with his choir duties, he gives 
lessons in vocal music to main- of the lead- 
ing society people of Norristown. He is a 
Democrat and a Catholic and is one of the 
only three American members of the St. 
Cecelia Pilharmonic society of Rome. He 
is also a member of the Verdi Musical asso- 
ciation of Philadelphia. 

On October 2, 1891, Signor Barili mar- 
ried Margaret McMannus, a sister of Rev. 
O. P. McMannus. 



J WATSON CRAFT, who is engaged in 
. the coal, lumber and feed business at 
Ambler, is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth 
(Detweiler) Craft, and was born in Gwynedd 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, December 1, 1847. He ^ s °f English 
lineage, and John Craft, his paternal grand- 



father, lived in Whitemarsh township, where 
he followed farming and did a large amount 
of wood chopping and land clearing. He 
married, and his son, Jacob, who was a mill- 
wright by trade, went in early life to 
Gwynedd township, where he was engaged 
principally in farming. He was an old line 
Whig and an early Republican, and during 
the late Civil war served as an internal 
revenue assessor. He was active in local 
affairs and held several township offices 
during his life time. He was born in 1812, 
was a believer in the faith and practice of 
the Society of Friends, and died July 27, 
1894. Mr. Craft married Elizabeth Det- 
weiler, whose father, Abraham Detweiler, 
was a resident of Horsham township. Their 
children were : Mary, wife of Albert G. 
Rile, of Gwynedd ; Angeline, married Wil- 
liam S. Funk, a resident of Whitpain 
township ; Alfred, now residing in Norris- 
town ; Watson, the subject of this sketch ; 
Annie, wife of Horace G. Van Court, of 
Philadelphia ; and Evan, who died in 1881. 
J. Watson Craft was reared on the home 
farm, and received his education in the dis- 
trict schools, Prof. John W. Loch's academy 
at Norristown, and the Millersville State 
normal school. Leaving Millersville, he 
became a clerk in the Norristown iron 
works, where he was successfully promoted 
to time-keeper and foreman, and where he 
remained for a period of eighteen years. 
At the end of that time he came to Ambler 
and bought out the lumber, coal and feed 
business of Mr. J. B. Staekhouse. His 
father, Jacob, buying the real estate of Mr. 
Staekhouse at the same time, which he pur- 
chased of the latter in 1889. Since then he 
has been enlarging his yards and feed estab- 
lishment, and has built up a good and pro- 
fitable trade. Mr. Craft has always been a 
pronounced Republican and a whole-hearted 



33 6 



Biographical Sketches. 



supporter of his party. He served as the 
first burgess of Ambler, has been a member 
of the school board for six years and is 
serving his third year as treasurer of the 
borougfh. He believes in the faith and 
teachings of the Society of Friends. Iden- 
tified with the business interests of Ambler, 
Mr. Craft has always sought to help in its 
advancement and progress. He is a stock- 
holder and a director of the First National 
bank of Ambler, which was founded in 
1882, and is recognized as a safe and pros- 
perous financial institution, that has bene- 
fitted a large section of the county as well 
as being conducive to the prosperity of the 
borough. 

On May 8, 1872, J. Watson Craft was 
united in marriage with Mary Griggs, a 
daughter of T. B. Griggs, a resident of Nor- 
ristown, Pa. Their union has been blessed 
with three children : Adele E., E. Frank 
and J. Watson, jr. 



The father of G. S. Nice was a farmer 
and huckster for forty years. He was 
^iven a common school education, and 
then devoted his time to farming. He was 
a Republican like his father. Eight chil- 
dren were born to him. They were : 
William, G. S., John, Edwin, Frank, 
David, Emma and Amelia. 

The subject of this sketch was sent to 
the public schools until he was fifteen 
years old. He left school and entered a 
general store, where he rapidly rose and 
soon owned a business for himself. This 
young gentleman is a thorough business 
man and carries a very large and varied 
stock. He is of the same political faith as 
his father and grandfather, and is also a 
member of the Mennonite church. On 
November 17, 1888, Mr. Nice married Miss 
i Jennie F. Delp, a daughter of Henry C. 
Delp. 



GS. NICE, of Harleysville, is well 
• known in this county as a general 
store merchant, who has won prosperity by 
his uniting zeal and constant attention to 
business. He is a son of John and Kate 
(Shoemaker) Nice, and is of strictly Ameri- 
can aneestrv. He was born on September 
15, 1864. His paternal grandfather was 
William Nice, who was born in Upper Sal- 
ford township. He was a farmer through- 
out his life, and was a member of the Men- 
nonite church and was an active Christian. 
I [e was a Republican in politics, and always 
took a lively interest in the workings of 
his party. He was the father of six 
children as follows : J. M., A. M., William 
Mary, Betsy and Sophia. He died at the 
advanced age of eightv-one vears. 



ADAM SCHEIDT, a well known busi- 
ness man, president and general mana- 
ger of the Adam Scheidt brewing company 
of Norristown, Pennsylvania, is a son of 
Adam and Kathrina (Pflueger) Scheidt, and 
was born in Bavaria, Germany, on February 
14, 1854. His father was a miller and grain 
dealer in the early part of his life, but lat- 
terly engaged in the lime business, which 
he continued until his death, on April 9, 
1894. At the time of his death he was in 
his eighty-sixth year. He was a man of 
considerable means, and was a member of 
the Lutheran church, in which he held the 
office of elder. His marriage resulted in 
the birth of ten children, seven sons and 
three daughters. 

Adam Scheidt received his education in 
the public schools of Bavaria, and learned 
the trade of cooper and brewer. This trade 



Biographical Sketches. 



337 



he followed until he reached the age of 
twenty-one years. At this time he entered 
the military service of the German army 
and served three years. In April, 1S7N, he 
left his native country and emigrated to the 
United States. Shortly after his arrival he 
located in Norristown, and became asso- 
ciated with his brother Charles in the brew- 
ing business. As soon as he familiarized 
himself with the language of his adopted 
country, he became a partner and half 
owner in the brewing business, which was 
operated under the title of C. S: A. Scheidt. 
This partnership continued until October 7, 
1884, at which date his brother died. Dur- 
ing the following year Mr. Scheidt con- 
tinued the sole conductor of the business, 
and when the interest of his brother in the 
enterprise was sold, it was purchased by 
Mr. Scheidt, and continued under his con- 
trol down to October 7, 1890. At this latter 
date the business was changed to a stock 
company, under the name of the Adam 
Scheidt Brewing company, of which Mr. 
Scheidt became president and general 
manager, Michael G. McGrath treasurer, 
and Edward F. Curren, secretary. A board 
of directors was organized, consisting of 
William Little, Patrick Curren, P. McGrath, 
J. U. Cassel and Amos M. Schultz. 

The brewery of the Adam Scheidt Brew- 
ing company is a very commodious structure, 
and has a capacity of sixty thousand bar- 
rels. In 1891 the brewery and bottling es- 
tablishment of A. R. Cox, at the corner of 
Main and Markley streets, Norristown, was 
purchased and made an auxiliary business. 
The facilities of the Adam Scheidt Brewing 
company are greater than any other in the 
county, and all kinds of beer, porter, ale, 
stout and carbonated beverages are mar- 
keted. 

Aside from the brewing business, Mr. 

22 



Scheidt is a stockholder in the Albertson 

Trust company, the Norristown Title, Trust 
and Safe Deposit company, the First Na- 
tional bank, the Norristown Steel works, 
the Citizens' Passenger Street Rail\va\ 
company, and various other business indus- 
tries. Mr. Scheidt is a Republican in poli- 
tics and a member of several fraternal 
orders. 

( )n January 28, 1881, Mr. Scheidt was 
united in marriage with Rosa I. Hindenach, 
a daughter of Jacob Hindenach, of Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Scheidt 
have six children : Adam, jr., Harry, Anna, 
Nina, Helen and Catharine. 

Mr. Scheidt is a man of very active and 
courageous business propensities, and has 
succeeded in establishing a large and grow- 
ing business. He is a man of good execu- 
tive ability and persistent efforts, and ranks 
with the most enterprising citizens of the 
county. 



JOSEPH E. GRIFFITH, a prosperous 
<J farmer of Lower Merion township, is a 
son of Joseph and Sarah (Noblit) Griffith, 
and was born in Mechanicsville, Upper 
Merion township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, July 26, 1842. His paternal 
grandfather was of German descent, and re- 
sided in the lower part of Upper Merion 
township, where he married and reared a 
family of two children : Joseph and Mary 
Boyer. 

Joseph Griffith received the limited edu- 
cation that was only within the reach of 
fanners' sons of his day, and turned his at- 
tention to farming, then the main pursuit 
of those residing beyond the limits of a 
city. He owned and tilled a farm of one 
hundred and fifty acres in Lower Merion 
township, where the subject of this sketch 



338 



Biographical Sketches. 



now resides. Joseph Griffith was an old 
line Whig, and after the dissolution of the 
Whig party he became a Republican. He 

was industrious and frugal, and married 
Sarah Noblit, who at her death left tour 
children : John II., of East Conshohocken ; 
William Henry, who died when young ; 
Joseph Edward, the subject of this sketch, 
and Sarah Ann Ferrier, who are twins. 
After his wife's death, Mr. Griffith wedded 
Mar) Noblit, who soon passed away, and 
then for his third wife he married Araminta 
Ellis, by whom he had one child, Ida, who 
is now attending school. 

Joseph Edward Griffith was reared on the 
home farm and trained to agricultural pur- 
suits. He attended the common schools of 
[yOwer Merion township, and upon attain- 
ing his majority, engaged with his father, 
whom he assisted in farming for several 
years, lie now owns fifty-six acres of the 
home farm, ami in connection with farming 
runs a large dairy. He disposes oi his dairy 
products largely in the Philadelphia mar- 
kets, hi political opinion Mr. Griffith is a 
staunch Republican, and has always sup- 
ported the men and measures of his party. 
IK is active and industrious, a prudent and 
trustworthy man. 

(hi September 20, [869, Mr. Griffith mar- 
ried Mary Emily Griffith. Mr. and Mrs. 
Griffith have one child, a sou, named 
Isaac, who is now assisting his father in 
[arminer and dairying^. 



HENRY SNYDER, a successful retired 
business man and a representative citi- 
zen ot Green Lane, is a son oi Captain 
Jacob and Mary (Grobb) Snyder, and was 
horn in Frederick township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, February 10, 1820. 



His paternal grandfather, Valentine Snyder, 
was a native of Germany, hut when a young 
man emigrated to the United States and 
finally settled in Frederick township, where 
lie passed the remainder of his days. He 
was a blacksmith by trade, ami followed 
that in conjunction with farming all his 
life. He was a member of the German Re- 
formed church, and married Mary Wagoner, 
who bore him one son, Jacob Snyder, who 
was the father of the subject oi this sketch. 
He was horn in 17SS upon his father's farm, 
and resided there for many years, engaged 
in farming. Subsequently he moved to 
Spring Mount, where he followed farming 
for a time, when he removed to Marlbor- 
ough township. Here he owned and ope- 
rated the Perkiomen flouring mill the re- 
in. under of his active life, dying in July, 
1870. Politically he was a Democrat, and 
religiously he was identified with the Ger- 
man Reformed church. He was an active 
and zealous worker. For main years he 
was .1 deacon in the church, and in fact, 
filled all the offices in the church organiza- 
tion. He was a brave and valiant soldier oi 
the War of 1812, and served through the 
earlier war with the rank of captain. Cap- 
tain Snyder and Mary Grobb were married, 
and to them were born eight children : Es- 
ther Morgan, deceased ; Charles, Elizabeth, 
Stanley Samuel, deceased ; Henry, Benja- 
min, deceased ; Isaac and John, deceased. 

Henry Snyder obtained such education as 
the district schools of his day afforded, and 
remained with his father, employed upon 
the farm, until twenty-one years of age. 
After attaining his majority, he learned the 
millwright trade with Ephraim Haney, of 
.Sal ford township, this county. Mastering 
the trade in every detail, and becoming a 
skilled and proficient artisan, he followed 
hi-- trade successfully for a period of twenty 



Biographical Sketches. 



339 



years. Subsequently he operated the Per- 
kiomen mills, then owned by his father, for 
five years. He afterwards purchased a valu- 
able farm of eighty acres in Perkiometiville, 
and devoted his time and attention to the 
cultivation of his farm until iSjS, when he 
practically retired from a long, active and 
successful business career. Since his retire- 
ment he has resided at (irc-en Lane, where 
he occupies a pleasant and commodious 
home. Like his ancestors, he is a Demo- 
crat, and a member of the German Re- 
formed church, in which he takes an active 
interest. The marital union of Mr. and 
Mrs. Snyder has been blessed with six chil- 
dren : Milton, a carpenter of PottstOWH, 
this counts- ; Frank, Elizabeth Kramer, 
Clara, Charles and Jacob. 

Mr. Snyder is a public spirited and pro- 
gressive citizen, and is interested in many 
of the most substantial financial institutions 
of his count)', among which are : Penns- 
burg National bank, Montgomery National 
bank at Xorristowu, Royersford National 
bank, and Montgomery Trust company at 
Xorristowu. He has been a director in the 
Perkiomen and Sumneytown turnpike since 
[875, and is reputed to be one of the 
wealthiest citizens of his community. 



JONATHAN CLEAVER, of Consho- 
^J hocken, is prominently known through- 
out the county as an enterprising plumber, 
gas and steam fitter and jobbing machinist, 
with commodious shops on Hector street. 
He is clearly a self-made man and has 
worked himself up from a poor boy to a 
position of honor and trust in the business 
circles of his town. He was born at King- 
of-Prussia, this county, on the twenty-fourth 
of February, 1X54, and is a son of Jonathan 



and Anna Jane (Wood; Cleaver. His peo- 
ple on both sides are Quakers, and are all 
old residents of Montgomery county, and 
have contributed not a little to th< pi 
perity of the localities in which they lived. 

In the public schools of Chester Valley, 
Xorristown and Conshohocken, Mr. Cleaver 
secured all the education his parents could 
afford to give him. He left school to take 
a position in the rolling mill of J. Wood & 
Brothers, where he remained several years. 
Subsequently he learned the plumbing 
trade at Manayunk, and prior to going into 
business on his own account, was employed 
as plumber and gas-fitter for the Albion 
Print works at Conshohocken. In April, 
1886, Mr. Cleaver started in business for 
himself and has been eminently successful 
ever since. He has employed as high as 
twelve journeymen, and his business in- 
cludes plumbing, gas and steam fitting, 
house heating and the like, and he has p 
eminently the cream of the trade of Con- 
shohocken. Besides this, he has attached 
to his plumbing shop, a very complete job- 
bing machine shop, which is also kept busy 
all the time, and forms no inconsiderable 
part of his business enterprise. 

Mr. Cleaver is a thorough-going Republi- 
can, and takes a prominent part in the 
local councils of his party and the manage- 
ment of its business. He is a member of 
Washington Camp No. 121, P. * >. S. of A. ; 
Brotherhood No. ro, and Fritz Lodge No. 
420, F. & A. M., in all of which he is a 
leading spirit. 

< >n the twenty-fifth of ( tatober, 1883, Mr. 
Cleaver was married to Kate Shepherd, 
daughter of Linford and Emily Shepherd, 
of Gwynedd township. Mr. Shepherd was 
a farmer and cattle dealer, and was very 
well off in this world's goods. He was a 
Republican in politics and held numerous 



34o 



Biographical Sketches. 



local offices. He was a member of the I. 0. 
O. F. and K. of P. He was the father of 
ten children, four of whom are dead. These 
latter were : Marion, Evelyn, Herbert and 
Cora. Those living are : Lizzie, Kate, 
Hester, Eugene, Eulalie and Linford. Four 
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver : 
Francis and Emily are dead, and William 
and Jonathan, jr., are still living. Mrs. 
Cleaver's father died March 15, 1894, at the 
advanced age of seventy-three years, and 
her mother still lives. 



NICHOLAS HENRY LARZELERE, a 
prominent lawyer of Norristown, is a 
son of Benjamin and Mary (Maxwell) Larze- 
lere, and was born in Warminister township, 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1851. 
His trans atlantic paternal ancestry is traced 
back to the days of Louis XIV, the " Grand 
Monarque," who shone in a light reflected 
from his great ministers, without whose 
councils and labors he could not have stood 
a single month. For apparent political rea- 
sons of import, Louis XIV, on October 22, 
1685, revoked the Edict of Nantes, and 
thereby lost France half a million of Hugue- 
nots, who were among the kingdom's best 
citizens. Among the emigrant Huguenots 
was Nicholas Larzelere, sr., and his brother 
John, who made their first home in the new 
world on Long Island. Nicholas afterward 
became a resident of Staten Island, and 
Nicholas, jr., the eldest of his four children, 
removed, in 1741, to Lower Makefield town- 
ship, Bucks county, where he died at 
eighty-four years of age. His family con- 
sisted of eight children, and the eldest son, 
named Nicholas, was born on Staten 
Island, in 1734, and died in 1814. He was 
a soldier in the Revolutionarv war, married 



Hannah Britton, of Bristol, and removed 
into Bensalem township, Bucks county, 
where he purchased a large tract of land 
and reared a family of ten children. His 
youngest son, Britton, born in 1782, fought 
in the War of 1812, and died in 1878, at 
ninety-six years of age, while his eldest 
son, Benjamin, married Sarah Brown, of 
Bristol township, and died at eighty-four 
years of age, on the farm he purchased in 
that township, and on which the present 
borough of Bristol is partly built. Benja- 
min had eight children, and his eldest son, 
Nicholas, in 1825, came to Abington town- 
ship, this county, where he died at sixty- 
seven years of age. He married Esther 
Berrell, a daughter of Colonel Jeremiah 
Berrell, and reared a family of twelve chil- 
dren. Of his twelve children, the second 
son was Benjamin, the father of the subject 
of this sketch. Benjamin Larzelere was 
born in 1826, and is still living. He mar- 
ried Mary Maxwell, eldest daughter of 
Henry and Ann (Buskirk) Maxwell, of 
Moreland township. Mrs. Maxwell was a 
daughter of Jacob Buskirk, whose father 
came from Holland and married Elizabeth 
Lawrence, eldest daughter of Jonathan 
Lawrence, who was the eldest son of John 
and Mary Lawrence, who came from Eng- 
land to the colony of Massachusetts in 17 13. 
Mary Lawrence was a daughter of Charles 
Townley, of Lancashire, England, the 
genealogy of whose family ran back to the 
days of Henry VIII. 

Nicholas Henry Larzelere was reared on 
his father's farm, received his elementary 
education in the common schools, and was 
prepared for college at Doylestown English 
and Classical seminary. He entered the 
freshman class of Lafayette college in 187 1, 
and was graduated from that well known 
institution in 1875. During his junior year 



Biographical Sketches. 



34i 



he won first honor in the oratorical contest 
between Franklin and Washington Halls, 
and in the senior year was the representa- 
tive of Lafayette college to the inter-colle- 
giate oratorical contest of Amherst, Prince- 
ton, Williams, Cornell, New York, Colum- 
bia and Lafayette colleges, which took 
place in the Academy of Music, New York 
City, January 13, 1875. Leaving college, 
he read law with Hon. George Ross, of 
Bucks county, and afterward with Hon. B. 
Markley Boyer, of Norristown. He was 
admitted to the bar of Montgomery county 
on September 28, 1877, and soon gained a 
foremost place in the ranks of his profes- 
sion. Among the earlier cases in which he 
won distinction were : Bradfield et al., vs. 
Insurance company ; Commonwealth vs. 
Gaffey, manslaughter ; and in the matter of 
freeing the DeKalb street bridge at Norris- 
town, after one of the most stubborn con- 
tests ever waged in the courts of the county. 
In politics Mr. Larzelere is a Democrat, 
but having early made choice of the legal 
profession, he has given his entire atten- 
tion to it with the fidelity that belongs to 
his nature. He is an able lawyer and well 
versed in his profession, in which he has 
gained prominence and distinction. 



GEORGE W. ROGERS, Esq., who for 
many years has practiced at the Nor- 
ristown bar, and has twice been the candi- 
date of his party for the office of law judge 
of his district, is the eldest son of David 
and Cynthia (Watson) Rogers, and a native 
of Warrington, Bucks county, Pennsylva- 
nia, where he was born June 15, 1829. The 
family is descended from English Puritan 
stock, and removed to Pennsylvania from 
Connecticut, where Dr. David Rogers, pa- 



ternal great-grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch, was born and resided all his 
life. One of his sons was General William 
Charles Rogers (grandfather), who was born 
in Connecticut May 28, 1776, and when a 
young man removed to Philadelphia, where 
at the age of twenty he married Mary 
Hiltzheimer, a daughter of Hon. Jacob 
Hiltzheimer, at one time a member of Con- 
gress from Pennsylvania. She was born 
March. 16, 1771, in the house where Jeffer- 
son wrote the Declaration of Independence, 
corner of Seventh and Market streets, Phila- 
delphia, then owned by her father and in 
possession of his descendants until 1874. In 
early life William Charles Rogers followed 
the sea, sailing from Philadelphia to China 
in the merchant marine service. He served 
with distinction in the War of 1812, hold- 
ing the rank of brigadier general, and cam- 
manding the volunteer militia stationed at 
Marcus Hook as a protection to Philadel- 
phia and ports on the Delaware against 
British invasion. In later life he devoted 
himself to agricultural pursuits, and served 
for many years as a justice of the peace in 
Bucks county, this State. 

By his marriage to Mary Hiltzheimer he 
had a family of nine children, five of whom 
grew to maturity and among whom were : 
Jacob H., who served for a quarter 
of a century as justice of the peace in 
Bucks county ; Gen. William F., a resi- 
dent of Doylestown, who served two terms 
as a member of the senate of Pennsvl- 
vania, during part of which time he oc- 
cupied the speaker's chair ; David Rogers, 
who was the father of the subject of this 
sketch. David Rogers was born in War- 
rington township, Bucks county, this State, 
in 1800, and after securing a good practical 
education, engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
first at Warrington, then at Pleasantville, 



342 



Biographical Sketches. 



on the county line between Bucks and 
Monts-omerv counties. Here he followed 
fanning until 1858, when he removed to 
Xorristown, where he died. He was a 
Jacksonian Democrat in politics, and held a 
number of local offices, while in religion he 
was a strict Presbyterian. He married 
Cynthia Watson, a daughter of Benjamin 
and Hannah 'Watson, of Bucks county, and 
bv that union had a family of three chil- 
dren : George YV.. whose name introduces 
this sketch ; William C, who became a 
physician and surgeon, and afterwards 
served for a time as surgeon on the steam- 
ship Illinois between Philadelphia and Liv- 
erpool ; and Mary, who married Henry 
Hibbs, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 

Mrs. Rogers' father, Benjamin Watson, 
was a member of General Morgan's rifle- 
men during the Revolutionary war, and 
participated in the battles of Brandywine, 
Gennantown, Trenton, Stony Point, Cow- 
pens, and other historic struggles. He was 
discharged at Charleston, South Carolina, 
when the Revolution closed, and on account 
of not being paid, was compelled to walk 
all the way from there to Philadelphia. At 
Gennantown he was one of those detailed 
by General Washington to apprehend and 
execute the Tories, who were betraying 
American soldiers to the British, and as- 
sisted in hanging one such near Mont- 
gomery Square. He died at the age of 
seventy-seven, and was interred at Xesh- 
aminy Presbyterian church, Bucks county. 

George W. Rogers was reared principally 
in Montgomery county, receiving his 
elementary education in the public schools, 
and afterward attending a private classical 
school in Bucks county. He then began 
teaching and was thus employed for a period 
of three years, when, in 1852, he turned his 
attention to the law, and began his prepara- 



tion for the bar under the instmctiou of 
Hon. Joseph Foruance. The latter died, 
however, before the course was finished, 
and Mr. Rogers completed his reading with 
Hon. David Krause, at one time president 
judge of Montgomery county. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar Febmary 24, 1854, and 
immediately began practice at Xorristown. 
During the same year he was elected bur- 
gess of Xorristown, and in the fall of 1856 
was elected to the position of district attor- 
ney, the duties of which office he ably dis- 
charged for a period of three years. As at- 
torney for the Commonwealth and in his 
private practice, he evinced an energy in 
the prosecution of law cases, and an aptness 
for handling witnesses on the stand, which 
brought him into prominence and gave him 
standing as a leading practitioner. In 1S74 
he was made a candidate of his party for 
additional law judge of his judicial district, 
composed of Bucks and Montgomery coun- 
ties, but was defeated by Judge Watson, of 
Bucks county, in a very close contest. In 
188S he was a candidate for the same posi- 
tion in the district comprising Montgomery 
county alone, but was again defeated, owing 
to his party being largely in the minority. 
He is a member of the American Bar as- 
>< tciation, and of the Lawyer's club of Phila- 
delphia. 

During the course of his long prac- 
tice, now extending over a period of 
more than forty vears, he has been con- 
nected with many noted trials, among which 
may be mentioned the cause of Alfred 
Hopkins, indicted for manslaughter as con- 
ductor of the wrecked excursion train on the 
Xorth Pennsylvania railroad ; Kilby Bay- 
letts, arraigned for the murder of his wife ; 
and Blasius and John Pistorius, jointly in- 
dicted for the murder of James Jacquett, 
the latter of whom was acquitted, while the 





'/a^^^^P^X^Ij 



Biographical Sketches. 



343 



former was twice sentenced to be hanged, 
but the sentence was finally commuted to 
imprisonment for life. In conducting these 
and other important cases, which were local 
sensations of the day, Mr. Rogers displayed 
the ability that makes the superior lawyer, 
and won a lasting reputation. 

Four years after his admission to the bar, 
on July i, 1858, Mr. Rogers was united in 
marriage to Cara C. Bean, only daughter of 
Jesse and Mary Bean, of Norristown, Penn- 
sylvania. To them was born a family of 
four children, three sous and a daughter : 
Cara, married Clarence L. Blakeley, of Ver- 
plank, New York ; D. Ogden, who was 
educated at Dr. Loch's Treemount semi- 
nary and Lafayette college, being graduated 
from the latter in the class of 1882, after 
which he studied law with his father, was 
admitted to the bar in 1883, and died De- 
cember 25, 1894 ; G. Austin, died February 
1, 1877 ; and Jesse B., who was graduated 
in June, 1895, from Elmira college, Elmira, 
New York. 

George W. Rogers has always been a 
Democrat, believing implicitly in popular 
government and opposed to centralization 
or usurpation in governmental affairs. 
While taking an intelligent interest in pub- 
lic questions, and in all civil matters, he has 
nevertheless preferred to devote his atten- 
tion mainly to his profession rather than to 
modern politics. He is president of the Al- 
bertson Trust and Safe Deposit company of 
Norristown, and a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, being connected with Hutchin- 
son Commandery, Knights Templar, of 
Norristown. He and Mrs. Rogers have for 
many years been members of the First 
Presbyterian church of Norristown, in which 
she is an active worker and he a liberal sup- 
porter of its various religious and charitable 
interests. 



REY. JOSEPH A. STRAHAN, rector of 
the Church of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion of Jenkintowu, was born in Philadel- 
phia on June 2, 1849, anc ^ ls ason of William 
H. and Mary ( Martin) Strahan. For the past 
three years he has been stationed at Jenkin- 
town, where he is beloved by his parish- 
oners and esteemed by the whole commu- 
nity. He has had a very active and a very 
remarkable career in the priestoood, and 
has been a most successful worker in build- 
ing up large congregations. His original 
paternal ancestor was a native of Arcadia, 
Nova Scotia, and his grandfather was Jo- 
seph Strahan, who lived in Philadelphia 
and carried on the business of carpenter 
and builder many years. Prior to the late 
war, back in the thirties, he was a colonel 
in the Pennsylvania militia, and was a very 
active worker. He was celebrated as a 
tenor singer, and was not only a trustee of 
St. Mary's church, of Philadelphia, but was 
also the leading tenor of the choir in his 
day. He married Catharine Potter, and 
they had four children. 

William Henry Strahan, father of our 
subject, resided in Philadelphia all his life. 
After leaving school, he learned the trade of 
machinist and has carried on that work 
ever since, working in Southwork foundry 
much of the time. He is a thorough Catho- 
lic and prominent in church work. In 1845 
he married Mary Martin, and eight children 
were born to them. ( >f these five died in 
extreme infancy. Those now living are : 
Mary, Regina, and our subject. The parents 
are still living. 

Rev. Joseph A. Stratum's life was early 
devoted to the cause of Christ, and his edu- 
cation was mapped out in a way to thor- 
oughly equip him for the noble work. He 
was sent to the parochial schools of St. 
Phillips parish in Philadelphia, and then to 



344 



Biographical Sketches. 



the school of the Christian Brothers of St. 
Michael. On leaving here he entered St. 
Charles preparatory seminary at Glen Rid- 
dle, Delaware county, and then to the semi- 
nary of St. Charles Borromeo at Overbrook, 
where he became an earnest student for 
priestly orders. He was ordained as a 
priest in 1872, and was immediately ap- 
pointed cnrate at St. James' church, West 
Philadelphia, remaining there eleven 
months. He then went to South Bethle- 
hem, Church of the Holy Infancy, where 
he remained as assistant about two years. 
He was next transferred to the Church of 
the Visitation in Philadelphia as curate, and 
after one year was sent to St. Domi nick's, 
at Holmesburg. Here he remained only a 
short time, when he was called back to the 
Church of the Visitation, where he was 
located eight years. At the end of that 
time Father Strahan was appointed pastor 
of St. Leo's parish, Tacony, and was com- 
missioned to erect a church. This was 
really opening a new parish, and his work 
was crowned with magnificent success. He 
remained as pastor of St. Leo's for eight 
years, when the archbishop deemed his 
services and experience needful in Jenkin- 
town. He was accordingly appointed rec- 
tor of the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
ception, where he remained ever since, the 
spiritual guardian of a large and very pros- 
perous congregation. 



JACOB H. FAUST, fanner and butter 
<J manufacturer of Sumueytown, this 
county, was born January 31, 1838, in 
Frederick township, this county, and is a 
son of Jacob and Sarah (Hauck) Faust. 
His grandfather, John Nicholas Faust, was 
a native of Germany, whence he emigrated 



to the United States and settled in Frederick 
township, Montgomery county, where he 
spent the remainder of his clays pursuing 
agriculture as a means of securing a liveli- 
hood. He was a Democrat in political 
principle, and a consistent member of the 
German Reformed church. His marriage 
resulted in the birth of the following chil- 
dren : Jacob, John, Peter, Kate and Polly. 

Jacob Faust (father), was born in Fred- 
erick township, in 1798, and died in the 
same locality on June 12, i860. He was 
reared on his father's farm and followed 
farming all his life. He married Sarah 
Hauck, and they have four sons and five 
daughters. 

Jacob H. Faust had very limited educa- 
tional advantages. The subscription school 
system was the system in existence during 
his school boy days, and as the schools 
were usually poorly taught by incompetent 
teachers, a knowledge of the primary 
branches was about all he obtained. He 
remained with his father until about twenty 
years of age and then learned the tin- 
smithing trade, and followed it at Perkio- 
menville for a term of five years. He then 
purchased a farm consisting of seventy-six 
acres, where he now lives, and for fifteen 
years, in connection with farming, engaged 
rather extensively in dealing in horses and 
cattle. In 1885 he established a creamery 
at Perkiomenville, which he operated for a 
short time, and later founded a like enter- 
prise at Sigmond Furnace, Lehigh county, 
which he has operated to the present time, 
and, in 1894, still further expanded his in- 
terests in this line by building a creamery 
at Butztown, Northampton county. In 
connection with his agricultural pursuits, 
lie operates a dairying business, keeping 
about twenty cows. He is an elder in the 
German Reformed church at Sumneytown, 



Biographical Sketches. 



345 



and a Democrat politically. He is a staunch 
supporter and friend of the common schools 
and has served as a member and secretary 
of the school board at Sumneytown since 
1883. He is prominent and popular in 
fraternal circles, being a member in good 
standing of the following orders : Perkio- 
menville Lodge No. 367, I. O. O. F. ; Zieg- 
lersville Lodge, Knights of Pythias ; and 
the Order of Pento, at Sumneytown. 

On August 20, 1886, he married Sarah 
Underkoppler, a daughter of Henry and 
Rachel (Jones) Underkoppler, a farmer of 
Frederick township, this county. The 
children born of this marital union are : 
Elias, who is engaged in the creamery 
business with his father in Lehigh county ; 
Lizzie R., who was formerly a teacher, and 
is now the wife of John Null, of North- 
ampton county ; William, deceased ; Jacob 
N., a teacher by profession, now attending 
a business college ; Henry, deceased ; Catha- 
rine H., at home, a teacher; Ida, Carrie, 
Sarah, deceased ; and one that died in in- 
fancy. 



HON. SAMUEL FAUST, ex-member of 
the Pennsylvania legislature, is a son 
of Peter and Margaret (Nece) Faust, and 
was born October 9, 1828, in Frederick 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia. That period in the educational history 
of the State extending from the adoption of 
the free school system to the consummation 
of the Civil war, is one of great importance, 
and one who witnessed the transitions of 
this period from the old subscription school 
system to the present magnificent system of 
free schools, is he whose name heads this 
sketch. He obtained an elementary edu- 
cation in the subscription schools, and then 
further broadened and perfected his mental 



training by attending Freeland seminary, 
now Ursinus college, of Collegeville, this 
county. He was one of the first pupils of that 
famous institution, and assisted in suspend- 
ing the bell in the belfry. Freeland semi- 
nary in that day was one of the most popu- 
lar institutions of learning in this section 
of Pennsylvania, and many men who after- 
ward became prominent in the professional, 
political and industrial history of the count}', 
as men of culture, power and influence, re- 
ceived their mental training within its 
walls. 

Mr. Faust attended this institution three 
terms, and being apt in his studies and pos- 
sessing a wonderfully retentive memory, ac- 
quired a vast fund of information and laid 
broad and deep the foundations for his fu- 
ture success. Leaving school, he was well 
prepared for the profession of teaching, and 
taught three years under the curriculum of 
the old subscription schools prior to the 
adoption of the present free school system, 
and twelve years under the latter system, 
making in all fifteen years. He soon made 
a reputation as an instructor and a fine dis- 
ciplinarian, and was much sought after to 
take charge of schools, the teaching of 
which required the highest order of execu- 
tive ability and the display of the greatest 
professional skill. His consent to teach the 
last few years, was given only after being 
earnestly importuned by those who knew 
his rare genius, and who desired that their 
children might profit by his training. He 
holds a certificate, granted by E. L. Acker, 
the first county superintendent of Mont- 
gomery county. In all matters that tended 
to increase the efficiency of the teachers and 
to elevate teaching to the dignity of a pro- 
fession and to present in a more favorable 
light the free school system, towards which 
there then existed a prejudice in the minds 



346 



Biographical Sketches. 



of many of our most substantial citizens, 
he was ever active and enthusiastic. 

Since he quit teaching, he has devoted 
his attention to the arts of husbandry, in 
which noble calling he has shown a no less 
progressive spirit than as a teacher. He 
owns one hundred and thirty acres of good 
arable land, well improved and productive, 
and was one of the first in the township to 
introduce labor saving machinery as a farm 
adjunct, bringing the first mowing machine 
into the township. Politically Mr. Faust 
has always been a Republican, in the cau- 
cuses and councils of which party he is ac- 
tive and influential. He is a reader and a 
thinker, and keeps well posted on the cur- 
rent political measures of the day, as well as 
on the political principles of those who fig- 
ure most conspicuously in them. In 1884 
he was elected a member of the Pennsylva- 
nia assembly, and at the end of his first 
term was endorsed by a re-election. His 
course in that body was such as commended 
him to all interested. He was ever active 
to the interests of his constituents, and 
guarded faithfully the general welfare of 
the Commonwealth at large. Among the 
bills passed while in that body, and to the 
passage of which he gave the weight of his 
influence were : The high license law and 
the bill requiring physiology and hygiene 
to be taught in the public schools as a part 
of the regular common school curri- 
culum. 

On November 12, 1856, Mr. Faust mar- 
ried Mary Sweisford, a daughter of Henry 
Sweisford, and the following children bless 
their union : Alfred, Esther, died young ; 
James, Sarah, the wife of Noah Krause ; 
Catharine, Alice, who wedded George Erb ; 
Clara, Samuel, died young ; Margaret, Ten- 



nyson, 
beth. 



died young; Samuel and Eliza- 



WILLIAM CLEAVER, of Consho- 
hocken, is a direct descendant of old 
line Friend or Quaker stock, and comes 
from one of the oldest of the count}- fami- 
lies. He is at present a superintendent in 
the Alan Wood company's works, and 
holds a responsible position. He is also a 
man of considerable public repute, and is 
respected and esteemed by all of his con- 
stituents. He is a son of Jonathan and 
Anna Jane (Wood) Cleaver, and was born 
in Plymouth township, this county, on the 
first of July, 1852. He is the namesake of 
his paternal grandfather, who was a resident 
of Chester county. He was the owner of a 
large farm, which he worked with profit for 
many years. At the time of his death he 
was a resident of King of Prussia, this 
county. He was a member of the Society 
of Friends, and a stern Whig in political 
faith. He married Jane Thauar, of Lower 
Merion, and this union was blessed by the 
following offspring : Mary, Jonathan, fa- 
ther of the subject of this sketch ; William, 
Rebecca and Charles. 

Jonathan Cleaver, father of William, was 
born in Chester county September 21, 1825. 
He received a common school education, 
and attended the West Chester academy. 
He eng-ag-ed in farming; in his native couutv 
after leaving school, and afterwards pur- 
chased a farm in Plymouth township, Mont- 
gomery county. This farm contained one 
hundred acres, and was located near Con- 
shohocken. He sold the farm and returned 
to Chester Valley, where he remained until 
1857, when he removed to Centreville, 
Chester county, and retired from active pur- 
suits. Still, not satisfied with his residence, 
he again removed, this time to the historic 
Valley Forge, where he settled on a farm 
and occupied for his home the house that 
had been the headquarters during that 



Biographical Sketches. 



347 



memorable severe winter of the Revolution 
of a prominent general. Here he lived 
until 1S62, when he died. His remains 
were interred in the Friends' burying ground 
in Chester Valley. He was a Whig, and 
afterwards a Republican in polities. His 
marriage was productive of six children, 
three sons and three daughters : Anna \V., 
the wife of Jonas Everhardt ; William, the 
subject of this sketch ; Jonathan, married to 
Kate Sheppard ; Mary, who married John 
DeHaven, and is dead ; B. Harry, who died 
at the age of eight years ; and Jennie, who 
intermarried with J. Ellwood Lee, of Con- 
shohockeu. 

William Cleaver was sent to the public 
schools until he was thirteen years old, and 
then was placed in the rolling mill of J. 
Wood 6c Brothers, at Conshohocken, where 
he remained until 1876 and mastered the 
details of that business. He then entered 
the employ of the North Penn railroad and 
continued with that company for three 
years, resigning his position at the end of 
that time to return to Conshohocken and 
embark in the flour and feed business. In 
1881 he again returned to his early occupa- 
tion, and associated himself with the Alan 
Wood company as shipping clerk. He 
worked his way upward and was made 
assistant manager of the West Flue mill. 

A Republican in politics, Mr. Cleaver is 
one of the hard workers of his party in his 
town, and his services have been recognized, 
for he was elected to serve a three year term 
in the school board by a large majority. 

He was married January 16, 1889, to 
Emma L. DeHaven, daughter of John ami 
Mary DeHaven, who live at " The Old Gulf 
Mills," this county. They have two chil- 
dren : Fannie E. and Mary L. The family 
attend the Episcopalian church of Consho- 
hocken. 



NATHANIEL BEIDEMAN KEELV, 
the popular and enterprising proprie- 
tor of the " Keely House," at East Green- 
ville, this county, is the eldest son of 
Charles and Caroline (Beideman) Keely, 
and was born October 21, 1852, at Boyer- 
town, Berks county, Pennsylvania. Mr. 
Keely comes of a substantial and sturdy 
German ancestry. William Keely, great- 
grandfather, lived in Perkiomen township, 
near Schwenksville, this county, where he 
followed for a livelihood the tailoring 
trade. Here he reared his family, one of 
whom, grandfather, Isaac Keely, was born 
and grew to manhood, subsequently re- 
moved to Boyertown, Berks county, and 
thence removed to East Greenville and re- 
sided latterly and at his death with our 
subject. He was a Democrat, and a mem- 
ber of the New Goshenho'ppen Reformed 
church. He married Sarah Prutzman, and 
their children were : Charles, father ; Jo- 
seph, Frederick, John, Harriet, Jacob, 
dead; Nathaniel B., dead; two others died 
in infancy without name. Grandfather 
Keely died at the age of eighty years. 

Charles Keely (father), was a man of 
limited education, such as the crude educa- 
tional system provided for that day. For a 
short duration in early life, lie followed the 
bricklaying trade, and subsequently for 
several years followed huckstering to Phila- 
delphia, prior to the advent of railroads, to 
that part of the county. In 1865 he leased 
the hotel our subject now owns, which lie 
conducted up to his death, February 7, 
1S74. He was a staunch Democrat in his 
political faith, and always took an active 
interest generally in local political matters, 
and held numerous minor local offices. In 
his society affiliations he was a member of 
Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. F. ; 
Greenville Lodge No. 232, Knights of Py- 



348 



Biographical Sketches. 



thias ; and Jr. O. U. A. M., at Quakertown. 

Religiously, he was a member of the New 
Goshenhoppeu Reformed church. 

He married Caroline Beideman, a daugh- 
ter of George and Catharine Beideman, 
and had four children, the eldest of whom 
was our subject, Nathaniel B., Henry B., 
who is a huckster, residing at East Green- 
yille, this county ; Horace B., a hotel- 
keeper in Philadelphia ; and a daughter, 
still-born. The father died February 7, 
1874, at forty-three years of age, and the 
mother of the subject died at sixty-three 
years of age. 

Nathaniel B. Keely receiyed his educa- 
tional training in various public and pay 
schools and the celebrated Washington hall 
academy at the Trappe, this county. After 
leaving school, he taught in the public 
schools of East Greenville and Pennsburg 
for seven terms, and as a teacher was con- 
sidered efficient and deservedly popular. 
In 1876 he was induced by his friends to 
accept the office of justice of the peace of 
East Greenville, but after serving a short 
time he removed from the borough and 
was obliged to resign his position. He 
subsequently leased and ran the Salford- 
ville hotel for one and one-half years. In 
1S79 he purchased his present hotel, the 
Keely house, formerly conducted by his 
father. Since purchasing the hotel. Mr. 
Keely has made valuable improvements 
upon the property, which in its various ap- 
pointments and conveniences, its general 
architecture and plumbing, give it a place 
among the foremost country hotels of the 
county. It is fitted up with all the most 
improved methods of heating and lighting, 
and possesses all of those appurtenent con- 
veniences so highly appreciated by hotel 
patrons. Mr. Keely is a Democrat in his 
political allegiance. Recognizing his fit- 



ness for the duties of the office, he was 
twice elected a member of the school board 
of East Greenville. He has taken an ac- 
tive part in the interest and success of the 
party, and has served as a delegate to both 
county and State conventions. He is a 
member of Perkiomen Lodge No. 595, F. 
& A. M. ; Pottstown Chapter No. 271 ; Na- 
tivity Commandery No. 71, at Pottstown ; 
Greenville Lodge No. 232, Knights of Py- 
thias ; Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. 
F. ; Pennsburg Encampment No. 234, I. 
O. O. F. ; and East Greenville Castle No. 
298, K. of G. E. He is also a member of 
St. Luke's Lutheran church, at Pennsburg, 
and served as deacon for four years. Mr. 
Keely has been twice married. On Novem- 
ber 17, 1876, lie wedded Sallie K., a daugh- 
ter of David Stoneback, a powder manu- 
facturer and ex-meinber of the assembly, 
residing at Zeiglersville, this county. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Keely have been born four 
children : Bertha Geneva, Charles Win- 
field, Wallace Montgomery, and Sallie S., 
who died in infancy. 

His first wife died April 19, 1885, at the 
age of twenty-seven years, ten months and 
twenty-four days. On May 31, 1887, he 
was united with Mary E., a daughter of 
John B. Trumbauer, a farmer of Quaker- 
town, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. This 
union has been blessed with three children : 
Allen Thurman, Henry Nathaniel and Au- 

■ eusta Tane. H. Nathaniel died in infancy. 
Mr. Keely, as a host is affable and con- 
genial, always striving to have his guests 
feel at home. He possesses a rare adapta- 
bility that eminently fits him for the very 
efficient discharge of his hotel business. 
Enterprising, ambitious, and thoroughly 
alive to the interests of the borough, he is 
always found in the front rank in support 

i of the various movements of enterprise. 



Biographical Sketches. 



349 



HON. HENRY D. SAYLOR, a member 
of the Pennsylvania .State senate, from 
the Twelfth senatorial district, is a son of 
AlbertG. and Mary A. (Oberholtzer) Saylor, 
and was born at Pottstown, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1857. 
The Saviors are of German descent and 
were among the early settlers of the Per- 
kiomen valley. Henry Saylor, the paternal 
grandfather of Senator Saylor, was a farmer, 
who attended the Philadelphia markets for 
many years, and lived to a ripe old age. 
His remains sleep beside those of his father, 
Henry Saylor, in the Trappe cemetery. 
Henry Saylor was an active Democrat of 
the Andrew Jackson type and had been a 
member, for many years, of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church, in which he held differ- 
ent official positions. He married Mary 
Grove and his son, AlbertG. Saylor (father), 
was born on the home farm in Limerick 
township, November 16, 1826. After ob- j 
taining a fair education for that day, Al- [ 
bert G. Saylor left the farm and became a \ 
clerk successively in a store at Douglass- 
ville, Berks county, Pa., with Henry Mc- 
Kenty, and with Daniel H. Beecher, of 
Pottstown, Pa. In 1848 he left Mr. Beeeh- 
er's employ and afterwards, after clerking 
for Frederick Bickel and his successor, 
Umstead Wells, embarked in the dry goods 
business at Pottstown, Pa., in March, 1850, 
which he continued up to 1884, when he 
retired from active life. He has dealt large- 
ly in real estate, being reputed for years as 
one of the best judges of land in his part of 
the county. He has always taken an active 
interest in the industrial enterprises of his 
borough, and ever favored progressive meas- 
ures for improvement. He is a member 
and official of the Lutheran church, of 
whose Sunday school he was superinten- 
dent for a number of years. 



Mr. Saylor is a Democrat of independent 
proclivities and has generally supported 
the presidential candidates of his party ex- 
cept in i860 and 1864, when he cast his 
ballot for Abraham Lincoln, and afterward 
for Grant and Garfield. He is one of the 
oldest living members of Manatawny Lodge 
No. 214, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
and to-day is one of the few survivors of 
those who organized the lodge. Mr. Say- 
lor married Mary A. Oberholtzer, and to 
their union were born two children : Mary 
A., who died when young, and Hon. Henry 
D. Mrs. Saylor, who died April 17, 1869, 
aged forty-three years, was a daughter of 
Henry D. Oberholtzer, who came from Ohio 
and one time served as a State senator in 
the Ohio legislature. 

Henry D. Saylor was reared in his native 
town, received his education in the Potts- 
town public and high schools, and assisted 
his father in the dry goods business for a 
couple of years He then resolved upon 
the profession of law as a life vocation, and 
entered the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania from which he was 
graduated in June, 1882. While attending 
the university he read law with Thomas J. 
Ashton and E. Coppee Mitchell, commenc- 
ing with Thomas J. Ashton, and after his 
death, completing his course with said E. 
Coppee Mitchell. Upon the completion of 
his office studies, in 1882, he was admitted 
to the Philadelphia bar, and went to New 
York city, where he was assistant to John 
O. Byrne, Esq., assistant district attorney, 
until the death of his sister called him 
home. He then opened an office at Potts- 
o wn, where he has continued in active prac- 
tice ever since. He was a law partner for 
a short time with Hon. Irving P. Wanger, 
present member of congress from the Sev- 
enth district ; and served for a few months 



35' > 



Biographical Sketches. 



as assistant district attorney. He also 
served, from 1891 to 1893, as borough solici- 
tor for Pottstown, and during his term of 
office he had an act of assembly passed 
providing for the condemnation of turnpike 
roads in boroughs, under which he had the 
Perkioinen and Reading turnpike road con- 
demned within the limits of Pottstown, and 
under other court proceedings had it sub- 
sequently widened. Mr. Savior is solicitor 
for the Security company, the National 
Iron bank of Pottstown, and a number of 
other corporations both in and out of Mont- 
gomery county. He is a member of the 
Lutheran church of the Transfiguration ; 
Stiehter Lodge No. 254, Free and Accepted 
Masons; and Manatawny Lodge No. 214, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

On October 15, 1885, Mr. Savior united 
in marriage with Dora B. Gerhard, daugh- 
ter of G. Wilmore and Kate H. Gerhard, of 
Norristown. Senator and Mrs. Savior have 
two children : Albert G , and Harold D. 

In politics Senator Savior has always 
been a staunch, enthusiastic and hard 
working Republican. He became interested 
in political affairs before he was a voter, 
and has followed closely the trend of politi- 
cal parties ever since. He was elected a 
member of the borough council of Potts- 
town in 1885 and re-elected in 1888, serving 
six years in all. When his time was out 
in 1891 he was made borough solicitor, 
which position he held until 1894. In the 
meantime, in September, 1893, he became 
a candidate for the Republican nomination 
for State senator. The contest for the 
nomination was one of the most markedly 
significant struggles that ever occurred in 
the county, and lasted for a year. Winn 
the convention assembled in September, 
1894, Mr. Savior was nominated, and in 
the ensuing November election, he was 



elected by a majority of two thousand two 
hundred and ninety-nine votes, the largest 
ever given a senatorial candidate in the 
district. In the session of the Pennsyl- 
vania legislature of 1S95, Senator Savior 
served as a member of the senatorial com- 
mittees on accounts, appropriations, edu- 
cation, insurance, game and fisheries, ju- 
dicial general, judicial local, judicial appor- 
tionment, railroads, vice and immorality. 



WILLIAM C. WEBER, who was one 
of the prosperous farmers and highly 
respected citizens of Norriton township, 
was a son of Christian and Charlotte (Cas- 
selberry) Weber, and was born in Lower 
Providence township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, November 30, 1826. The 
Weber and Casselberry families were set- 
tled in eastern Pennsylvania at an early 
day and their pioneer members were sub- 
jected to many of the privations incident 
to new r world settlement on the provincial 
frontier. 

William C. Weber received his elementary 
education in the last of the old subscription 
and the earliest of the common schools, and 
then took a two year's course at the Nor- 
ristown seminary, in order to fit himself for 
the arduous duties of teaching. He taught 
his first school in Montgomery county, and 
then went to Columbus, Ohio, where he 
was engaged in teaching for two years. At 
the end of that time he returned to his na- 
tive county, and as teaching was not so re- 
munerative an employment as farming, he 
embarked in the latter occupation and 
farmed on the place of his uncle John 
Weber, in Norriton township. He then 
purchased from James Smith a farm of 
forty acres in Lower Providence township, 



Biographical Skktches. 



351 



which he tilled successfully for four years. 
At the end of that time, in 1865, his father 
died, and he sold his farm in order to as- 
sume the management of the homestead on 
which he resided for seven years ; he then 
removed to Chester county, where he con- 
ducted the farm of his father-in-law, Isaac 
Walker, from 1873 to 1888. In the latter 
year he returned to the homestead farm in 
Xorriton township, three miles west of Nor- 
ristown, and resided there until the time 
of his death, which occurred January 24, 
[894. His remains were entombed in the 
Centennial Presbyterian church cemetery, 
and his familiar face and form are sadly 
missed in the circle of his wide acquain- 
tance. He was a Republican in politics, 
and had served two years as treasurer of 
the school board and two terms as township 
assessor and collector in Chester county. 
He united with the Presbyterian church at 
twelve years of age and for over half a centurv 
had been a zealous and consistent member. 
Two years before his death he was elected 
to the eldership, whose every duty he faith- 
fully performed until he was called from 
time to eternity. He had also served effi- 
ciently as a Sunday school superintendent 
and was active in every field of chnrch 
work. 

On February 22, 1855, William C. Weber 
married Hannah Walker, a daughter of 
Isaac and Elizabeth (Beidler) Walker, who 
were natives of this county. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Weber were born eight sons and seven 
daughters : Laura F., and Elizabeth W., 
who are deceased ; William H., senior mem- 
ber of the firm of Weber Bros., engaged in 
the wall paper and painting business at Nor- 
ristown ; Charlotte A., wife of Prof. Wil- 
liam H. Walker, of Chester county ; John 
C. , connected in business with the Phila- 
delphia Traction company ; Winfield S., 



junior member of the firm of Weber Bros., 
of Norristown; Isaac W., deceased ; Elmina 
S., wife of Clayton B. Lamb, of Mount 
Holly ; Joseph, deceased ; Mar)- F., now 
teaching at Iron Bridge, this count}- ; Ella 
C, Charles, now residing at the homestead 
with his mother ; G. Norwood, now in busi- 
ness in Philadelphia ; Emma W. a success- 
ful teacher in the public schools ; and James 
Wells. 



HORATIO L. VOCUM, a descendant of 
one of the oldest families of the State, 
is a sou of Lieutenant George P. and 
Mary (Litzenberg) Yocum, and was born at 
Ardmore, Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, July 31, 1S70. The Yocum family is 
of Swedish descent, and was founded near 
the site of Philadelphia, when the country 
along the Delaware was known as New 
Sweden, and several years before Penn's 
purchase of Pennsylvania. Peter Yocum 
came from Sweden and settled first at 
Wiaco, near the site of Philadelphia, but 
after Penn laid out his capitol city, he re- 
moved to Swedes Ford, where he was an 
active and prominent man. He was super- 
visor of highways from Karker's Mills to 
the Falls of the Schuylkill, and was un- 
doubtedly the Peter Yocum whose name 
appears in the assessment list of 1734. This 
Peter Yocum, the younger, was the father 
of Andrew Yocum, born in 1739, and whose 
son, John Yocum, born in 1766, resided on 
the Phillips farm, near West Conshohocken. 
John Yocum married a Miss Brook, and 
their son, Benjamin Brook Yocum, was 
born in 1801, and died in 1868. He was a 
farmer and cattle dealer, and held numer- 
ous township offices. He was an old line 
Whig and a staunch Republican, and mar- 
ried Harriet Hagy, who was horn in 1801. 



35 2 



Biographical Sketches. 



They had eight children : Hannah, J. 
Hagy, John, Emily, Crawford, George P., 
Dr. Benjamin and Isaac D. 

Lieutenant George P. Yoeum was born 
in Lower Merion township, attended the 
schools of his neighborhood, and was a law 
student at Xorristown, when the late Civil 
war commenced. That great struggle 
called men from every walk and profes- 
sion of life into military service, and he 
was one that took up arms in defense of 
the Union. He enlisted in the Pennsylva- 
nia cavalry, and served until the close of 
the war, being promoted to lieutenant. 
He was in numerous battles, fell into the 
hands of the enemy, and was confined in 
Andersouville prison for nine months be- 
fore being paroled. After the close of the 
war he returned to Xorristown, where he 
was in the general mercantile business for 
several years. He then removed to Ard- 
more and assumed charge of the Red Lion 
hotel, which he conducted from 1S74 up to 
his death, on April 3, 1879, aged thirty-six 
vears. He was a large property owner in 
Montgomery and Chester counties, had ex- 
tensive coal and lumber yards, and was 
active and energetic in all of the numerous 
enterprises in which he was interested. He 
was a Republican in politics, had served 
as a member and president of the Lower 
Merion school board, and was a member of 
Cassia Lodge Xo. 273 Free and Accepted 
Masons of Ardmore. He was liberal and 
generous, and on October 9, 1867, wedded 
Mary Litzenberg, a daughter of Horatio 
Litzenberg, of Ardmore. They had three 
children : Frederick, who died in child- 
hood ; Horatio L. and Charles C. 

Horatio L. Yocmn was reared at Ard- 
more, received his education in the public 
schools and the Friends' high school of 
Philadelphia, and then entered Pierce's 



Business college, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1892. Leaving college, he served 
as book-keeper for one year, and then came 
back to Ardmore, where he has resided 
ever since. Mr. Yocum is a staunch Re- 
publican, and an active member of the 
Lower Merion Baptist church. 

On March 20, 1894, Mr. Yocum was 
united in marriage with Emily Clark, a 
daughter of William J. Clark, of Ardmore. 
Their union has been blessed with one 
child, a son named Horace Clark. 



DR. JOXATHAX FAUST, a popular 
general practitioner of medicine and 
a skilled eye specialist of Zeiglersville, this 
county, is a son of Peter and Margaret 
(Xece) Faust, and was born May 18, 1842, 
in Xew Hanover township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. The paternal great- 
grandfather of Dr. Jonathan Faust was 
Peter Faust, a native of Germany, who, 
seeking to escape the crowded economic 
conditions of his native country, came to 
the United States in the year 1747. He 
located in Frederick township, this county, 
being one of the earlier settlers of the 
county. One of his sons was John Xicho- 
las Faust, the grandfather of the subject of 
this biographical sketch. 

John Xicholas Faust was born in Frede- 
rick township in 1765, and settled in the 
township of his nativity, where he pur- 
sued farming with success and profit until 
his death, in the year 1837. Like his 
father, he was a member of the German Re- 
formed church, in the work of which he 
always took a commendable interest. He 
wedded Elizabeth YValwent, and they be- 
came the parents of the following children : 
Elizabeth, who became the wife of George 



Biographical Sketches. 



353 



Gruber ; Peter, Jacob, John, Catharine, who 

wedded Thomas Yost; and Mary, who 
married Jaeoh Levis. 

Peter Faust (father), was born about one 
mile west of Perkiomenville, in Frederick 
township, on October 8, 1794, and died 
January 29, 1875. His school boy days 
marked a period in the educational history 
of the vState many years before the adoption 
of the present common school system, when 
a very crude system of subscription schools 
existed, taught by incompetent teachers in 
the primitive log school houses of that day. 
Hence his scholastic training was limited. 
He was a man of considerable mechanical 
skill, and during his life-time followed a 
number of avocations, showing his versatile 
genius. He first learned the trade of a reed- 
maker, later followed stone masoning for a 
time, and still later took up farming in 
what is now New Hanover township, this 
county. He was a devout and consistent 
member of the Reformed church, in 
which he held the office of elder, and took a 
deep and enthusiastic interest in every 
move which had for its object the better- 
ment of the conditions of the community 
and the promotion of the welfare of society 
at large. Every reform movement found in 
him a warm friend and a devoted advocate. 
He was a very strong believer in the Sunday- 
school as a potent adjunct and nursery to 
the church, was one of its founders in his 
community, and uniformly molded his life 
in accord with the belief, well grounded in 
his mind, that intemperance was an appall- 
ing evil. He served three months in the 
War of 1 81 2, our second struggle for 
national freedom, being stationed at Wil- 
mington, Delaware. He married Margaret, 
a daughter of Abraham Xece, who was 
formerly a resident of Tinicum, Bucks 
county, but who later located in New Han- 

23 



over township, this county. Their children 
were as follows : Samuel, whose sketch fol- 
lows ; Jesse, born October 13, 1830, now de- 
ceased ; Margaret, wife of Jacob Gerhart, of 
Xorristown ; Peter, born March 24, 1835, a 
general business man of Lehigh county, 
this State, being engaged in farming and 
the manufacture of powder and the 
creamery business ; Catharine, born Au- 
gust 12, 1837, died in infancy ; Reuben, 
born January 2, 1840, also died in infancy ; 
Jonathan, subject ; Mary, born December 
30, 1844, died at the age of four years ; and 
Sarah, born February 10, 1847, is the wife 
of John K. Freed, of Xorristown. 

Dr. Jonathan Faust received his prelimi- 
nary scholastic training in Frederick insti- 
tute, then an English and classical educa- 
tional institution of high standing, under 
the supervision at different times of skilled 
teachers. Afterward he taught school for 
four years. Having at length resolved upon 
studying medicine, he registered under the 
preceptorship of Dr. H. Straessley, a promi- 
nent physician of Millville, Clarion county, 
Pennsylvania, from whose office he entered 
Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, 
from which time honored institution of 
learning he graduated in 1S67, and at once 
located at Zeiglersville, where he remained 
ever since, and through a strict adherence to 
the duties of his profession, has built up an 
extensive practice. Dr. Faust is a general 
practitioner of medicine, but his especial 
fondness for the study of the eye has led 
him to specialize in that line. He is a 
member of the Reformed church, and a Re- 
publican in matters political, and on No- 
vember 28, 1868, he married Amanda 
Schwenk, a daughter of Aaron Schwenk, 
of Zeiglersville. Aaron Schwenk in his 
day was rightfully regarded as one of the 
most prominent and enterprising men of 



354 



Biooraphical Sketches. 



Montgomery county. He did more to de- 
velop and build up Zeiglersville than any 
other man. He was prominently identi- 
fied with the Perkiomen Valley railroad 
and the Perkiomen and Sumneytown turn- 
pike, and for a number of years in partner- 
ship with Samuel Hartranft, father of the 
late Governor Hartranft, ran a line of 
stages from Zeiglersville to Norristown. 
He was not only prominent in the indus- 
trial history and development of the county, 
but influential in political circles as well. 
He was a staunch Republican, and in 1868 
was the nominee of his party for sheriff of 
Montgomery county, but his party being in 
the minority, he was defeated. The chil- 
dren born to Dr. Jonathan and Amanda 
(Schwenk) Faust were as follows: Lizzie, 
widow of the late Dr. George Dieterich, of 
Philadelphia ; and John Nelson, at home. 

Dr. Faust rightfully deserves the success 
and prominence which he achieved. He 
makes a close diagnosis of his cases, is well 
read in medicine, keeping fully abreast its 
progress, and manifests that humane sym- 
pathy with suffering humanity that endears 
him to all who have occasion to seek his 
professional ministrations. 



A J. DIMMIG, a prosperous cigar manu- 
• facturer of East Greenville, this 
county, is a son of John and Sophia 
(Roeder) Dinnnig, and was born May 1, 
1847, in Milford township, Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania. Little definite knowledge is 
known of the early ancestry. John Diffi- 
mig, grandfather, lived in Milford town- 
ship, Bucks county, where he was engaged 
in the then popular avocation of farming all 
his life. He was a Democrat and a mem- 
ber of the German Reformed church, a 



faith to which the entire family have held. 
John Dimmig married Susanna Weyand, 
who bore them five children : Charles, Jesse, 
George, John, and Sallie, wife of Jonathan 
Gerhard. The grandfather of our subject 
died in 1S55, at the age of eighty-seven 
years. His wife Susanna survived him 
until 1S65, when she passed away at the re- 
markable age of ninety-four years. 

John (father), was born in Milford town- 
ship, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and re- 
ceived the very modest instruction that the 
rude district schools of his native township 
provided at that day. He chose to be a 
carpenter, which he followed all his life in 
that township and East Greenville. His 
chief pride was in church affiliations, serv- 
ing officially as elder and deacon in the 
New < loshenhoppen Reformed church for 
many years. 

He married Sophia, a daughter of Daniel 
Roeder, and had seven children, four sons 
and three daughters : Evalina Gerhard, 
Daniel, Edwin, dead ; Susanna, dead ; A. 
J., our subject ; Amanda Steltz, dead ; and 
Allen. 

A. J. Dimmig received a good common 
school education in the public schools of 
Bucks county and Fast Greenville, this 
county. After leaving school, he inden- 
tured himself to learn the tinsmith trade, 
which he pursued for ten years. Subse- 
quently he conducted a general mercantile 
business at Sellersville for two years, and 
afterwards three years at East Greenville, 
where also up to 1S85 he engaged in an ex- 
tensive coal and feed business. At the ex- 
piration of this time he established his 
present prosperous cigar manufacturing in- 
dustry, employing thirty hands. He is a 
Democrat, has served in political office in 
the borough of East Greenville ever since 
its organization, as school director, member 



Biographical Sketches. 



355 



of its council and in various other capaci- 
ties. He is at present assessor, and has 
always interested himself in the success of 
his party. He served as deacon for four 
years and trustee for five years in the New 
Goshenhoppen Reformed church, and as 
treasurer of the Sunday-school for twenty 
years. He is a member of the K. of P., 
Greenville Castle No. 232 ; East Greenville 
Camp No. 298, K. G. E. ; and Jr. O. U. A. 
M., at Quakertown. 

He married Marietta, a daughter of Jo- 
seph and Mary Ann (Artman) Cressman, on 
September 23, 1874. 



HON. HERMAN HAMBURGER, a 
man of wide and varied business ex- 
perience and president of the Montgomerv 
Web company of North Wales, is the only 
son and child of Aaron and Henrietta 
(Furst) Hamburger, and was born in the 
city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, De- 
cember 21, 1837. Aaron Hamburger was 
born and reared in Bavaria, Germany, 
where he resided until he became twenty- 
five years of age. He then, in 1835, came 
to Philadelphia and three years later went 
to Carbon county, Pennsylvania, where he 
was a pioneer in the coal business with 
Pardee and Packer. He operated the 
Beaver Meadow mines for many years, and 
then was engaged in supplying five of the 
largest coal companies with dressed beef 
for several years. Aaron Hamburger was 
a Whig in politics, served for fifteen years 
as a justice of the peace and in various 
ways was active in political affairs. He 
was born in 1810, and passed away August, 
1863. In 1836 he married Henrietta Fnrst, 
whose father, Samuel Furst, was a resident 
of Philadelphia, Their union was blessed 



with but one child, Hon. Herman, the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Herman Hamburger was taken in infancy 
by his parents to the coal regions of Carbon 
county, where he grew to manhood. He 
attended the Beaver Meadow public schools 
and Yandervere's preparatory school at Eas- 
ton, Pennsylvania, and then in 1852, en- 
tered Lafayette college, from which well 
known educational institution he was grad- 
uated in 1856, with the degree of A. M. 
After graduation he went to Davenport, 
Iowa, where he remained one year and 
taught a private school. He then returned 
home and after reading law in the office of 
Furman Sheppard, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
was admitted in 1861 to the bar of that city. 
The next year he left practice at the Phila- 
delphia bar to enlist in Company L, 18th 
Pennsylvania cavalry, of which he was 
commissioned first lieutenant. He was 
soon promoted to assistant adjutant general 
of the first brigade, third division of the 
cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. 
He took part in six engagements including 
the two days desperate fighting at Gettys- 
burg, where his brigade commander, Gen- 
eral Farnsworth, fell dead by his side. 
Some time after the battle of Gettysburg, 
he was taken sick and sent to the hospital 
at Georgetown and before he was fully con- 
valescent, received the news of his father's 
death. This necessitated his resignation as 
he was then needed to take immediate 
charge of his father's affairs. Returning 
home to Carbon county, he was elected jus- 
tice of the peace to succeed his father in 
that office, and in October, 1866, before the 
expiration of his term, was elected associate 
judge of Carbon county for a term of five 
years, which expired in 1871. In 1868, in 
connection with A. L. Mumper, George H. 
Meyers and Thomas John, Judge Ham- 



356 



Biographical Sk etc i i es. 



burger became a member of the coal mining 
and shipping company of A. L. Mumper 
ec Co., of Spring Brook, while their col- 
lieries were located at Yorktown, Carbon 
county. In 1S69 they established offices at 
Philadelphia, of which Judge Hamburger 
had charge until the dissolution of the 
company in 1884. In that year he came to 
North Wales, this county, where he or- 
ganized the Montgomery Web company 
and erected their present works. In this 
special line of elastic web manufacturing 
he has been very successful. Since coming 
to North Wales. Judge Hamburger has been 
prominently identified with its various busi- 
ness interests and is now serving as presi- 
dent of its board of health, and as director 
of its board of trade and improvement com- 
pany. He is a Democrat in politics and 
has been active for many years in the coun- 
cils of his party. 

On June 15, 1870, Judge Hamburger was 
united in marriage with Madge Blias, of 
Charlotte, North Carolina. They have 
five children : Jennie, wife of E. B. Coop- 
man ; Aaron, David E., May] in and 
Eleanor. 

Judge Hamburger was the first president 
of the Hebrew Charity Ball association of 
Philadelphia, and served for eleven years 
as president of the Mercantile club of that 
city. He is a member of Merchants Coun- 
cil No. 7' 7, Legion of Honor, Oriental 
Lodge No. 185, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and Tamaqua Lodge, Free and 
Accepted Masons ot Tamaqua. 



SAMUEL HAUCK, one of the foremost 
business men of Harleysville, is an ex- 
ample of the self-made man. He is at 
present at the head of a thriving manufac- 



turing business, which he has successfully 
conducted for many years. He was born at 
Zeiglersville on September 5, 1858, and is a 
son of Joshua W. Hauck and Sophia Weand. 
He conies from good old Pennsylvania Ger- 
man and his wife from German ancestry. 
His paternal grandfather was born in Fred- 
erick township, on November 12, 1787. He 
was a prominent man in his community, 
and was a leading Democrat in the politics 
of the county. He was a staunch member 
of the Reformed church, and was the father 
of eleven children, as follows : Malinda, 
wife of George Adleman ; Peter, married 
Sallie Ereyer ; Charles, married Susanna 
Zimmerman; Hetty, married Isaac Bowman; 
George, married Hannah Koch ; Betsy, 
married Aaron Zern ; Kate, married Philip 
Sell ; Gusta, died at the age of one year and 
eight months ; Hannah, died in infancy ; 
and Daniel, single, died at the age of twenty- 
two years. 

Mr. Hauck's father was born in Frederick 
township on July 7, 1S27, and died February 
20, 1883. He was educated in the public 
schools and then learned the trade of tailor 
at the Swamp. When the Civil war broke 
out in 1S61, he enlisted and served three 
full years with distinction. He was in the 
heat of the fight in numerous battles, 
among them being that of Gettysburg. After 
returning from the war he resumed his 
business as a tailor, first at Zeiglersville and 
later at Perkiomenville. He was a Demo- 
crat in politics, and a member of the Re- 
formed church. He was also a prominent 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. 
Hauck, senior, is the father of eleven chil- 
dren, as follows : William, Hannah, George, 
Samuel, the subject of this sketch ; Sally, 
Joshua, who is dead ; Harry, Francis, Anna, 
Lessa and Emma. 



Bk ^graphical Sketches. 



357 



Mr. Samuel Hauck secured a liberal edu- 
cation in the public schools, graduating at 
the age of seventeen, and learned the tailor- 
ing business under his father at Perkiomen- 
ville. He remained with his father three 
years and then started in business for 
himself at Harleysville in 1886. He 
commenced business in a small way, but, 
backed by a strong perseverance and plenty 
of ambition, he rapidly worked up to the 
head of a very important business, until at 
present his trade amouts to over $25,000 a 
year. He manufactures for the city trade, 
and employs a large force of hands. 

In politics Mr. Hauck follows in the foot- 
steps of his grandfather and father, being a 
staunch Democrat. He is a member of the 
Reformed church, and takes great interest 
in the affairs of the church. He is also a 
prominent member of Lodge No. 558, F. 
and A. M., of Lansdale ; Perkiomenville 
Lodge No. 367, I. O. O. F. ; and the Junior 
Order United American Mechanics, No 18. 

Mr. Hauck married Mary, the daughter of 
Henry and Mary Sehuler, and they have 
had two children : Andora, who died young, 
and Mamie, who was born on June n, 
1883. Mr. Hauck is very happy in his 
family life, and is also highly respected in 
the community as a business man and a 
citizen. 



HON. J. H. LONOEXECKER, the sub- 
ject of this notice, has proved himself 
to be a brave defender of his country amid 
the trying scenes of war; and, in civil 
capacities, a lawyer of recognized merit and 
superior talents, as well as an able and 
popular legislator. Such a career is full of 
interest and worthy of detailed mention. 

Hon. J. H. Longenecker was born near 
Martinsburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, 



September 17, 1839. When he was four 
years of age, his parents, John and Eliza- 
beth ( Holsinger) Longenecker, removed to 
a farm near Woodberry, Bedford county, 
where he lived until he reached the age of 
sixteen. He then entered the Allegheny 
seminary, at Rainsburg, where he pursued 
an academic course. While acquiring his 
education, young Longenecker engaged in 
teaching in the winter for several years, 
during which time he was principal of the 
Woodberry school for two sessions, and 
taught other schools in the neighborhood. 
His apt scholarship attracted the attention 
of his instructors, and during the latter 
part of his course at the seminary he held 
the position of assistant teacher, thereby 
defraying a portion of his expenses and 
those of his sister, who attended the school 
at the same time. Until the breaking out 
of the Civil war, Mr. Longenecker led a 
a pleasant and profitable, though busy life, 
combining the occupations of student and 
teacher. 

In September, 1861, he enlisted as a pri- 
vate in Co. D, 101st regiment, Pennsylvania 
volunteers, and on the 20th of the following 
January he was promoted to sergeant-major 
of the regiment. May 1, 1863, he was com- 
missioned second lieutenant of Co. D. On 
the 26th of the following July he was pro- 
moted to the rank of adjutant of the 101st 
regiment. While the army was lying on 
the Chickahominy, he contracted a fever 
and was sent to the Bellevue hospital, New 
York. A month sufficed for his recovery, 
and he then rejoined the regiment. He- 
served with the regiment until it was cap- 
tured at Plymouth, North Carolina, on 
April 20, 1864. Adjutant Longenecker and 
the other officers of the regiment were then 
removed to the military prison at Macon, 
Georgia, and thence, in July, to Savannah. 



35§ 



Biographical Sketches. 



About a month later they were removed to 
Charleston, South Carolina, where for nearly 
a month they were imprisoned in the jail- 
vard. Next the prisoners were taken to 
"Camp Sorghum," south of the city of Co- 
lumbia, South Carolina. During- the win- 
ter months they were incarcerated in the 
asylum prison at Columbia. Early in Feb- 
ruary, 1865, when Sherman was approach- 
ing the city, they were removed to Char- 
lotte, North Carolina, and on the evening of 
their arrival, Adjutant Longenecker made 
his escape. Two weeks later he was re- 
captured near the mountains of Western 
North Carolina, and carried back to Char- 
lotte, and thence to Salisbury, North Caro- 
lina. March 2, 1865, he received his liberty 
in an exchange of prisoners, which took 
place at Wilmington, North Carolina. On 
March 14 he was discharged from the ser- 
vice by reason of the great numerical re- 
duction of the command. 

In April, 1865, Mr. Longenecker became 
a law student in the office of Hon. S. S. 
Blair, of Hollidaysburg, and in September 
of the same year entered the law depart- 
ment of Albany (New York) University. 
He graduated from this institution May 25, 
1866, receiving the degree of bachelor of 
laws. On May 5, 1866, he was admitted to 
practice in the supreme court of the State 
of New York. The following month he 
entered the office of Hon. S. L. Russell, of 
Bedford, to prepare further for entering 
upon the profession by the study of Penn- 
sylvania statutes and practice. September 3, 

1866, he was admitted to practice in the 
several courts of Bedford county. April 1, 

1867, ^ r - Longenecker was taken into part- 
nership with Hon. S. L. Russell ; thence- 
forth sharing the large practice of the latter, 
he quickly arose to prominence in his pro- 
fession. 



At the annual election of October, 1868, 
he was chosen a member of the Pennsylva- 
nia house of representatives. The follow- 
ing year he was re-elected, and served dur- 
ing a second term. Thenceforth he confined 
his attention almost wholly to the exten- 
sive law business of the firm of Russell & 
Longenecker, until 1882, when, at the earn- 
est request of his party, he accepted the Re- 
publican nomination for the office of State 
senator. The selection of Mr. Longenecker 
for this important position was a high 
tribute to his popularity and political 
standing. Though nominated bv the regu- 
lar or "stalwart" Republicans, and him- 
self supporting the Beaver ticket in the 
memorable campaign of the year 1882, at 
the polls he received nearly the unanimous 
support of the independents, in his own 
county and Fulton, and was elected, though 
leading politicians agree that no other Re- 
publican in the district could have achieved 
this result. During the legislative session 
that succeeded he had positions on several 
important committees, and throughout this 
and the stormy extra session following, his 
conduct was characterized by such prudence 
and sagacity as won for him well-deserved 
prominence in the senate and the hearty ap- 
probation of the Republican party. During 
the regular session, Mr. Longenecker was a 
member of the judiciary general, constitu- 
tional reform, and the congressional and 
legislative apportionment committees, and 
chairman of the committee on banks. He 
also served on the conference committee of 
the two houses, on senatorial and represen- 
tative apportionment. In the extra session 
he was made chairman of the committee on 
senatorial apportionment, and prepared the 
bill supported by the Republican senators. 

Mr. Longenecker has always been a firm 
supporter of the principles of the Republi- 



Biographical Sketches. 



359 



can party. He cast his first vote for Lin- 
coln, in i860, and made his first stump 
speech during the exciting campaign of 
that year. In 1S66 he took an active part 
in the county canvass, and in every impor- 
tant campaign since that time he has made 
public speeches in support of the party 
nominations. In his political and forensic 
career he has sustained the reputation of an 
earnest, able and forcible speaker. 

Mr. Longenecker was married December 
21, 1869, to Miss Rebecca V. Russell, eldest 
daughter of Hon. S. L. Russell, of Bedford, 
and is the father of three children : Samuel 
Russell, Ralph and Charles. 

In 1886 he was presented by the Republi- 
can party of Bedford count}- for the con- 
gressional nomination in the Twentieth 
district, but a protracted conference resulted 
in the nomination of Hon. Edward Scull, 
of Somerset. 

When Governor Beaver came to make up 
his cabinet in January, 1887, he requested 
him to accept the position of deputy secre- 
tary of the Commonwealth, which he did, 
and served in that position until December 
1, 1890, when he became secretary of the 
Commonwealth, and acted as such until 
the expiration of Governor Beaver's term. 
In November, 1891, he was elected presi- 
dent judge of the Sixteenth Judicial dis- 
trict, composed of the counties of Somerset 
and Bedford, and since January, 1892, has 
occupied that position. 



WILLIAM J. CLARK, assistant secre- 
tary of the Globe Tack works of 
Norristown, is a son of William and Jane 
(Cuthbertson) Clark, and was born Decem- 
ber 23, 1861, in Norristown, this county. 
His paternal grandfather, David Clark, was 



a native of County Doron, Ireland, whence 
he came to the United States and located 
in Norristown. He had learned, in his 
native country, the art of cotton weaving, 
and hence had little difficulty in securing 
a position in the line of his trade in this 
country. He took a position of this kind 
in Norristown and soon became a foreman. 
He voted with the Whig party and was a 
member of the Episcopal church. 

He married and became the parent of 
six children : Mary, Sarah, William J., 
Fannie, Enos and Letitia, deceased. 

William J. Clark learned the trade of a 
moulder, which trade he followed until he 
entered the Civil war, when through a 
wound he received he was unable to follow 
the trade. He entered the 106th regiment 
Pennsylvania volunteer infantry as a ser- 
geant, and at the end of his first term 
re-enlisted and was made a lieutenant in a 
colored regiment. He was, as his father 
before him was, a member of the Episcopal 
church. He married Jane Cuthbertson, 
and three children blessed this marriage 
union: William J., Mrs. Spooner, and Har- 
rison B. The father of Mr. Clark died 
January 2, 1869. At the age of twelve 
years, our subject entered the tack factory of 
Captain C. P. Weaver, remaining six years 
under his employ, and then entered the 
employ of a similar company in Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, where he remained nine 
years. At the end of that time, he re- 
turned to Norristown and embarked in 
mercantile pursuits on Cherry street for 
four years, doing a very successful business. 
In 1893 he sold his mercantile interests 
and became one of the organizers of the 
Globe Tack company. The officers of this 
company are : Joseph S. Rambo, president ; 

j W. N. Easton, secretary ; and William J. 

I Clark, assistant secretary. They purchased 



3<5° 



Biographical Sketches. 



the Globe Tack factory, located in Norris- 
town township, near Riverside cemetery, 
on the Pennsylvania railroad. The factory 
is a substantial brick building, 135 feet by 
45 feet, two stories high ; and the plant 
includes three acres of land upon which 
they have opened two stone quarries and 
furnish a good quality of building stone to 
the trade in Norristown and surrounding 
towns. 

Mr. Clark has always voted the Repub- 
lican ticket and has held minor local offices 
in the municipal government of Norris- 
town. He is a member of the following 
social and fraternal organizations : Iron 
City council, No. 171 ; Jr. O. U. A. M.; the 
Republican Invincible club ; and Norris- 
town Choral club. 

On May 21, 1885, he wedded Isabella, a 
daughter of Henry and Martha Brown, 
and three children, Lovinia Belle, Helen 
Brown, and Jennie Cuthbertson, are the 
issue of this union. 



REV. AUGUSTINE H. RUFE, pastor 
pro tern of St. Anthony's Catholic 
church, at Ambler, is a native American 
citizen and one of the best educated and 
most thoroughly equipped clergymen of 
his faith in the arch-diocese of Philadel- 
phia. At present he is not only filling the 
duties of pastor at Ambler, but is also dili- 
gently at work on the project of building 
a new church in the twenty-second ward 
of Philadelphia. Few young men have 
taken such a thorough course in prepara- 
tion for his noble calling- and few have in 
so short a time reached the prominence in 
the divine profession. Father Rufe is of 
German and Irish descent. His father, 
Jacob Rufe, was born in Reutlingen, Ger- 



many, and came to America when a young 
man. He had a good education in the 
schools of his native home and when he 
emigrated he settled in Doylestown, where 
he became connected with the North Penn 
railroad in the construction department, 
which business he followed all his life. 
An American by adoption Mr. Rufe was 
thoroughly patriotic. In 1853 he married 
Ellen McGrath, of Doylestown, and their 
union was blessed by seven children : 
John, James, deceased ; Catherine, wife of 
Charles Schulte; Rev. Augustine; Michael; 
Annie and Ellen, deceased. Mr. Rufe died 
in 1870, aged forty-five years. 

Father Rufe was born at Doylestown on 
the nth of November, i860. Until he 
reached the age of twelve years he resided 
at Doylestown and attended the public 
schools. He then went to Washington, 
I). C. , where he became a pupil in the 
public schools and afterward entered Gem- 
zaga college, an annex to the Georgetown 
university. Here he remained three years 
when he returned to Doylestown. After 
three years spent at home, he entered St. 
Charles Borromeo seminary at Overbrook, 
Philadelphia, as a student for the priest- 
hood. Five years were passed in this 
noted college and after that he spent one 
year in St. Mary's university, at Baltimore. 
At the expiration of that time, September, 
1884, Father Rufe embarked for Belgium, 
where he entered the University of Lou- 
rain. Here he studied four years, and on 
June 29, 1888, was ordained a priest. 
Almost immediately he sailed for home, 
and in Jul}- was appointed assistant priest 
at St. Mary's church, Doylestown, and at 
the same time acted as rector of St. 
Anthony's church, Ambler, this county. 
He was appointed pastor of St. Anthony's 
church in February, 1889, and remained 



Biographical Sketches. 



36i 



until October 6, 1892. He then accepted 
the vice-rectorship of the American college 
and the chair of ecclesiastical history in 
the same institution, at Lourain, Belgium, 
which was certainly a very high honor to 
be conferred on a young man. Crossing 
the broad expanse of the Atlantic once 
more, he entered upon his duties at Lou- 
rain and continued in that position until 
October 1st, 1894, when he returned to 
America and was stationed as assistant 
rector of St. James' church, West Phila- 
delphia. Five months later he was given 
his present appointment and also assigned 
the very laborious task of erecting a new 
church in the Twenty-second ward of 
Philadelphia. 

Father Rufe has been an earnest student 
all his life and he is also a most enterpris- 
ing and enenjetic worker in the church. 
He is a pulpit orator of excellent voice 
and fluency of language, and is deservedly 
popular among all the congregations he 
has served. In politics he is a Republican, 
thoroughly believing in the principles of 
that party and yet voting only for those 
men whom he believes will best serve the 
people. A learned man and thoroughly 
imbued with his work, Father Rufe cer- 
tainly has a very bright future before him 
and will, no doubt, continue to strengthen 
his arm as the work of his church demands. 



THE HILLEGAS FAMILY. There is 
a generally accepted tradition in the 
several branches of the Hillegas family that 
it is of French extraction. But this is 
doubtless owing to the fact that the family, 
prior to removal to the Palatinate of Ger- 
many, were residents of the disputed Franco- 
German province of Alsace. This was 



originally German territory and embraced 
many German, as well as French inhabi- 
tants. A careful inquiry into the subject 
based upon the earliest authentic spelling 
of the name that has as yet been found, 
Hilde-gras, leads to the conclusion that the 
name is of old Gothic German origin and 
of great antiquity. The blazonry of the 
coat of arms as found on an old piece of 
silver now in the possession of Captain H. 
H. Bellas, of Germautown, one of the de- 
scendants of Michael Hillegas, appears to 
sustain this theory, notably from the fact 
that the helmet in the insignia is sur- 
mounted by a German earl's coronet. 

Hilde-gras means a grassy battle-field, 
that is, presumably, a peaceful battle-field. 
It will be observed from the blazonry, that 
a " fesse" or broad band, which rests across 
the middle of the shield has on it three 
musical staves. This is a principal mark 
of the escutcheon and indicates an honor 
conferred for musical ability. Now it is 
asked, " May it not have been conferred 
upon the victor in a musical contest, the 
victor of a peaceful battle-field, far back at 
the time when he who was crowned gave its 
present name to the family?" 

The religious persecution of the Hugue- 
nots and Germans of Alsace and Lorraine 
drove the Hillegas family with others into 
the Palatinate of Germany, whence the 
brothers George Peter, sr., John Frederick 
and Michael, sr. , emigrated to America — 
George Peter, sr., and Michael sr. , prior to 
1724. The former located in the Northern 
Liberties, in the county of Philadelphia, 
where he died in 1745, leaving the follow- 
ing issue : Peter Hillegas, Margaret, wife 
of George Passager ; Catharine, wife of 
Philip Tull ; Elizabeth and Susanna. 

Michael sr., was born im696, and located 
in the city of Philadelphia, where he became 



362 



Biographical Sketches. 



a leading merchant and prominent citizen. 
He owned a large amount of real estate in 
the city, considerable in the adjoining vi- 
cinity, and several acres in Upper Hanover 
township. He died intestate October 30, 
1749, leaving a widow, Margaret; one son, 
Michael (born April 22, 1728-9; died Sep- 
tember 29, 1804 ; married Henrietta Bonde), 
who became celebrated as the first treasurer 
of the United States from 1775 to 1789; 
and two daughters, Susanna, wife of Fred- 
erick Knhl ; and Mary, wife of John Jen- 
nings. 

John Frederick Hillegas, the progenitor 
of the Montgomery comity branch of the 
family, and probably of all who bear the 
name at this writing, was born in Alsace, 
November 24, 1685, and with his wife, 
Elizabeth Barbara, and younger children, 
sailed for America in the ship William and 
Sarah, from Rotterdam, with the company 
led by the Rev. George Michael Weiss, a 
Reformed minister. They arrived at Phila- 
delphia September 18, and took the oath 
of allegiance September 21, 1727. Soon 
thereafter, they settled in the region known 
as "Goshenhoppen," now Montgomery 
county. Here John Frederick Hillegas, 
prior to 1734, took up a tract of one hun- 
dred and fifty acres of land and by right of 
purchase, within the years closely follow- 
ing, became the possessor of a large landed 
estate. Among these early purchases was 
a tract of one hundred and sixty-five acres, 
containing thereon a grist-mill, from George 
Gowen, February 6, 1738, and which is 
still in the possession of one of his descen- 
dants ; and a tract of three hundred and 
sixty-three acres, bought of William Par- 
sons, 1749. He died, leaving a valuble es- 
tate to his children, January 6, 1765. His 
wife, Elizabeth Barbara, died March 4, 
1759. Their remains repose in the new 



Goshenhoppen Reformed burial ground, 
nearly opposite the front of the present 
church building. The following is a fac 
simile of the inscriptions on their tomb- 
stones, now nearly obliterated and in- 
terpreted only after the most diligent ef- 
forts : 

HIER HiER LIEGT 

LIEGEN BEGRABEN BEGRABEN FRIKD 

1759 RICH HILLEGAS 

G ESTO R B E N D N A I.T E R WAR — 

4 MER ELISA BA UND 1ST GEBOHKKX 

RBARA HILLIGESEN DEN 24 NOFMR 1685 

UND WORDEN DER GESTORREX DEN 

AUFERSTF.tNG 6 JANWARY 1 765 
IRES KR LOSERS 
IKSL CHRISTI 

They were good church people. 

The following is the genealogical record 
(if this branch of the Hillegas family, as 
nearly complete as obtainable at present, 
but entirely reliable as far as it goes. 

John Frederick Hillegas, b. 16S5, Nov. 24 ; d. 

1765, Jan. 6 ; in. about 1713. 
Elizabeth Barbara, b. ; d. 1759, March 4. 

1. Leopold, b. about 1714; d. . Came to Amer- 

ica 1730, September 5. Said to have served three 
years in the war for Independence ; took part in 
the battle of Brandyvvine ; settled in F'sophus, 
Duchess county, New York. 

2. John Adam, b. 1717, Jan. 5; d 1779, March 13. 

Came to this couutry 1732, Aug. 11; in. Anna 
Catharine Bitting, b. 1728 ; d. 1810. They had 
issue: Michael, John, b. 1743, June 6 ; d. 1801, 
March 4; tn. 1767, March 5 ; Anna Maria Hille- 
gas, b. 1746, Oct. 25; d. 1795, March 28; George; 
Adam ; Frederick ; Peter, bapt. 1759, Nov. 28 ; 
one of the seven months men, Col. Daniel Heister, 
jr., battalion of Phila. county militia. He was 
killed by a falling tree in the presence of two of 
his sons ; Jacob, b. April 26, 1772 ; Eva, b. 1745, 
July 16; d. 1S21, Nov. 23; m. George Harlacker, 
b. 1738, Dec. 6; d. 1S13, Nov. 22 ; Catharine, m. 
fohu Greisemer, a member of the Committee of 
Safety of Northampton county ; Ann Margaret, 
bapt. 1758, May 15; in. Carl Schellenberger ; 
Elizabeth ; Ann Mary, b. 1775, Aug. 18 ; Anna 



Biographical Sketches. 



363 



Christina, bapt. 1760, 1>ut who died before the ex- 
ecution of her father's will, as she is not men- 
tioned in this document; and a daughter who died 
1777, May 6; aged nine days. 

3. Frederick, b. about 1720, and thought to have ac- 

companied his brother Leopold to Esophus, 
Duchess county, New York. 

4. Eva Elizabeth, b. about 1723 ; tn. Yeager(?). 

5. Ann Margaret, b. 1726, Aug. 15 : d. 1773, Jan. 6 ; 

tn. about 174S, Matthias Richards, b. 17 19, Jan. 
9 ; d. 1775, March 28. He was one of the execu- 
tors of his father-in-law's will 

6. Ann Regina, b. about 1729. 

7. Elizabeth Barbara, b. 1732, April 16 ; d. 1S17, 

Aug. 15; m. John Erey, b. 1731, Oct. 10; d. 
1820, Dec. 10. 

8. George Peter, b. 1735, Feb. 2 ; d. 1S10, Sept. 24 ; 

111. about 1750, Anna Barbara Hornecker, b. 1737; 
(1. 1S12, March 14. They had issue: Eve, in. 
Abraham Levy; John Peter, b. 1756; m. 1779, 
March 16, Ann Maria Maurer (d. of Andrew) ; 
Jacob, Frederick, bapt. 1759, April 26 ; Catharine, 
bapt. 1760, Jan. 29 ; m. John Maurer ; Elizabeth 
Barbara, b. 1763, Oct. 17; d. 1S42 ; m. John 
Schell (of Johns, of Michael 1 ), who emigrated to 
Bedford county, Pa., in 1800, and located and 
laid out Schellsburg, donating land for church 
and school purposes ; Maria, m. George Hillegas; 
Magdalina, m. George Ewault. George Peter 
was one of the executors of his father's will. He 
left a valuable estate to his children. 

9. Conrad, b. 1738, Nov. 2; d. 1824. December 24; 

m. Margaretta Schellenberger, b. 1742, July 2 ; 
d. 1820, Nov. 5. They had issue : Frederick, 
Elizabeth, d. before 1822; m. Adam Schneider ; 
Eve, m. Peter Yost ; Barbara, m. Daniel Yost, 
Esq. ; Margaret, b. 1769, Aug. 3 ; d. 1837, Feb. 
25; m. 1790, Aug. 10, Michael Dotterer, b. 1766, 
Jan. 30 ; d. 1824, Nov. 28 ; Susanna, m. Adam 
Yost; Anna Mary, tn. Jacob Ache. Conrad left 
the farm and improvements bequeathed him by 
his father, to his son Frederick, upon the con- 
dition that he pay ^,"1000, Pa. money, to be di- 
vided equally among the other six children. 



THOMAS H. SEAL, a general merchant 
and the present postmaster of Jarret- 
town, is a son of William and Jane (Hall) 
Seal, and was born in Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania, December 9, 1857. William Seal 



was tlu- fourth of nine children born to 
James and Snsan (Gawthorp) Seal, who 
were members of the Society of Friends, 
and resided on their farm in Chester county. 
William Seal was of English descent, and 
after receiving a good English education, 
was employed in teaching until he was 
twenty-two years of age. He then removed 
to Philadelphia; and after spending thirteen 
years there as a general merchant, he went 
to West Chester, in Chester county, where 
he was engaged in the machinery business 
for two years. At the end of that time, in 
1870, he returned to Philadelphia, where he 
has been engaged in the flour and feed 
business ever since. He is a Republican 
and Friend, and in 1857, wedded Jane Hall, 
who is a daughter of Mahlon Hall, of Rucks 
county. Mr. and Mrs. Seal have two chil- 
dren, a son and a daughter : Thomas H. and 
Sarah, wife of Henry F. Carpenter. 

Thomas H. Seal was reared in his native 
city, received his education in the public 
schools, and commenced life for himself by 
obtaining a position with the Biddle Hard- 
ware company, with whom he remained for 
three years. He then assisted his father for 
several years, and, in 1887, came to Jarret- 
town, as a favorable place tor the general 
mercantile business. He immediately 
opened a general mercantile establishment, 
which he has conducted successfully ever 
since. Mr. Seal studies closely the wants of 
his numerous patrons and endeavors to ac- 
commodate them. He carries full lines of 
dry goods, hardware, groceries, provisions, 
notions, and evervthiug- to be usually found 
in any first-class mercantile establishment 
outside of a city. 

On March 15, 1887, Mr. Seal married 
Fannie Wilson, a daughter of Joseph F. 
Wilson, of Philadelphia. In politics Thomas 
H. Seal is a Republican, and served as a 



3 6 4 



Biographical Sketches. 



member of the school board of Upper 
Dublin township for a term of one year. 
Although a Republican, he was appointed 
postmaster at Jarrettown by President Cleve- 
land in 1887, and re-appointed by President 
Harrison, and again by President Cleveland. 
Mr. Seal is a member of Abingtou Meeting 
Society of Friends ; Clover Castle No. 386, 
Knights of the Golden Eagle, of Pennsyl- 
vania ; and Delphi No. 5, Order of Sparta, 
of Philadelphia. 



LOUIS KITTSON, the owner and mana- 
ger of the celebrated Erdenheim stock 
farm, is a son of Hon. Norman W. and 
Elsie (Marion) Kittson, and was born in the 
city of St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2, 1855. 
Hon. Norman W. Kittson was born May 
14, 1814, at Sorel, Province of Quebec, Do- 
minion of Canada. At an early age he be- 
came interested in the American Fur com- 
pany, whose founder and active head was 
John Jacob Astor, whose operations were 
on a scale altogether beyond anything ever 
before attempted by individual enterprise, 
and abounded in such wild romance as to 
enlist the pen of Irving in a pleasing nar- 
rative, constituting two volumes. The com- 
pany operated in the northwestern part of 
the United States, with headquarters at 
Chicago, and Mr. Kittson was actively en- 
gaged in the management until 1863, when 
he withdrew and became connected with 
the Hudson Bay Fur company, the oldest 
fur company in the world, and whose char- 
ter dates back to 1670. He continued with 
the last named company for twenty years, 
and acted as their general agent at St. Paul, 
Minnesota, from 1864 to 1874. In the last 
named year he became one of the founders 
of the Manitoba, now Great Northern rail- 



way, and shortly afterwards was one of a 
syndicate of five members who purchased 
the entire railway and operated it until 1878, 
when they sold nearly all of its bonds. 
Shortly after this he engaged in raising fast 
trotting horses, and in 1882 he purchased 
the Welsh property in Whitemarsh town- 
ship, known as Erdenheim. Here he em- 
barked in the raising and training of thor- 
ough-bred running horses, and was very 
successful until his death. Erdenheim is 
the home of " Iroquois," the only American 
horse that ever won the English Derby, 
and " Flora Temple " and " Leamington," 
who were famous in their day, and lie 
buried in one part of the lawn. Other 
horses of national reputation have been 
raised there, and still keep up the name of 
the great stock. Norman W. Kittson was 
active and influential in enterprises of vast 
scope and affecting the material progress 
and wealth of both the United States and 
Canada. He served one term as a member 
of the legislature of Minnesota, and passed 
away at the end of a long and useful life, 
on May 10, 1888, aged seventy-four years. 
Mr. Kittson married Elsie Marion, who was 
a native of Winnipeg, Canada. Mr. and 
Mrs. Kittson reared a family of eight chil- 
dren, six sons and two daughters. 

Louis Kittson, at four years of age, was 
taken from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Winni- 
peg, where he received his education in the 
French Jesuit college of St. Boniface. At 
seventeen years of age he entered the ser- 
vice of the Hudson Bay Fur company as a 
clerk, and remained with them for eleven 
years, and during that period he received 
several promotions. He traveled among 
the Indians of the northwestern States and 
territories, received his mail but twice a 
year, and one winter walked eleven hundred 
miles on snow shoes. He was exposed to 





U**Xs&*-i^_^ 



Biographical Sketches. 



365 



much danger and hardship, never saw a 
white man for six years, and in 1883 left 
the service of the company to assist his 
father in the management of the Erdenheim 
stock farm, referred to previously in this 
sketch. After the death of his father, in 
1888, he and his brother James E., operated 
the farm until 1893, when he purchased his 
brother's interest, and since then has con- 
tinued in the raising of thorough-bred horses 
for trotting and running. The Erdenheim 
stock farm cannot be surpassed for situa- 
tion or excelled for splendid and beautiful 
horses in the United States, while it is 
known from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
ocean, and horses from its stables have suc- 
cessfully competed with the swiftest steeds 
of Europe and Arabia. Louis Kittson is 
doing much to improve the fine blooded 
horses of the United States, and his efforts, 
while now receiving recognition, yet will be 
most fully appreciated in the future, when 
their benefits will be more fully perceived. 
He is a Democrat in political opinion, but 
no extremist or politician, for his life-work 
lies in the business world, and there all his 
energies and efforts are directed. 

In 1889 Mr. Kittson wedded Caroline D. 
Gordon, a daughter of Robert Gordon, of 
Springfield. To their union have been 
born two children : Louis G., who died in 
infancy ; and Frederick Stevens, now in the 
fifth year of his age, being born March 3, 
1890. 



NATHAN RAMBO, who for many years 
was a prominent limestone operator at 
Swedesburg, this county, is a son of Nathan 
and Ann (Brodes) Rambo, and was born in 
the year 1847, in Upper Merion, Montgom- 
ery county, Pennsylvania. The Rambos 
are of Swedish extraction, but have been 



settled in Pennsylvania since colonial times. 
Jonas Rambo, paternal grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch, was a life-long resi- 
dent of Upper Merion township, where he 
owned large tracts of land. He was a 
farmer and stockman by occupation, an 
old line Whig in politics, and by his mar- 
riage the father of a family of several chil- 
dren. His remains rest in the cemetery 
connected with the old Swedes' Episcopa- 
lian church at Swedesburg, of which he- 
was a member. One of his sons was 
Nathan Rambo (father), who was born and 
reared at Swedesburg, where after attaining 
manhood he engaged in the limestone busi- 
ness and accumulated considerable wealth. 
He owned extensive limestone quarries, 
which he operated for many years, besides 
engaging in various other lines of industry, 
chief of which was the hotel business. For 
a number of years he was proprietor of a 
hostlery known as the Rambo house, and 
became quite prominent in the community. 
In religion he was an Episcopalian, and 
served for many years as vestryman of his 
church at Swedesburg. Politically he was 
a Whig until 1856, when he became a 
Republican. He was also a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He 
married Ann Brodes, and they had a family 
of seven children : Eliza, deceased ; Mary 
Jane, also dead ; Rebecca, widow of J. P. 
H. Jones ; Emma P., wife of T. P. Merritt ; 
William B., engaged in the lime business 
at Swedesburg ; Nathan, the subject of this 
sketch ; and Thomas J., a sketch of whom 
appears elsewhere in this volume. The 
father died in 1858, aged forty-seven years, 
and the mother passed away in 1889, aged 
eighty-two. 

Nathan Rambo was reared in his native 
village of Swedesburg, and obtained his 
elementary education in the public schools. 



3 66 



Biographical Sketches. 



He afterwards took a course of training in 
a military academy at West Chester, Penn- 
sylvania, and then embarked in the lime- 
stone business. He owned and operated 
large quarries in Swedesburg, and success- 
fully conducted the enterprise until 1890, 
when he sold out to Robert McCoy and 
retired from business. Since that time he 
has been living quietly in his beautiful 
home at Bridgeport, surrounded by all the 
well-earned comforts and luxuries which 
go to make up an enjoyable life. 

In both religion and politics Mr. Rambo 
adheres to the traditions of his family and 
is an ardent Republican and an active 
member of the Swedes' Episcopal church 
at Swedesburg. In 1873 he married Clara 
V. Walker. To Mr. and Mrs. Rambo were 
born two children : Harry and Merritt, who 
died in infancy. 



LOUIS W. READ, M. D., surgeon gen- 
eral of Pennsylvania, and president of 
the association of military surgeons of the 
United States, has rendered conspicuous 
and valuable service in two of the world's 
great wars, and stands at the head of his 
profession in this country. He is the eldest 
son of Thomas and Sarah (Corson) Read, 
and was born at Plymouth, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1828. His 
parents were natives of Delaware county, as 
were his grandparents, William and Susan 
Read, and his mother was a daughter of Jo- 
seph Corson, and a sister to Drs. Hiram and 
William Corson. His brothers and sisters, 
five in number, are: Joseph C, Dr. Alan 
W., Sarah, widow of Charles Jones ; Han- 
nah, and Mary, widow of John Roberts. 

Louis W. Read spent his boyhood days 
at Road's mill, in Upper Merion township, 



and received his education in the early 
common schools and Treemount academy, 
when it was under the charge of the cele- 
brated Rev. Samuel Aaron. Leaving 
school, he read medicine with his maternal 
uncle, Dr. William Corson, and then en- 
tered the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, from which he was 
graduated in the class of 1849. After 
graduation he devoted himself assiduously 
to obtaining the widest knowledge possible 
of his important profession, and while thus 
commendably engaged, came the Crimean 
war cloud in southern continental Europe, 
which opened before him an extended and 
highly valuable field for scientific observa- 
tion and practical work. He offered his 
services to the Russian government, and 
being accepted, he served as a surgeon 
throughout the Crimean war, and was at 
Sebastapol during its long and terrible 
siege by the allied forces. During this ser- 
vice under the Czar, he effected important 
improvements in the manner of treating 
gun-shot wounds, which were afterwards 
generally adopted, both in Europe and the 
United States. Leaving Russia at the close 
of the war, he spent six months in the hos- 
pitals of Paris, where he had a new and 
valuable field for the stud}- of serious 
wounds and complicated diseases. Return- 
ing home in the autumn of 1857, he came 
to Norristown, where he has been success- 
fully engaged ever since in the practice of 
medicine and surgery. While ranking 
with the foremost of his profession as a 
general practitioner, yet as a surgeon he has 
won highest position and widest fame. 

When the late Civil war commenced, Dr. 
Read was enjoying a fine practice, but 
patriotism with him was superior to home 
comforts and personal gain, and he ten- 
dered his services to the government in the 




% ^^ 






(2j-lhju\) <ffuAAKT— 



Biographical Sketches. 



367 



hour of peril. In May, 1S61, lie was ap- 
pointed surgeon of the First Pennsylvania 
reserves, and in June was promoted to sur- 
geon of United States volunteers, with the 
rank of major, and assigned to the Thir- 
teenth Pennsylvania infantry. He resigned 
this position in 1863, to accept the medical 
directorship of the Pennsylvania reserve 
corps, and in November, 1864, was placed 
in charge of McKim United States hos- 
pital at Baltimore, and remained there until 
March, 1866, when the hospital was closed 
and he was mustered out of the Federal ser- 
vice with the rank of brevet lieutenant 
colonel of the United States volunteers, 
which had been bestowed on January 12, 
[866, for meritorious service. Returning 
home, he resumed his practice, and for 
nearly twenty years has been constantly in 
attendance upon the sick and caring for 
those needing surgical aid. 

On June 3, 185S, Dr. Read was united in 
marriage with Georgine Hurst, a daughter 
of Alfred Hurst, who died August 5, 1885, 
leaving two children : NinaB. and Alfred H. 

Dr. Read is a Republican in politics, and 
while interested in public affairs, yet has 
made the duties of his profession paramount 
to all other claims upon his time and atten- 
tion. His successful removal in December, 
1863, of the ball which General Hancock 
received at Gettysburg, July 3, 1S63, when 
all other physicians failed, stamped his 
skill as a surgeon, and was the means of 
preserving a life of inestimable value to the 
Army of the Potomac and the American 
Union. He was an intimate friend of Gen- 
eral Hancock, and his recent offer to repair, 
at his own expense, the tomb of that great 
military chieftain, has been matter of favor- 
able comment in all parts of the countrv. 
He was appointed surgeon-general of Penn- 
sylvania by Governor Hartranft, with the 



rank of brigadier-general, May 15, 1874, 
and re-appointed by Governors Hoyt, Patti- 
son and Beaver, and again by Governor 
Pattison in 1891, holding the position at 
this time, under appointment of Governor 
Hastings. Dr. Read is a prominent mem- 
ber of the Loyal Legion, the Historical So- 
ciety of Pennsylvania, the Union League, 
and the Association of the Sons of the 
Revolution. He was a member of the com- 
mission to select a site for the Xorristown 
hospital for the insane, and took an ac- 
tive part in the choice of plans, the con- 
struction of the building and other duties. 

In May, 1895, Dr. Read was elected presi- 
dent of the Military Surgeons, and the 
Herald says of the election : " Surgeon 
( 'reneral Louis W. Read has just been highly 
honored in his election to the position of 
president of the association of Military 
Surgeons, in session the past three days at 
Buffalo. The present session is the fifth 
annual meeting of the organization, which 
includes surgeons of the United States 
army, the navy, the marine corps, and the 
National Guard of various States. The 
honor was entirely unexpected and un- 
solicited, and is all the more acceptable, 
since it was conferred in the absence of the 
recipient." 

Dr. Read is a man of kindness and sym- 
pathy, of proverbial humanity as a physi- 
cian, and of the highest standing in every 
walk of life. He is universally esteemed 
and has sought and successfully obtained 
the highest qualifications in his profession. 



ASHLEY PECHIN HUNTER, a prom- 
inent manufacturer of Norristown, is 
a son of Perry M. and Rebecca A. (Pechin) 
Hunter, and was born February 12, 185 1, 



3 68 



Biographical Sketches. 



at>Bird-in-Hand, now known as Gulf Mills, 
in Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Hunter re- 
ceived his educational training in the pub- 
lic schools of Bridgeport, this county, 
where his father resided from 1855 to 1865. 
Upon the latter date, his father removed to 
Norristown, and Ashley P. profited by at- 
tending the common schools of that place 
and Treemount seminary, an institution of 
high educational standard under the direc- 
tion of Prof. John W. Loch. In the latter in- 
stitution he prepared for entrance to college, 
but instead of pursuing a college course, 
took a clerkship in the mill of his father, 
situated on Barbadoes street, in Norristown, 
and remained there in various capacities 
until the death of his father. In the latter 
part of 1889 he organized the Norristown 
Woolen company, which was incorporated 
January 3, 1890, with the following officers : 
George F. Coleman, president, and Ashley 
P. Hunter, secretary, treasurer and mana- 
ger. In addition to the above, he is a di- 
rector in the Norristown Title, Trust and 
Safe Deposit company, the Norristown 
Land and Improvement company, a charter 
member and a director in the R. S. New- 
bold & Sons Manufacturing company, a 
company largely engaged in the manufac- 
ture of boilers, and was at one time a di- 
rector of the Norristown Gas company. 

Politically Mr. Hunter must be classed as 
an independent Republican, but has never 
had the time nor the inclination to enter 
the arena of politics. He is an attendant 
of St. John's Episcopal church. 

On October 20, 18S6, Mr. Hunter and 
Mary Frances Peirce, a daughter of Dr. 
Thomas A. Peirce, of Winona, Minnesota, 
were united in marriage and three children, 
Morgan Pechin, Thomas Peirce and Perry 
Ashbridge, bless their marriage union. 



Ashley Pechin Hunter not only possesses 
those qualities of head that are so necessary 
to a successful business career but combines 
with these mental qualifications, qualities 
of the heart that make him universally 
loved and respected. He is one of those 
employing labor, who believes in giving 
his employes the greatest benefits possible, 
consistent with a wholesome prosperity of 
the employer. By those under his employ 
he is respected, because of his genial dis- 
position, his sympathetic nature and his ex- 
treme humanity ; and he eminently de- 
serves the high esteem in which he is held 
by all who have business or social relations 
with him. 

John Hunter, the elder, came to America 
in the year 1722. All the various accounts 
regarding his ancestors agree that he was 
of a good family from the north of England, 
whose ancestral seat is still in existence and 
is called "Medomsley Hall," at Medomsley, 
Gateshead, Durham, England, and was a 
few years ago occupied by a descendant of 
the family name. At the old Episcopal 
church at Durham, where they are buried, 
are the graves of General Anthony Hunter, 
Sir John and Sir Thomas Hunter, and 
many other family names of prominence, 
the records extending back to the year 
1605. Among the most interesting records 
of the earliest Durham knights recorded at 
Medomsley, extending back to 1183, was 
one concerning William the Hunter, who 
married a lady of respectable family of 
Darruinnas, of Whittenstall. There can 
be little doubt that this local Nimrod origi- 
nated the numerous Hunter families of 
Medomsley, whose ancestors appear in the 
earliest court rolls of the Manor, and whose 
relationship to each other is now difficult 
or impossible to define. 

John Hunter was a strong churchman, 



Biographical Sketches. 



3 6 9 



and made himself very obnoxious to the 
Catholics. On the accession to the throne 
of England of James II, a son of Charles I, 
fearing retaliation from the Catholics, he 
removed to Ireland, and settled at Rath- 
drum, Wicklow county. A short time 
thereafter, when William and Mary were 
called to the throne of England, and Wil- 
liam followed the fugitive forces of James 
into Ireland, John Hunter entered the Protes- 
tant army as a trooper, accompanied by his 
friend, Anthony Wayne, and with him, par- 
ticipated as a captain of a Troop of Horse, 
in the battle of Boyne, July i, 1690, old 
style, at the defeat of James' army. In this 
battle he was wounded in the left hip by a 
musket ball, which caused a little lameness 
during the remainder of his life. He be- 
came an extensive grazer in Ireland, and 
in 1693 married Margaret Albin. His wed- 
ding ring with the following inscription, 
" Keep this in remembrance of me, 1693," 
and the holster and pistols which he used 
at the battle of Boyne, are still in the pos- 
session of his descendants. 

William Hill, who married Mary, the 
eldest daughter of John Hunter, in Ireland, 
came with his wife to Pennsylvania, and 
settled in Middleton township, Chester 
county (now Delaware county), Pa. John 
Hunter, with his family, followed his son- 
in-law to America in the year 1722. He 
bought a large part of the Daniel William- 
son one thousand acre tract in Newtown 
township, Chester county (now Delaware 
county), Pa., about twelve miles west of 
Philadelphia, taking title March 16, 1723, 
whereon he settled and passed the remain- 
der of his life. John Hunter died in 1734, 
aged seventy years, and is interred in the 
church-yard connected with St. David's 
Episcopal church, Radnor, Delaware coun- 
ty, Pa., of which he was a member. He 

24 



was chosen a member of the first vestry of 
St. David's church, elected April 1. 1725. 
His oldest son John was elected a vestry- 
man October 6, 1747, and James Hunter, 
voungest son of John, the elder, was elected 
a vestryman of the same church in 1773. 
John Hunter brought with him to America 
several families of "Redemptionists." The 
"Redemptionists" were bound to him until 
they had earned their freedom by certain 
years of personal labor in his service. The 
children of John and Margaret Hunter 
were : John, William, Mary, Margaret, 
George, Peter, Martha, Ann, Elizabeth and 
James. John, the eldest son of John Hun- 
ter, settled near Steamboat, in Chester 
Valley, Chester county, Pa. William, the 
second son of John Hunter, settled in New- 
town, Delaware county, Pa., on part of the 
tract of land bought of the Williamson 
estate. This tract of land was divided be- 
tween him and his brother James. Wil- 
liam married Hannah, daughter of Edward 
Woodward, in 1775. William had two 
sons, William and Edward. William, the 
eldest son, settled in Eastown township, 
Chester county, Pa. Edward, the second 
son of William, the elder, resided in New- 
town, Delaware county, Pa., on the tract of 
land that belonged to his father. He was 
well known as 'Squire Hunter. He was 
appointed by the governor of the State, and 
held the office of justice of the peace for 
about forty years. 'Squire Edward Hunter 
married Hannah, daughter of Jesse and 
Rebecca Maris, of Springfield township. 
The children of 'Squire Edward and Han- 
nah Hunter were : William, Rebecca, Alice, 
Hannah, Margaret, Elizabeth and Edward. 
Rebecca, the daughter of 'Squire Hunter, 
married Peter Pechin, of Philadelphia, Pa., 
February 26, 1795. James, the youngest 
son of John, the elder, resided in Newtown, 



Biographical Sketches. 



Chester county, in the. old family mansion 
on part of the Williamson estate, originally 
purchased and divided. During the war 
between England and France, in which the 
colonies joined, James Hunter participated 
as captain of the Associators of Chester 
county, 1747-1748, (Pennsylvania Archives, 
Vol. 2, page 506). In colonial records, Vol. 
9, page 205, it is recorded that James Hun- 
ter was a justice of the peace and of the ses- 
sions. He married Hannah Morgan, daugh- 
ter of John Morgan, of Radnor, Chester 
countv (now Delaware county), Pa. James 
Hunter died in March, 17S3, and his wife, 
Hannah Hunter, in November, 1803, and 
both are interred in the gravevard of St 
David's Episcopal church, Radnor, Dela- 
ware county, Pa. The children of James 
and Hannah Hunter were: James, John, 
Peter, George, Sarah, Mary and Ann. 

James, the elder, by his will, divided his 
three hundred and fifty acre tract of land 
between his sons, John and George, giving 
two hundred and fifty acres to John, and 
one hundred acres with the homestead to 
his youngest son George. James, the eldest 
son, lived in Radnor, Delaware county, on 
the estate inherited from the Morgans. 
His mother, in her will, gave him the prop- 
erty. Peter, the third son, died in early 
manhood. The youngest daughter, Ann, 
also died early in life. Both being interred 
in the churh-yard of St. David's Episcopal 
church. Sarah, the eldest daughter, married 
Evan Lewis, of Newtown township; Mary, 
the second daughter, married Hugh Jones 
George, the youngest son of James Hunter, 
the elder, was in Wilmington, Delaware, 
learning the miller's trade when his father 
died. At his mother's request he discon- 
tinued this, and took charge of the home- 
stead property willed to him by his father. 
In the summer of 1797 he married Elizabeth 



Pearson, daughter of Joseph Pearson, of 
Ridley, Delaware county. 

James Hunter, the father of George, was 
the owner of slaves, and George was raised 
by a slave, and had slaves to wait upon him 
from his infancy to manhood. Both George 
Hunter, and Joseph Pearson, the father of 
Elizabeth Pearson, owned slaves until they 
were made free by the legislature of the 
State in 1828. George Hunter's body- 
servant remained with him until his death. 
George Hunter followed the occupation of 
a farmer on the homestead property during 
the remainder of his life, dying October 19, 
1834, aged seventy-one years. His wife, 
Elizabeth Hunter, did not long survive her 
husband but died in the following year, 
July 26, 1835, aged sixty-nine years. They 
are both buried at Newtown Friends' 
Meeting. The children of George and 
Elizabeth Hunter were George Morgan, 
Martha Emily, Albert Gallatin. Joseph 
Pearson, Charles Franklin, Stephen Deca- 
tur, Jonas Preston and Perry Macdonough. 

Perry M. Hunter was born on October 
10, 1814, and when young went as an ap- 
prentice to Azariah Williamson, who con- 
ducted a general mercantile business at 
Goshen, in Chester county. In 1837 he re- 
moved to Gulf Mills, in Upper Merion 
township, this county, and with his brother 
Stephen, founded a general mercantile 
business at that place ; the post-office was 
likewise located in the store building, and 
he also engaged in the manufacture of 
woolen goods. This business alliance con- 
tinued two years when it was concluded by 
Mr. Hunter's purchasing his brother's in- 
terest. On April 1, 1843, Perry M. Hunter 
purchased from Alexander Brook the Bird- 
in-Hand hotel property, converting the lat- 
ter into a residence which he occupied from 
the time of his marriage until the autumn 



Biographical Sketches. 



37' 



of 1855. He first engaged in the manu- 
facture of woolen goods at Gulf Mills, form- 
ing a partnership for that purpose with 
Samuel DeHaven, under the firm name of 
Hunter & DeHaven. They leased a mill 
property on Gulf Creek, just below Bird-in 
Hand store. This property being destroyed 
by fire in the winter of 1S58-1859, they pur- 
chased of David McConkey, of West Ches- 
ter, on March 31, 1859, the woolen mill 
property in Norristown, now known a-; 
" Watts Mill," where they continued the 
manufacture of woolen goods until Novem- 
ber 5, 1864, when they sold the plant to 
John B. Bishop. They then, on March 4, 
1865, purchased of George Guest, a mill 
property on Main street below Arch street, 
Norristown, erected new buildings and 
changed those already thereon to a woolen 
mill and resumed the manufacture of wool- 
en goods together until February, 1866, 
when Mr. DeHaven disposed of his interest 
to Robert Kershaw, and the business was 
continued under the caption of P. M. Hun- 
ter & Company. On March 11, 1868, Mr. 
Hunter purchased a mill property situated 
on the corner of Barbadoes and Airy streets, 
in Norristown, and operated it as a woolen 
mill in connection with his other woolen 
industry until his death, November 12, 
1868, in Norristown. He took a prominent 
part in the political and financial affairs of 
the county. He was a staunch Democrat 
and was always interested in the success of 
his party and the welfare of the people at 
large. He was elected treasurer of Mont- 
gomery county in the autumn of 1853 and 
again in the autumn of 1854, serving with 
efficiency in this responsible position. He 
was one of the organizers and for several 
years was a director of the Bank of Potts- 
town, as well as a director of the Bank of 
Montgomery county (now Montgomery Na- 



tional bank of Norristown). Religiously 
he was a strict Episcopalian, being an at- 
tendant of St. John's Episcopal church of 
Norristown from his marriage until his 
death, latterly holding the position of ves- 
tryman and treasurer of the church organi- 
zation. At the time of his death he was 
president of the borough council of Norris- 
town and president of the Manufacturers 
Mutual Fire Insurance company of Phila- 
delphia. 

Rebecca A. Hunter, wife of Perry M. 
Hunter, was a woman of uncommon force 
of character. Kind in heart, benevolent in 
disposition, she was exceptionally faithful 
and conscientious in the performance of all 
the duties of her life. Early in life she be- 
came a member of St. John's Episcopal 
church at Norristown, and ever took an 
active interest in religious affairs. Es- 
pecially did she interest herself in the be- 
nevolent and charitable work of the church, 
giving freely of her time, her substance and 
her strength, wherever and whenever she 
thought her ministrations might lighten 
the burden and cheer the hearts of the 
worthy poor. For several years prior to 
her death, she was on the committee of dis- 
tributing members of the Bringhurst fund 
for the relief of the deserving poor of Nor- 
ristown, having been appointed by the trus- 
tees of that fund. She died in Norristown, 
December 22, 1891, at the age of sixty-five 
years, and a short time afterwards, her 
three sons, in honor of her merits and worth 
as a woman, a Christian and a mother, 
placed in St. John's Episcopal church, a 
beautiful stained glass memorial window. 
The children born to the marriage of Perry 
M. and Rebecca A. (Pechin) Hunter were: 
Silanus Pearson, Ashley Pechin and Perry 
Franklin. 

Perry M. Hunter and his wife, Rebecca 



Biographical Sketches. 



A. Hunter, are both interred in the family 
lot in Montgomery cemetery, Norristown, 
Pennsylvania. 

The Peehin family is of French origin, 
and the first one of the family to come to 
America of whose history we have any defi- 
nite knowledge, was Christopher Peehin. 
He was born in 1737, and in 1750 was 
brought to this county by his parents, his 
mother dying on the voyage. He was one 
of a family of five children, two girls and 
three boys. Christopher Peehin became a 
prominent shipping merchant and business 
man of Philadelphia. He was a member of 
the firm of Peehin & Bright, who owned a 
line of vessels and were largely engaged in 
importing wines from France. In addition 
to this the firm carried on a marine insur- 
ance and commission business. After his 
marriage he lived in a large mansion on 
Front street, in Philadelphia. He was a 
man of means, and his home was tastefulh 
and elegantly furnished, but during the 
Revolutionary war it was invaded by the 
English soldiers who destroyed much of its 
costly furnishings. During the Revolu- 
tionarv war he assisted the cause of the col- 
onies by granting congress a large loan. 
This was repaid in Continental money 
which became worthless and he thus lost 
the entire loan. He died in Philadelphia, 
on October 26, 1779, at the age of forty-two 
years, and his remains peacefully rest in the 
church yard of St. Paul's Episcopal church 
in Philadelphia, and upon the tombstone 
which marks his last resting place is the fol- 
lowing inscription : 

" Death has conquered life 
But Christ has conquered death 
And I shall live again." 

His marriage was with Christiana Bright, 
of Reading, Pennsylvania, a sister of his 
business partner. The children born to this 



union were : John, William, George, Mary 
and Peter, all born in Philadelphia and all 
received a liberal education. 

Peter Peehin, the youngest, learned the 
trade of a tanner at Newton township, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, and remained 
there for a time pursuing his trade. On 
February 26, 1795, he married Rebecca 
Hunter, a great-granddaughter of John 
Hunter, the elder, and shortly afterward re- 
moved to a farm which he had purchased 
in 1794 in Lower Merion township, this 
county. Upon this farm was located a tan- 
nerv, and he remained there eusfagred as a 
tanner, currier and farmer until 1S25, 
when he retired from active business 
and removed to Radnor, Delaware county, 
this State. He was a man of good business 
qualifications possessing the native mental 
vivacity of the French and accumulated a 
very handsome competency. In his infancy 
he had been baptized in the Episcopal 
church, but upon removing to Lower 
Merion township he affiliated with the Bap- 
tist church, as there was no Episcopal 
church in the neighborhood, and was active 
in the erection of the Lower Merion Bap- 
tist church edifice in 1S10. He was presi- 
dent of the board of trustees for twentv- 
three years, until 1848, when he resigned. 
He died at Radnor on July 19, 1858, his 
wife having died November 25, 1852. The 
children born to Peter and Rebecca Hunter 
Peehin were as follows : George, Edward 
Hunter, Christopher, Emily, John and Re- 
becca. 

George Peehin, the eldest of the family, 
was born in Lower Merion township in 
1796 and died in Bridgeport, this count}-, 
October 16, 1852. He learned the trade of 
a currier and tanner with his father and 
assisted him in his tannery and upon the 
farm until after his marriage, Februarv 7, 



Biographical Sketches. 



373 



1822, when he took up farming pursuits 

exclusively. As a fanner he was eminently 
successful and became the owner of a num- 
ber of valuable farms in Lower Merion 
township. 

In the spring of 185 1 he retired from an 
active, successful and honorable business 
career and purchased from Louis Lukens 
the double front brick residence on the cor- 
ner of Fourth and DeKalb streets, Bridge- 
port, this county, where he spent the re- 
mainder of his days. He was a man of 
spirit and enterprise, combining in a 
marked degree many admirable quali- 
ties of head and heart. For several years 
prior to his death he was a director of the 
bank of Montgomery county, (now the 
Montgomery National bank of Xorristown). 

Upon the resignation of his father, in 
1848, as trustee of the Lower Merion Bap- 
tist church, he was chosen to take his place 
and served in that relation until his death. 
He married Mary Broades, a daughter of 
William and Ann Broades, of Lower Merion 
township, and the following children came 
to this union : Margaret Broades, Rebecca 
Ann, George and Mary Emily. Rebecca 
Ann Pechin became the wife of Perry M. 
Hnnter, of Gulf Mills, this county, on March 
23, 1848. 



REV. DAVID W. MOORE, the present 
pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
church of Norristown, was born October 
5, 1830, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, 
near the old Brandywine Manor Presby- 
terian church. His ancestors were the 
Mnores of an English descent and who 
came to the province of Pennsylvania in 
colonial times. His grandfather, William 
Moore, was born in Coleraine, Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1757, and died in 



1842. He served as a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary war. He married into the Elliott 
family (Andrew and Margaret's daughter, 
Rachel) and they had ten children, of 
whom William Moore, jr., was the young- 
est. He married Lydia Michenor, and they 
had eight children, David W. Moore being 
their second born child. The Michenor 
family connection was that which first 
settled at Plumstead, Bucks county, Penn- 
sylvania, about 1700. 

The early life of Rev. David W. Moore 
was spent on his father's farm in Brandy- 
wine township, Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania. He received the ordinary common 
school education and some academical 
training in a Quaker school at Strodes' 
Mills and at Howard Academy, Rockville, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania. He was 
prepared for college by Professor James 
McClure, A.M., and entered Princeton, N. 
J., in 1855 and graduated in 185S ; entered 
the Theological Seminary of Princeton in 
1858 and graduated in 1861. His first 
pastorate was that of Lower Brandywine 
Presbyterian Church, New Castle county, 
Delaware, where he was ordained and in- 
stalled May 5, 1861. Here he continued 
to serve this church till October, 1872, 
with the exception of an interval during 
the Civil war, when he filled the position of 
chaplain of the 97th regiment, Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers. After leaving Delaware 
he served the church south in the bounds 
of the presbytery of Xew Orleans, doing- 
missionary work in southern Mississippi at 
McComb City. In 1873 he was called and 
settled in McVeytown, Mifflin county, Pa., 
where he continued as pastor till October, 
[883. Was then called and settled at 
Kennett Square, Chester county, Pa., till 
( >etober, 1S87, and after doing missionary 
work and supplying a church in Philadel- 



374 



Biographical Sketches. 



phia for two years, was called and settled 
over the Second church of Norristown in 
1889, where he continues as pastor. 

The Rev. David W. Moore was first mar- 
ried to Miss Elizabeth Hoagland, of Pen- 
nington, N. J., December 26, 1S60. Of 
this marriage he had one son, William 
Ellsworth Moore, now of Philadelphia. 
He was married the second time to Miss 
Bertha Longaker, November 13, 1S79, of 
Norristown, Pa. 



THE SECOND CHURCH (Presbyte- 
rian), of Norristown, was organized Sep- 
tember 27, 1850, by the Second Presby- 
tery of Philadelphia. The original mem- 
bers of this church enterprise were old 
school Presbyterians, Ceceders and Cove- 
nanters. 

The earliest appearance of a union 
among these diversified elements was in 
1848, when the}- began to worship with the 
Trinity Reformed congregation on Airy 
street, Norristown, then under the pastoral 
care of Rev. John Kooken. But the Nevin 
theological controvery caused a separation 
from the Reformed congregation. After 
this the Second church progenitors wor- 
shipped in each other's houses till the advent 
of a Rev. Samuel Paul, of the Associate 
Presbytery of New York city, who had 
been sent into Eastern Pennsylvania as a 
missionary, in the interest of what was 
known as the Psalm Singing church. 
Under Mr. Paul's leadership, the new con- 
gregation was invited to worship with the 
Reformed people, they being at this time 
without a pastor. This arrangement was 
very satisfactory while it continued, but it 
being impossible to organize a church of 
Psalm Singers, which was Mr. Paul's mis- 
sion, the project was given up, and after 



considerable opposition, an old school 
church was organized by the Second Pres- 
bytery of Philadelphia, September 27, 1850. 
And Mr. Paid, having been received as a 
member of the presbytery, was installed 
October 31st, 1850, as the first pastor of the 
Second Presbyterian church of Norristown ; 
and the first ruling elders were : John Pat- 
terson and Henry King, ordained and in- 
stalled at the same time. Rev. Samuel 
Paul only remained pastor two years, after 
which he gave up the ministry. Rev. 
Joseph Nesbitt then became pastor and 
continued to February, i860. During this 
time the congregation worshiped in the old 
primitive Methodist church edifice, north- 
east corner of Airy and Green streets, which 
had been purchased for a place of worship, 
and which was occupied till 1871, when 
the property was sold and the congrega- 
tion moved to Mogeetown and worshipped 
in a building furnished bv William Mogee. 
Rev. Samuel Horriston succeeded Mr. 
Nesbitt in the pastorate, but only remained 
with the congregation till the breaking out 
of the Civil war in 1861. Thus, for an 
interval of ten years, the church had no 
regular pastor, but was supplied, the Rev. 
Samuel Martin closing up this regime. 
Then Rev. Bellville Roberts became pastor 
May 3, 1872, and continued till 1S79. In 
the meantime the congregation had moved 
to Bridgeport, where a fine church edifice 
was erected in 1874 at a cost of about 
$20,000, under the supervision of Mr. Rob- 
erts. Rev. Henry F. Mason succeeded 
Rev. B. Roberts as pastor and was installed 
October 14, 1880, and continued to serve 
the church till 1883. The congregation 
then had supplies till 1887, when Rev. S. 
R. Queen was called and installed January 
7, 1887, and remained with the congrega- 
tion about two years. Rev. David W. 



Biographical Sketches. 



375 



Moore succeeded Mr. Queen and was in- 
stalled May, 1889. During this last pas- 
torate the church was cleared of a very 
troublesome deht. 

The Second church of Norristown has 
had great difficulties to overcome and 
peculiar trials to endure : First, its too 
close proximity to the old Brown church, 
corner of Airy and DeKalb streets ; second, 
its loss of Rev. Joseph Nesbitt, a most pop- 
ular preacher and successful pastor ; then 
its unsettled church home, and finally its 
location in Bridgeport where the popula- 
tion is a " movable quantity " and the en- 
vironments are unfavorable to Presbyter- 
ianism. 



ROBERT J. DODD, M. D., one of the 
older and most prominent physicians 
of Montgomery county, is one of a long 
line of distinguished physicians and sur- 
geons. He is a son of Dr. Robert J. and 
Ann (Sweeney) Dodd, and was born in the 
city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Decem- 
ber 28, 1826. His paternal grandfather, 
Dr. Robert J. Dodd, was an educated and 
able physician of England, who came at 
thirty years of age to Philadelphia, where 
he practiced with success in the " Northern 
Liberties" and became prominent in his 
profession. His sou, Dr. Robert J. Dodd, 
Jr., was born April 5, 1807, and studied 
medicine and surgery with Dr. George 
McClellan (father of General McClellan) 
with such proficiency that he passed suc- 
cessfully at nineteen years of age the 
examination for assistant surgeon in the 
United States navy, and was commissioned 
as such May 29, 1826. He served on the 
Shark in a cruise along the South Ameri- 
can coast for pirates, was graduated from 
Jefferson Medical college in March, 183 1, 



and passed a successful examination for the 
full grade of surgeon in the navy, his com- 
mission dating from April 4, 1831, and 
being signed by President Andrew Jack- 
son. He was then on active service until 
1S47, and during that period was nearly 
thirteen years afloat. He circumnavigated 
the globe four times, was in China when 
the British opened certain ports there, and 
had several attacks of yellow fever, besides 
passing through a siege of African fever 
from whose effects he never fullv recov- 
ered. His last service afloat was in the 
Mexican war, when he was one of a force 
of five hundred naval volunteers wdio pro- 
tected the rear of Taylor's army when he 
left Corpus Christi to advance into north- 
ern Mexico. In 1N47 Dr. Dodd was put in 
charge of the naval asylum at Philadelphia, 
and on March 3, 1S71, was made medical 
director in the navy on the retired list, his 
commission being signed by President 
Grant, and he having risen by promotion 
to the relative rank of commodore. In 
1850 he purchased a fine estate in Lower 
Merion and built on it a handsome man- 
sion in which he died February 4, 1876, 
aged sixty-nine years, after a shore and sea 
duty in the navy of fourty-four years and 
seven months. He was considered an 
authority on yellow fever. He w r as a 
Republican and a Presbyterian, and during 
the late Civil war gave generously of his 
means to support the families of Union 
soldiers wdio were in the field. On January 
28, 1825, Dr. Dodd married Ann Sweeney-, 
who was a daughter of Morgan Sweeney, 
of Philadelphia, and died January 29, 1828, 
leaving one child, Robert J. In 1848, Dr. 
Dodd married for his second wife Hannah 
M. Bradlee, daughter of Josiah Bradlee, of 
Boston, Massachusetts. By his second 
union Dr. Dodd had no children. 



376 



Biographical Sketches. 



Dr. Robert J. Dodd was reared in Phila- 
delphia, received his education in private 
schools of his native city and the State of 
Massachusetts, and studied medicine and 
surgery with Dr. John McClellan, a brother 
of General George B. McClellan. He en- 
tered Jefferson Medical college in 1844, was 
graduated in 1848, and went West, where 
he practiced in Kentucky and Illinois up 
to 1 86 1. He then came East and practiced 
in the State of Delaware until 1876, when 
the death of his father called him to Dower 
Merion to settle the estate of the latter. 
He has resided there ever since, and of 
late years has not been actively engaged in 
the practice of his profession. He is a 
Democrat in politics. 

On April 18, 1848, Dr. Dodd was united 
in marriage with Mary Markley Ghriskey, 
a descendant of Jacob Markley, who settled 
in 1722 in Montgomery county. 



MATHIAS GEIST, a prominent con- 
tractor and builder, of Pottstown, is a 
son of Richard and Harriet (Skean) Geist, 
and was born June 4, 1845, in Chester 
county, Pennsylvania. His father, Richard 
Geist, was also a native of Chester county, a 
carpenter by trade, and died December 30, 
1889, aged seventy-seven years. In 1833 he 
married Harriet Skean, who was born in 
Montgomery county and had a family of six 
children : Amelia, Clementine, Samuel, all 
of whom died in infancy ; Daniel W., a resi- 
dent of Burlington county, New Jersey ; 
Susan, deceased, and Mathias, the subject of 
this sketch. Mrs. Harriet Geist died March 
22, 1886, and is buried beside her husband 
in the Pottstown cemetery. 

Mathias Geist obtained his education in 
the public schools of his native county and j 



followed farming while a young man. 
Later he learned the trade of carpenter, and 
after working at that business for a short 
time in Chester county came to Pottstown 
and engaged in the same occupation in this 
city. He subsequently entered the employ 
of the Philadelphia & Reading raiload com- 
pany as superintendent and foreman in the 
carpenter department of the company. Mr. 
Geist remained with that company for a 
period of twenty years, during which he 
manifested skill and ability in all branches 
of his trade and won a fine reputation as an 
expert workman. In 1885 he resigned his 
position as foreman and engaged in con- 
tracting and building on his own account at 
Pottstown. A knowledge of his exceptional 
fitness soon led to a large demand for his 
services, especially where beauty of design 
and excellence of construction were de- 
manded. Among his first contracts was one 
from the Philadelphia & Reading railroad 
company, his fcu.ner employers, for the 
building of their passenger station at Potts- 
ville. Among the many prominent build- 
ings constructed under his personal super- 
vision since may be named the Presbyterian 
church, the Fifth street Methodist church, 
the Reformed church, the T. J. March busi- 
ness block, and the residences of William S. 
Ellis, James A. Healy, H. Wells, H. G. 
Kulp, Livingston Savior, Mrs. Streeper, P. 
L. Egolf and W. H. Eck, all of Pottstown ; 
the magnificent country house of W. D. 
Windsor, of the Boston Steamship line, at 
Ardmore, Pennsylvania ; the First Presby- 
terian church of Shamokin, another at 
Bloomsburg and the freight house of the 
Allentown Terminal railroad at Allentown. 
If further testimony were needed to estab- 
lish the superiority of his workmanship 
it may be found in the Textile works at 
Pottstown ; the paint shops of the Reading 





J0* 



^^/ 



Biographical Sketches. 



377 



railroad at Reading, the March-Brown- 
back stove foundry at Pottstown, the Slniler 
hotel at Pottstown, the United Krethern 
church of Pottstown, and the fine residen- 
ces of James B. McCamant, Augustus Dot- 
terer, John Landis and many others. 
It may truthfully be stated that most of the 
prominent buildings erected in Pottstown 
since Mr. Geist began business here have 
been constructed under his supervision. 

Politically Mr. Geist is a Democrat, but 
has always preferred to devote his time to 
business rather than to politics. He served 
one term as a member of the city council. 
He is a Knight Templar Mason and has 
passed through all the chairs of his lodge 
and chapter. He is also a member of the 
Royal Arcanum of Pottstown. 

On December 7, 187 1 Mr. Geist was mar- 
ried to Hannah E. Lougaker, a daughter of 
the late Rufus B. and Elizabeth (Smith) 
Longaker. (See sketch of Hon. Montgom- 
ery S. Longaker on another page of this 
book for ancestral history of the Longaker 
family). 

To Mr. and Mrs. Geist have been born 
two children, Elizabeth L. and Harry C. 
Mr. Geist and his wife are members of the 
Reformed church. 



WILLIAM J. BINDER, editor and pro- 
prietor of the weekly and daily Mont- 
gomery Ledger, of Pottstown, is a sou of 
John and Mary Ann (Steltz) Binder, and 
was born in East Nantmeal township, Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, September 30, 
1843. His paternal great-grandfather came 
from Germany, and his son, Jacob Binder, 
was the father of John Binder, who was 
born at Yellow Springs, Chester county. 
John Binder was reared principally in 



Montgomery county, and in 1835 returned 
to his native county where he remained un- 
til 1856. In that year he came to Pottstown 
where he resided until his death which 
occurred in February 1866, when in the 
fifty-eighth year of his age. He followed 
carpentering and fanning to some extent in 
early life, but being a man of good educa- 
tion he devoted the larger part of his active 
life to teaching. He taught in the common 
schools of both Chester and Montgomery 
counties, and after coming to Pottstown 
conducted a private school there until his 
health failed. He was a Democrat prior to 
the late Civil war, but during that great 
struggle for national existence he became a 
supporter of the Republican party and re- 
mained in its ranks until his death. He was 
active in local, civil and political affairs but 
never sought or wanted any office. He was 
a member and official of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, and married Mary Ann Steltz, 
a daughter of Valentine Steltz, of New 
Hanover. They had four children : Aaron, 
of Company A, 2d Minnesota veteran in- 
fantry, now deceased ; Elizabeth, wife of 
David Herst, of Easton, Pennsylvania ; 
Tamsen, widow of Jeremiah H. Binder, of 
Pottstown, and William J., (subject). 

William J. Binder at thirteen years of age 
came with his parents to Pottstown where 
he has resided ever since. He received his 
education in the public schools and the Hill 
school, then conducted by its founder, Pro- 
fessor Matthew Meigs, LL. D. At an early 
age he entered the printing office of the 
weekly Montgomery Ledger, founded Octo- 
ber 1, 1843, and learned the "art preserva- 
tive of all arts." 

In the year 1866 he purchased from 
the late William L- Williamson a half-in- 
terest in the paper, and thirteen years later, 
in September, 1879, became the sole pro- 



378 



Biographical Sketches. 



prietor of the Ledger. Mr. Binder made his 
weekly paper neutral in politics and has 
made main improvements on it since. It is 
a nine column folio, thirty by forty-four 
inches. 

While still but part owner of the 
weekly, in 1873 Mr. Binder saw the oppor- 
tunity for a daily, and during that year 
started the Daily Ledger with his partner, 
Lewis H. Davis, which has grown and pros- 
pered until it is now one of the leading 
dailies of the county. The daily is inde- 
pendent in politics. It is a four page, eight 
column sheet, twenty-six by thirty-six in- 
ches in dimensions. It is the oldest daily 
paper of Pottstowu and has a large circu- 
lation. 

On December 26, 1867, Mr. Binder mar- 
ried Mary H. Hilton, a daughter of James 
and Margaret Hilton, natives of England 
but residents of Glasgow, this county. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Binder have been born nine 
children : Hilton S., local and assistant 
editor on the Ledger; Mary E., wife of C. 
G. Bockus; Ella M.; Bessie A.; Edith H.; 
Laura D., deceased ; John K., Florence B. 
and Chester M. 

Although neutral and independent as an 
editor, yet William J. Binder is an ardent 
Republican but no politician. He is a dea- 
con of the Methodist Episcopal church in 
which he is an active worker. During the 
late Civil war Mr. Binder left his case to 
take up arms in his country's defense. He 
served in the 26th Penna. Emergency Regi- 
ment in the Gettysburg campaign, and 
afterward was a private in Co. E, 105th 
Pennsylvania veteran infantry, from which 
he was honorably discharged June, 1865. 
He saw the last sun of Confederacy set at 
Appomattox court-house. He is a member 
of M. E. Richards Post, 595, Grand Army 
of the Republic. 



/"^HARLES H. MILLER, justice of the 
^^> peace and one of the most successful 
insurance men in Lansdale, is an American 
by birth and ancestry and his forefathers 
were among the early settlers of Montgom- 
ery couut\'. He is a son of Henry S. and 
Hannah ^Heebner) Miller, and was born at 
Norristown, on the 7th of April, 1859. 
Henry Miller, his grandfather, was a car- 
penter by occupation and was well-known 
as a staunch Democrat. He was born in 
Marlboro township, where he lived all his 
life. 

Henry S. Miller, father of our subject, was 
born in Marlboro township, on November 
20, 1820, He was sent to the pay schools 
of the district and was then apprenticed to 
learn the trade of millwright. This he fol- 
lowed for some years but finally made a de- 
cided change and came to Norristown where 
he opened a well equipped jewelry store, 
having also mastered that trade. Mr. Mil- 
ler was a thoroughly self-made man. He 
had had very little schooling, but he was a 
constant reader and became very well in- 
formed in many topics. He was very quick 
to master the details of anything in the 
mechanical line and could turn his hand to 
almost any kind of work in this line. He 
was a Democrat and a very enthusiastic 
political worker. The family are all mem- 
bers of the Reformed church. Mr. Miller 
was united in marriage to Hannah Heebner 
and four children were born to this esti- 
mable couple : Levina, who was born Oc- 
tober 4, 1 85 1, married George W. Cathorn 
and died April 11, 1889; Amanda M., born 
September 22, 1852, died July 10, 1890 ; 
Harry H., born September 15, 1854, at Nor- 
ristown, and Charles H. our subject. Mrs. 
Miller died on February 13, 1871, and 
four years later on April 5, 1875, Mr. Miller 
passed away. 



Biographical Sketches. 



379 



Charles H. Miller, the youngest of the 
children, was left an orphan at the early age 
of ten years, and this cut short his school 
days. He is a self-made man in every sense 
of the word. At twelve years of age he 
went to work on a farm and followed this 
occupation until he had attained his majori- 
ty. For several years he found em- 
ployment with Doctors Groff and Keeler, 
and then with Heebner ec Sons of Lansdale. 
Sometime later he engaged in the insurance 
business which he has followed ever since 
with great success. 

Mr. Miller has been prominent in the 
affairs of the Republican party in this 
county and has always been an active work- 
er. He was appointed tax-collector in 1894 
to serve three years, and was also assessor of 
taxes for several years. In the spring of 
1893 ' ie was elected justice of the peace and 
is still exercising the functions of that office. 

Mr. Miller was married on the 2 2d of No- 
vember, 1879, to Amanda Schissler, of 
Lower Salford township, Montgomerv coun- 
ty, Pa. One child has been born to bless 
this union: Harry S., who was born at 
Harleysville, on February 27, 1883. 



MATHIAS WEBER, M. D., who has 
been engaged in the active practice of 
his profession at Evansburg for nearly fif- 
teen years, is a son of Rev. Jesse S. and 
Mary (Yost) Weber, and was born at Evans- 
burg, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
July 8, 1858. He received his elementary 
education in the common schools and then 
attended Ursinus College for two years. 
Leaving college he taught school for two 
years and then in 1878 entered the medical 
department of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia, from which he was graduated in the 



class of 1881. After graduation he returned 
to Evansburg, where he has practiced his 
profession continously and successfully up 
to the present time. Dr. Weber is a mem- 
ber of the Montgomerv County Medical 
society, and has served for some time as 
physician to the county home. He is a 
member of the Junior Order of United 
American Mechanics, and the Independent 
( hrder of Odd Fellows. 

In 1882 Dr. Weber married Anna R. Cas- 
selberry, daughter of D. Morgan Cassel- 
berry, of Evansburg. To their union have 
been born six children : Jesse S., Morgan 
C, Alice R., Harry deceased, Mary E. and 
John M. 

Dr. Weber is a member of St. James' 
Episcopal church, with which he has been 
offieiallv connected for some time. 



HAGY YOCUM, the owner of "Nor- 
*J • wood," near Bryn Mawr, and the pro- 
prietor of one of the largest dairies in the 
southeastern part of the State, is a son of 
Benjamin B. and Harriet (Hagy) Yocum, 
and was born on the old Yocum homestead 
in Lower Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, January 8, 1831. He 
was reared on the farm, received his educa- 
tion in the common schools of his township 
and then was engaged in farming with his 
father until 1854, in which year he bought 
and occupied property at Conshohocken. 
In 1856 he purchased the " Norwood " 
country seat in Lower Merion township, 
and near Bryn Mawr, on which he has re- 
sided ever since. Soon after removing to 
" Norwood," he started a dairy, which has 
steadily increased in size until it is now one 
of the largest of its kind in southeastern 
Pennsylvania. He supplies butter regularly 



3 8o 



Biographical Sketches. 



to one of the largest and leading markets of 
Philadelphia, and is recognized as one of 
the progressive fanners and dairymen of the 
county. 

On September 15, 1864, Mr. Yocuni 
wedded Hannah Emily Crawford, who was 
a daughter of Joseph and Hannah Crawford, 
and died March 14, 1889, aged fifty-eight 
years. To Mr. and Mrs. Yocum was born 
one child, Annie C. Y., who married Wil- 
liam M. Brownback, a son of James and 
Ellen (March) Brownback, of Linfield, and 
a member of the firm of the March-Brown- 
back Stove company, stove manufacturers 
of Pottstown. 

J. Hagy Yocum is a Republican, and at- 
tends Calvary Episcopal church of Consho- 
hocken, Pa. He is a director and the presi- 
dent of the Spring Garden market of Phila- 
delphia, and vice-president of the Gladywin 
Electric Street Railway company. Mr. Yo- 
cum has been identified for many years with 
every movement for good roads in his part 
of the county, and has been largely instru- 
mental in the surveying and making of the 
excellent public highways for which his 
community is so widely known. 

Peter Yocum, the original ancestor of the 
American branch of the Yocum family, 
came from Sweden and helped to found the 
Wiaco settlement, near the site of Philadel- 
phia, several years before the coming of 
Penn. He was a juryman in the Upland 
court in 1681, and with other Swedes set- 
tled at Swedes Ford, this county, the next 
year. He was appointed supervisor of 
highways from Karker's mills to the Falls 
of Schuykill, and in 1693, his family con- 
sisted of nine persons. He resided near 
William Rambo, and while no record is in 
existence of his sons names, yet there is no 
doubt that one of them was named Peter, 
and figures in the assessment list of 1734. | 



This Peter Yocum, the younger, married 
and his third son, Andrew, born in 1739, 
was the father of John Yocum, born in 
1766. 

This John Yocum lived on what is 
now the Frederick Phillips farm, which is 
near West Conshohocken, and was the pa- 
ternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch. John Yocum was a shoemaker, 
and spent his life in Lower Merion town- 
ship, where he married Martha Thomas. 
Their son, Benjamin Brook Yocum (father), 
was born November 26, 1801, and died 
March 8, 1868, in the room in which he was 
born. 

He was a machinist by trade, but 
in early life engaged in farming and deal- 
ing in cattle, which he followed up to the 
time of his death. He was a Whig and Re- 
publican, served in the State militia, was a 
justice of the peace for several terms, and 
served as a school director for many 
years. 

In 1828 he married Harriet Hagy, who 
was born March 8, 1808, and died June 21, 
1895. Mr. and Mrs. Yocum had nine chil- 
dren : Hannah J., Hagy, John, died in the 
Union army ; Emily, Joseph C, Crawford, 
George, who died from the effects of expos- 
ure in the Union army ; Dr. Benjamin B., 
of Philadelphia, now dead; and Isaac DeH., 
a resident and member of the bar of Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 



DANIEL ROBERTS BROWER, M. D., 
was born in Manayunk, Pennsylvania, 
October 13, 1839. His father was Daniel 
Rife Brower, a descendent of the Brower 
family who very early settled on the Schuyl- 
kill river in Montgomery county. His 
mother was Ann Billop Farmer. Her 



Biographical Sketches. 



381 



father was a Major in the English army, 
who, while on duty with his regiment met 
her mother, Ann Pawling, a daughter of 
Major Pawling, a Tory, during the Revo- 
lutionary war. They were inarried, and 
after the close of the war he resigned his 
commission and made his home in Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Shortly after Daniel Roberts Brower was 
born, the family moved to Phoenixville and 
there his education began under a very 
clever teacher. When he was thirteen 
years of age the family moved to Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania, and he entered Tree- 
mount Seminary, then an excellent school, 
under the charge of Rev. Samuel Aaron. 
There he was prepared for entrance into the 
Polytechnic college of Philadelphia, from 
which he graduated with honors as a mas- 
ter of mining engineering His inaugural 
address on the ventilation and drainage of 
mines was complimented by being published 
in full, with favorable editorial comment, 
in 77/i? Loudon (England) Mining Engin- 
eer, the then leading publication of the 
world. He followed the profession of mine 
engineering about one year in western Vir- 
ginia; he then in response to that which had 
been the ardent desire of his life for main 
years, began the study of medicine, and in 
February, 1864, graduated from the medical 
department of Georgetown University. 

Shortly before graduation he passed the 
army medical board of examiners then 
sitting in Washington, D. C, and was com- 
missioned assistant surgeon United States 
Volunteers. He was assigned to duty at 
the United States General Hospital, Ports- 
mouth, Va. After a short service there he 
was ordered to the general hospital at For- 
tress Monroe, Va., then the largest hospital 
in the United States, and here his surgical 
service was very active and extensive, ami 



continued until he was ordered to Norfolk, 
Va. as chief medical officer of the military 
district of eastern Virginia. He continued 
in this capacity until 1866 when he organ- 
ized under the Freedman's bureau at Rich- 
mond, Va., the first hospital for the care of 
insane freedmen. In 1868 he was elected 
medical superintendent of the Eastern Lu- 
natic asylum of Virginia at Williamsburg, 
and served in this capacity until the autumn 
of 1875. While in this position he quite 
generally remodeled the buildings and in- 
troduced many reforms in the care and treat- 
ment of the insane. Among other things 
he established schools, shops for various in- 
dustries, systematic exercises, and a constant 
succession of varied amusements, and pur- 
chased a farm for the occupation of the 
patients, and a supply of various farm pro- 
ducts. 

In 1875 he removed to Chicago, Illinois, 
with his family, consisting of a wife, the 
daughter of Col. A. W. Shearer and Eunice 
Norris Schrack Shearer, whom he married 
May 15th, 1868, and two children, a daugh- 
ter and a son. In Chicago he began at once 
the practice of his profession, devoting him- 
self specially to the treatment of mental and 
nervous diseases. 

He is now the Professor of mental dis- 
eases, materia medica and therapeutics in 
Rush medical college, the oldest and larg- 
est medical college in the northwest ; Pro- 
fessor of mental and nervous diseases in the 
Woman's school of the Northwestern uni- 
versity, and Professor of mental and ner- 
vous diseases in the Post Graduate Medical 
school of Chicago. He is the neurologist 
to the St. Joseph's hospital, Wesley hospit- 
al, and Cook county hospital, all of Chicago. 
He is consulting physician to the Presby- 
terian hospital, Woman's hospital, State of 
Illinois Woman's and Children's hospital 



38a 



Biographical Sketches. 



and the Washingtonian home, all of Chi- 
cago. 

He has been president of the State Medi- 
cal society of Illinois, of the Chicago Medi- 
cal society and of the Medico-Legal society 
of Chicago. He was for a number of years 
the editor of the ( hicago Medical Journal. 

He has been a frequent contributor to 
various medical journals, selecting his topics 
usually from mental and nervous diseases. 

He has devoted considerable time to the 
study of geology, mineralogy, botany and 
anthropology, especially criminal anthro- 
pology. He is regarded as an excellent 
lecturer, and in addition to the lectures 
given by him, both clinical and didactic, at 
the several medical colleges, he frequently 
addresses non professional audiences on 
various topics, especially anthropological. 



H 



ON. CHARGES HUNSICKER*, one 
of the leading members of the Mont- 
gomery county bar, is a son of Hon. Joseph 
and Elizabeth (Metfer) Hunsicker, and was 
born in Upper Providence township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, ( >ctober 26, 
1835. The Hunsickers are of Swiss lin- 
eage, ami they first settled in this county 
on the waters of the Perkiomen creek, 
where Rev. John Ilnnsicker, the grand- 
father of Charles Hnnsieker, was born and 
reared. He was a large landholder and ex- 
tensive farmer in Upper Providence town- 
ship, and served for many years as a min- 
ister of the Menuonite church. He married 
and reared a family of six children, three- 
sons and three daughters. The sous were : 
Joseph, Henry D. and Garrett. Hon. 
Joseph Hunsicker was born May 29, [798, 
received a thorough English education, and 
upon attaining his majority turned his at- 



tention to dealing in lumber as well as to 
the management and cultivation of his 
farm. His business operations were such 
as to bring him in contact with quite a 
number of people, and the Democratic 
party nominated him in 184S for Associate 
Judge, to which position he was elected. 
He served from 1849 to 1854, was a man of 
high standing and great influence, and 
died December 1, 1S70, when well advanced 
in the seventy-third year of his age. He 
married Elizabeth Meyer, who was a daugh- 
ter of Jacob Meyer, of this county, and 
passed away December 10, 1888, at eighty- 
six years of age. Their children were: 
John M., Samuel, Joseph \\\, Mrs Anna 
E. Henkels, Davis and Charles, the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Charles Hunsicker was reared in his 
native township, attended the common 
schools and pursued his academic studies 
at Washington Hall institute and Freeland 
>ciniuary, the latter of which institutions 
was afterwards merged into Ursinus col- 
lege. Upon completing his academic course 
he was so well fitted for college that 
although but fifteen years of age he was 
enabled to enter the Sophomore class of 
Union college, Schenectady, New York, 
from which institution of learning he was 
graduated in the class of 1855. Leaving 
college when but in his nineteenth year he 
chose law for his profession, and after two 
years of reading with Hon. James Boyd, 
of Norristown, was admitted to the Mont- 
gomery county bar in August, 1857, at the 
early age of twenty-one years. His legal 
ability and natural aptitude for his chosen 
profession soon won for him position, 
prestige and practice. As a matter of 
preference Mr. Hunsicker has chiefly prac- 
ticed in the courts of his native county, 
although inducements have been offered 




sfoff^LvL #* x^ 



Biographical Sketches. 



383 



him to practice in other, counties and before 
the higher courts of the State, where he 
often appears in Montgomery county cases. 

( >n June 13, 1865, Mr. Huusicker was 
united in marriage with Margaret Scliall, a 
daughter of General William Schall, of 
Norristown. To their union were horn 
two sons, Edwin S., who was graduated 
from Union college in the class of 1895, 
and James Rittenhouse, now studying 
medicine in the Jefferson Medical college, 
Philadelphia. 

Charles Huusicker served during the late- 
civil war as adjutant of the Fourth Penn- 
sylvania volunteers for some time and twice 
afterwards acted for a short period as lieu- 
tenant of a Pennsylvania company. In 
politics Mr. Huusicker is a Democrat. In 
[865 he was elected district attorney of 
Montgomery county, and after the close of 
his three years' term was chosen a dele- 
gate to the State constitutional convention 
of 1872, in which he took an active and 
useful part. While serving as a member of 
that important body he introduced a section 
that provided for a review of count}- crim- 
inal trials by the Supreme court of the 
vState, which met with defeat in the consti- 
tution, but was of such value and practical 
utility that it was afterwards made a law 
1)\- the legislature. In 1884 ' ie was a dele- 
gate to the Chicago Democratic National 
convention which nominated Grover Cleve- 
land for president of the United States. 
Mr. Huusicker is a member of the Norris- 
town Reformed church, in which he served 
as trustee for many years. He has served 
as trustee of the Pennsylvania Hospital for 
the insane for the eastern district of this 
State and has held numerous other official 
positions. 

Charles Hunsieker brings to his legal 
practice a large amount of experience ac- 



quired through nearly forty years of suc- 
cessful practice at the bar. This, together 
with his extensive knowledge of men and 
things, and his thorough knowledge of law 
renders him well able to cope with all the 
difficulties that any intricate case may 
present. 



HOWARD HENRY DRAKE, M. I)., a 
successful medical practitioner of Nor- 
ristown, Pennsylvania, and a collateral de- 
scendant of vSir Francis Drake, one of the 
early and most distinguished explorers of 
the American coast, is a son of Henry and 
Elizabeth Ann (Dance) Drake, and was born 
in Norristown, March 6, 1857. His father, 
Henry Drake, was born in Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1813, and 
died at Norristown, Pa., in August, 1866. 
His first business was that of merchandising, 
in which he attained more than an ordinary 
degree of success, but he finally drifted into 
politics. Possessed of strong personal mag- 
netism and good organizing powers, he was 
a potent factor in the Democratic politics of 
his county and State for many years, and 
served as recorder of deeds and deputj 
county treasurer. Mr. Drake was twice 
married. His first marital union was with 
Elizabeth Ann Dance, who passed to the 
spirit world on March 13, [857, at the age 
of twenty-seven years, soon after the 
birth of their son, the subject of this 
biographical sketch His second and last 
marriage was witli Caroline Dotterer, 
daughter of the late Philip Dotterer. 

H. H. Drake obtained his elementary 
education in the public schools of Norris- 
town, at Ursinusand Franklin and Marshall 
colleges. Leaving college in 1875, he en- 
tered upon the study of medicine under the 
preceptorship of Dr. George A. King, of 



3»4 



Biographical Sketches. 



Lancaster, Pa., and was graduated from the 
Jefferson Medical college at Philadelphia in 
the class of 187S. Immediately after gradu- 
ation he located in his native town, where 
he has since been engaged in active and 
successful practice, and where by profes- 
sional skill and close application, he has 
built up a large and remunerative practice. 
Dr. Drake is thoroughly equipped for his 
professional work, keeps in touch with 
the leaders of his profession, and is alive to 
every new thought or improved method 
discovered or suggested for the treatment of 
disease by the experienced medical men of 
the world. He is a member of the Ameri- 
can Medical association, of the State Medi- 
cal association and Montgomery County 
Medical society, the former of which he 
ably served as president in 1888. For eight 
years he officiated as prison physician of the 
Montgomery county prison, and for three 
years was coroner's physician during the 
term of Henry B. Long, and is now physi- 
cian and surgeon to the charity hospital. 
Politically he affiliates with the Democratic 
party, and is prominently identified with 
Masonic fraternity as a member of Charity 
Lodge No. 190, F. & A. M. ; Chapter No. 

and Hutchinson Comman- 

T. 

1879, Dr. Drake and Miss 
Mazie L. Youngman, a daughter of the 
late James L. Youngman, of Lancaster, 
were happily married, and unto their mari- 
tal union have been born three children : 
Mary E., Mabel B. and H. Stanley. 



190, R. A. M., 

dery No. 32, K 

On Mav 20, 



BELLETT LAWSON, Jr., superinten- 
dent of Riverside cemetery, at Norris- 
town, is a son of Bellett and Theresa (Stott) 
Lawson, and was born in Liverpool, Eng- 



land, April 16, 1870. Bellett Lawson, sr., 
was born and reared at Liverpool, England, 
where he was engaged in landscape garden- 
ing from boyhood until 1879. In that year 
he came with his family to Buffalo, New 
York, where remained but a short time. 
He next removed to Atlanta, Georgia, and 
was there successfully engaged in landscape 
gardening for upwards of twelve years. At 
the end of that time, in 1892, he went to 
Chicago, Illinois, and became superintend- 
ent of Oakwood cemetery of that great city, 
which important position he still holds. 
Mr. Lawson is an expert in his occupation 
and ranks as one of the best landscape 
gardeners of America. His excellent work 
at Buffalo and Savannah made him favor- 
ably known in the east and south, while 
the taste and tact and fine judgment that he 
has displayed in addition to professional 
skill and artistic workmanship in remodel- 
ing, improving and beautifying Oakwood 
cemetery at Chicago, has given him high 
and wide reputation throughout the coun- 
try. Mr. Lawson married Theresa Stott, 
a native of Liverpool, England. 

Bellett Lawson, Jr., was but nine years of 
age when his parents came to the United 
States and was principally reared at Savan- 
nah, Georgia, where he attended the city 
schools, and subsequently entered the busi- 
ness college from which he was graduated 
in 1890. The ensuing year he went with 
his father to Chicago, where he assisted the 
latter in the management of Oakwood 
cemetery until April, 1894. In that month 
he came to Norristown and accepted the 
superintendency of Riverside cemetery, 
which he planned and laid out at the west- 
ern limit of the borough and fronting the 
Schuylkill river. Riverside cemetery con- 
tains thirty acres of level land and is one of 
the best designed and handsomest ceme- 



Biographical Sketches. 



385 



teries in the State. Mr. Lawson designed 
it to some extent after Spring Grove ceme- 
tery of Cincinnati, which is generally con- 
ceded to be the finest cemetery in America. 
( >ver fifty thousand dollars have been ex- 
pended upon Riverside cemetery under the 
direction of its superintendent, and it is 
growing in beauty every day, while it well 
may be an object of pride to Norristown. 
Many larger cities have more extensive and 
more costly cemeteries that can in no wise 
compare with Riverside cemetery. 

Skilled and proficient, Mr. Eawson has 
given his best thought and most earnest 
efforts to the designing and completion of a 
model city cemetery in Riverside, whose 
beauty has a charm for every visitor. 



TAMES K. CLEMMER, who owns the 
<J m large grist and saw mills at Spring 
Mount, is a business man of note in Mont- 
gomery county. He is the son of J. S. and 
Sallie (Culp) Clemmer, and was born in 
Frauconia township on the first of Sep- 
tember, 1861. He is descended from Mont- 
gomery count} - ancestry and his forefathers 
have been well known and highly respected 
in the section mentioned for many genera- 
tions. John Clemmer, his grandfather, was 
born in Franconia township, and was a 
prosperous farmer. He pinned his politi- 
cal faith to the principles of the Republi- 
can party and was one of its staunchest 
adherents. He was a life-long member of 
the Mennonite church and was a consistent 
Christian. In 1861 he died at the advanced 
age of seventy-two years. J. S. Clemmer, 
father of J. K. Clemmer, was also a native 
of Franconia township. He was sent to 
the schools of his township until he was 
fifteen vears old. He was then put to work 

25 



on the farm and when he came to man's 
estate was the owner of a large farm, which 
he managed all his life. He is a preacher 
in the Mennonite church and is beloved by 
all who know him. Politically he followed 
in the views of his father and is nominally 
a Republican. He is still living at fifty- 
eight years of age. 

J. K. Clemmer, the subject of this sketch, 
attended the public schools until he was 
sixteen years old and then worked on his 
father's farm until he was twenty-one. He 
then moved on a farm in Upper Sal ford 
township in 1884. This farm contained 
one hundred and three acres and was good 
productive land. In 1893 Mr. Clemmer 
bought the grist mill and saw mill at 
Spring Mount. He does a very large busi- 
ness, and is prominent in the mercantile 
life of his section. He resides at his mill 
in a large and historic house. His property 
is valued at eight thousand dollars, and he 
does a business of $30,000 a year. In con- 
nection with his mill he handles all kinds 
of feed, and is without doubt the most 
prosperous man in this line of business in 
the township. In politics he is a Republi- 
can and is in religion an active Christian 
worker in the Mennonite church. 

Mr. Clemmer was married, on April 15, 
1882, to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and 
Elizabeth Freed. They have had two 
children : Elmer, born April 2, 1883, and 



Jacob Howard, born March 20, i£ 



The 



latter, however, died at the tender age of 
five months. 



ANDREW J. PENNINGTON, a well- 
known citizen and prominent business 
man, is a son of John C. and Sally A. 
(Hill) Pennington, and was born at Mt. 



3«6 



Biographical Sketches. 



Hope, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, August 
20, 1865. The Pennington family is of 
English extraction, and traces its ancestry 
back to William Pennstock, but the name 
was finally changed to Pennington. Three 
brothers of this family emigrated from 
their native country to America, one of 
whom located at what is now Pennington, 
Xew Jersey ; another settled at Wilming- 
ton, Delaware ; and the third, from which 
the subject of this sketch is descended, 
located at West Grove, Chester county. 
Great-grandfather Pennington was a resi- 
dent of West Grove, where he lived all his 
life. Mr. Pennington's grandfather resided 
at the same place as his father, where he 
was engaged in the milling business. He 
was a member of the Society of Friends, in 
the interests of which he took an active 
part. He united in marriage and had eight 
children : Lewis, Xehemiah, Job, Thomas, 
Sophia Thompson, Maria Frye, John C, 
and Amanda Baker. John C. Pennington 
( father) was reared at West Grove, where at 
sixteen vears of age he became engaged in 
the milling business with his father. After 
the death of his father, he operated the mill 
for a few years, and then associated himself 
with J. B. Moorehead in railroad contract- 
ing. They took a large contract on the 
Erie railroad and built the first street rail- 
way in Washington city. For a time Mr. 
Pennington served as superintendent of the 
Delaware division of the Lehigh Naviga- 
tion company's canal, and showed great 
efficiency in his management of affairs 
there. In 1873 he engaged in the iron 
business at Sterling, Xew York, and at the 
end of two years became general manager 
of the iron business operated by the Meriou 
Iron company at Conshohocken. He served 
in this capacity until 1880, and six vears 
afterward was employed by the Lehigh 



Navigation company to build a dam across 
the Lehigh river near Mauch Chunk. 
Some time afterward he was appointed 
superintendent of water power of the War- 
ren Water company, at their works at 
Wiggles and at Warren, Xew Jersey. Re- 
maining in this capacity for a time he then 
returned to West Conshohocken, where he 
resumed his former position with the 
Meriou company. While serving in this 
last position he had as many as fifteen 
hundred men at a time under his employ. 
He always showed zeal and ability wher- 
ever he was engaged. Politically he was a 
Republican and a close adherent of the 
Society of Friends. He was also a mem- 
ber of the Masonic Fraternity. He married 
Sallie A. Hill, and to this union were born 
five children : William J., Alfred H., An- 
drew J., Harry P., and Mrs. Sue Horn. 

Andrew J. Pennington was educated in 
the high school at Conshohocken, where *he 
was graduated at the age of fourteen. 
Leaving school, he engaged with Ely & 
Williams, iron and steel merchants, of 
Philadelphia, with whom he remained six 
years. He then joined the J. Ellwood Lee 
company, at Conshohocken, large surgical 
instrument manufacturers, and served as 
manager of their large tubing department 
for six years. After this he was success- 
ively in charge of various departments of 
their business and travelled through the 
different parts of the county, being superin- 
tendent of the company's salesmen. Later 
he became manager of the American Surgi- 
cal company, organized January 1, 1S95, 
with Daniel Steward, jr., president ; George 
E. Steese, vice president ; Jno. B. Finney, 
secretary ; and Jno. S. Bate, treasurer. 
This company has erected a fine two story 
brick building forty feet by one hundred 
and forty feet in dimensions. Their plant 




*3As?w^4 /j&^£<£e> 



Biographical Sketches. 



387 



will furnish employment for sixty men.' 

The company will also employ throe- west- 
ern and two eastern salesmen, whose busi- 
ness it will be to make sales for all kinds 
of surgical goods. Mr. Pennington is a 
Republican, member of the council and also 
auditor of West Conshohoeken, where he east 
his first vote on becoming of age. He is 
a member of Washington Camp, Patriotic 
( )rder Sons of America. 

( )n October 1, 1 889, Andrew Pennington 
was united in marriage with Alice E. Bate, 
who died July 20, 1890. This union was 
blessed with one child, Alice M. On April 
14, 1892, Mr. Pennington again wedded, 
which union has resulted in an issue of 
two children : John C, jr. ; and Clara ('.. 



HON. JAMES BOYD. The ancients 
held that each person was born under 
the influence of a particular star, which 
ruled his or her destiny. So we moderns 
more accurately and philosophically affirm 
that each inherits mental and moral char- 
acteristics which, within certain limits, 
give the keynote of his or her future with 
nearly as much certainty as the decrees of 
Fate. For convenience also, mankind may 
be divided into two classes, the positive 
and negative, bearing strict relation to 
their mental and moral force or their lack 
of those qualities. Strong characters are 
irrepressible, while the opposite are content 
to mix and gravitate with the undistin- 
guished mass. 

Mental force and will power give the 
clue to the success of the gentleman whose 
name stands at the head of this sketch, as 
will appear by what is briefly stated here- 
after. 

Colonel James Boyd, as he is usually 



called, of the Norristown bar, is of Irish or 
English lineage, his parents coming from 
Virginia to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, 

where he was born on the 29th of March, 
1821. During his minority his father, 
Jeremiah Boyd, removed to a place near 
Norristown, and engaged in business. 
While so continuing James was receiving 
his education, first at an academy in Phila- 
delphia and afterwards at Haddington col- 
lege, Germantown. For a brief period 
just before his majority, he engaged in the 
apothecary business, but not finding it in 
accordance with his tastes, very soon aban- 
doned it, and entered the office of the late 
Daniel H. Mulvany, Esq., as a student of 
law. He was admitted August 16, [842, 
and almost at once entered upon a success- 
ful practice. From the start his will force 
and bold energy brought him into nearly 
every criminal prosecution on one side or 
another, and it was early observed and 
commented by disinterested parties that 
" Boyd worked just as hard with a weak 
cause as a strong one, or for a poor client 
as a rich one." This natural result of his 
amazing positivcuess and professional en- 
ergy of course made his fortune. Hut his 
belligerent and dogmatic style of practice 
brought its author into many a forensic tilt 
with his brethren, testing judicial firmness 
and courtesy to the utmost. 

W'ith ripened experience, however, and a 
growing commercial and corporation prac- 
tice, he has gradually swung out of the 
line of petty criminal trials. With the 
jury of average will, intelligence, and force 
of character, Mr. Boyd is nearly omnipo- 
tent, as he rarely fails to carry their minds 
by the impetuosity of his mental charge. 
But with men of opposite character he 
often fails by his mere boldness and invec- 
tive in the ability to sustain the weak 



3 88 



Biographical Sketches. 



points of a case on which reliance is some- 
times placed. 

For a long time Mr. Boyd has been a 
considerable stockholder in banks and other 
corporations of the locality, and a director 
in many of them, thus accumulating money 
rapidly in addition to his legal business. 
Since 1852 he has been retained as counsel 
for the Reading Railroad company, attend- 
ing to all its interests in the county, for 
which service he receives a large salary. 
It is understood that he was in 1870 largely 
instrumental in leasing the Norristown 
railroad to the Philadelphia and Reading 
corporation. 

Mr. Boyd entered public life as a Whig, 
and so continued up to 1856. But that 
year, like many other of our leading citi- 
zens who could not accept the necessity of 
anti-slavery issues, he refused to enter the 
Republican party, and voted for James 
Buchanan. He has remained in the Demo- 
cratic party ever since ; yet during the war 
that ensued he gave the government active- 
support, being appointed commissioner to 
conduct the draft for troops. In 187 1 he 
was nominated on the Democratic ticket 
and elected a member of the State Consti- 
tutional convention, and took an active 
part in its proceedings. At the conclusion 
ot the sittings, however, he refused to ap- 
pend his name to the instrument, this 
decision arising from his disagreement with 
some of its provisions. To his lasting 
credit, also, he refused to accept the extra 
pay that its members had voted themselves, 
as he thought it contrary to law. 

His refusal or singularity in these mat- 
ters, as in man} - others, arises from his bold 
independence of character ; and this, with 
his well known badinage and dry humor, 
may be set down as marked peculiarities, or 
eccentricities, as some prefer to call them. 



His humor always takes the shape of irony 
or ridicule, hitting off the absurdities or 
pretences of others with a face as grave as 
a tomb-stone. 

His invective, power of sarcasm, and 
ridicule, while making him a terrible oppo- 
nent in court or on the rostrum, disqualify 
him for a political leader, for no party 
trammels would hold him, and his blunt, 
outspoken frankness would get him enemies 
where he sought friends. Hence Mr. Boyd 
is in no true sense a politician. 

In 1848 Mr. Boyd was married to Sarah, 
youngest daughter of Samuel Jamison, sr., 
the owner of large cotton mills in Norris- 
town. Their eldest son, Robert, died when 
seven or eight years old. Wallace J. is 
also deceased. The only child surviving is 
Howard, treasurer of the Perkiomen and 
and Stony Creek railroads and several other 
well known corporations. The former was 
a member of the Montgomery county bar, 
had served as burgess of Norristown, and 
in 1881 was elected to the State legislature. 
He died in December of the same year. 
Mrs. Boyd died suddenly of heart disease in 
1876, and is buried in a handsomely orna- 
mented tomb in Montgomery cemeterv. 

Having had a very lucrative law practice 
for more than fifty years, a large and profit- 
able interest in a stone quarry at Cousho- 
hockeu, a number of farms, and being a 
stockholder in numerous business and other 
corporations, Colonel Boyd is reputed among 
the wealthy men of Norristown. Per- 
sonally, he is considered rather unapproach- 
able, grave in manner, even to the point of 
austerity, but withal a man of genuine 
kindliness of heart and broad human sym- 
pathy. 

His varied and cumulated experience, 
and his attainments as a lawyer, advocate, 
and publicist, together with his wide ac- 



BlOG K A PHICA I. SKETC 1 1 ES. 



389 



quaintance with men and modern vagaries, 
make Colonel Boyd an interesting and 

unique personality. 



T P. HALE JENKINS, a prominent 
<J . member of the Norristown bar, is a 
son of Charles Todd and Sarah L. (Lukens) 
Jenkins, and is a native of Hatfield town- 
ship, this county, where he was born Janu- 
ary 13, 1851. The family from which he 
descended was of Welsh origin, and was 
transplanted to America as early as 1729, 
by Jenkin Jenkins, who came over from 
Wales in that year and settled in what is 
now Montgomery county. They are dis- 
tinguished for longevity, many of the 
Jenkins having attained a ripe old age. 
One of the sons of Jenkin Jenkins was John 
Jenkins, paternal great-great-grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, whose son John 
served as a first lieutenant in the American 
army during the Revolutionary war, and 
personally underwent the trials and priva- 
tions which marked those portentious days 
of mingled pathos and patriotism. When 
the war cloud had lifted and the light of 
independence shone in its stead, John 
Jenkins resumed the employments of peace, 
and reared a large family, among whom 
was a son named for himself. After attain- 
ing manhood, this John Jenkins (grand- 
father) married Ann Todd, a daughter of 
John Todd and a grand-neice of General 
Porter, of Revolutionary fame. He engaged 
in agricultural pursuits and became some- 
what prominent in local affairs. Politically 
lie was a Jacksonian Democrat, and at one- 
time or other held all the official positions 
in his township. From his long tenure of 
that office he was familiarly known among 
the people as " assessor John," and in his 



old age was almost universally addressed as 

"uncle John." He died at North Wales, 
this county, in iss<>, in the ninety-seventh 
year of his age. By his marriage to Ann 
Todd, he had a family of eight children, 
the eldest of whom was Charles Todd 
Jenkins (father), who was born in Gwynedd 
township, this county, April 3, 1812. 
There he grew to manhood, receiving a 
good common school education, and later 
engaged in fanning, which occupation he 
followed for many years. He now resides 
in Hatfield township, at the age of eighty- 
three, and practically retired from all busi- 
ness pursuits. In politics he is a Repub- 
lican, and before the Civil war was an ar- 
dent abolitionist. During his more active 
years he took a prominent part in local 
politics, and was twice a candidate for 
count> T treasurer, but failed of election be- 
cause the county was then strongly Demo- 
cratic. Always public spirited, he has 
taken a lively interest in civic affairs and 
been a firm friend of popular education, 
serving as school director for a number of 
vears. In his religious affiliations he is a 
member of the Society of Friends. For 
some years he has been president of the 
Lexington Fire Insurance company, and 
treasurer of the Spring House and Hilltown 
Turnpike Road company. In 1840 he mar- 
ried Sarah Lukens, a daughter of George 
Lukens, of Towameucin township, Mont- 
gomery county, Penna. Her ancestors 
were of Dutch descent, coming originally 
from Amsterdam, Holland, and settling 
here at the time of William Penn's second 
voyage to Pennsylvania. To their union 
was born a family of eight children : 
George L., now a member of the firm of 
Burgen & Co., manufacturers of glass bot- 
tles, Philadelphia ; Comly, formerly promi- 
nent in Montgomery county politics and a 



39o 



Biographical Sketches. 



candidate for the office of prothonotary, but 
now a resident of Philadelphia ; Parker, 
the freight agent for the Philadelphia and 
Reading- railroad at Colmar, this county ; 
J. P. Hale, the subject of this sketch ; Ella, 
married Oliver M. Evans, teller of the First 
National bank of Lansdale, this county ; 
Learie, wedded George \V. Chapin, a mem- 
ber of the firm of Fleming & Chapin, com- 
mission merchants of Philadelphia and re- 
siding at Wayne, Delaware county ; and 
two who died in infancy. Mrs. Sarah L. 
Jenkins is still living, being now in the 
eightieth year of her age. 

J. P. Hale Jenkins was reared on the old 
Jenkins homestead near Colmar, Hatfield 
township, this county, and educated in the 
public schools and at Pierce's Business col- 
lege, in the city of Philadelphia. He then 
studied law with Hon. George N. Corson, 
of Norristown, and was admitted to the bar 
April 30, 1874, at the age of twenty-three. 
Soon afterward he opened an office in Nor- 
ristown and began the practice of his pro- 
fession, in which he has been ever since con- 
tinuously engaged. He has won standing 
at the bar and is known for his legal attain- 
ments. For six consecutive years he has 
been the solicitor of the town council of 
Norristown, and has acted in the same ca- 
pacity for the board of directors of the poor 
for a period of ten years. In addition to 
his law practice, Mr. Jenkins has been 
prominently identified with a number of 
large business enterprises in this county 
and elsewhere. For fourteen years he has 
been a director in the Fidelity Mutual Life 
association of Philadelphia, and is also a 
director of the Stony Creek Railroad com- 
pany, the Perkiomen Railroad company, 
the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York 
Railroad company, and the Norristown 
Title, Trust and Safe Deposit company. 



Since 1877 he has been secretary of the 
Excelsior Saving Fund and Loan associa- 
tion, of Norristown, and for ten years was 
president of the Humane Fire company. 
In 1886 he served as president of the State 
Firemen's association of Pennsylvania, and 
was actively interested in the movement 
which culminated in the centennial cele- 
bration of the evacuation of Valley Forge, 
in 1878, and subsequently took an active 
part in the movement leading to the pas- 
sage of the bill creating Valley Forge park. 
Incidental to these movements, he edited a 
book entitled " Valley Forge," containing 
the anniversary, centennial and dedicatory 
exercises used upon various occasions. He 
was identified with the effort which re- 
sulted in the erection of the Charity hos- 
pital in Norristown, and served as chairman 
of the committee on building during its 
construction. These facts, from a number 
of others that might be presented, serve to 
show the public spirit of Mr. Jenkins. He 
has also shown an interest in educational 
matters and has served for a number of 
years as a school director. Since 1882 he 
has been a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity, and is also connected with Norris 
Lodge No. 430, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, which he has represented in the 
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania since 1877. 
For twelve years he has been chairman of 
the committee of appeals on charges for the 
Grand Lodge of the State, and served as 
district deputy of this district for six years. 
On December 30, 1875, Mr. Jenkins was 
wedded to Ella C. Slight, a daughter of 
Augustus Slight, of Ouakertown, Bucks 
county, this State. To Mr. and Mrs. Jen- 
kins have been born three daughters : Lelia, 
born July 28, 1877, who was recently gradu- 
ated from the Norristown high school ; 
Helen, born August 24, 1881 ; and Olive, 



Biographical Sketches. 



39i 



born February 24, 1887, both now attend- 
ing the public schools of Norristown. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Jenkins 
has always been an ardent Republican, and 
carrying the same energy into politics that 
characterizes his business and professional 
life, it was not long until he was recog- 
nized as one of the leaders of his party in 
Montgomery county. He was sent as a 
delegate from Pennsylvania to the national 
convention which nominated Rlaine for 
the presidency in 1884, has been a delegate 
to a number of State conventions, and has 
presided over four congressional conven- 
tions in this (the Seventh) congressional 
district. For many years he has taken a 
lively interest in all county conventions of 
his party, and in 1894 was a candidate for 
the nomination for State senator from this 
senatorial district. 



JOSEPH SLINGLUFF, who is now 

>J serving as justice of the peace and asses- 
sor in Norristown, is a son of Samuel and 
Mary (Harvey) Slingluff, and was born 
March 22, 1815, in Whitemarsh township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. The 
Slingluffs are of direct German descent, the 
family being transplanted to America bv 
John Slingluff (grandfather), who left the 
fatherland while yet a young man, and 
crossing the Atlantic settled in Montgom- 
ery county about the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century. He was a farmer by occu- 
pation, and was distinguished by all the 
sturdy virtues of his race. His death oc- 
curred at his home in Cheltenham town- 
ship. He reared a family of several chil- 
dren, one of whom was Samuel Slingluff 
(father), who was born on the old homestead 
in that township, and in early manhood 



learned the trade of tailor, at which he 
worked for a number of years. In later life 
he turned his attention to agricultural pur- 
suits and became quite prosperous as a far- 
mer and stockman. Politically he was an 
old line Whig. He married Mary Harvey, 
of this county, and by that marriage had a 
family of seven children, only two of whom 
now survive : Mary, now in the ninetieth 
year of her age, and Joseph, the subject of 
this sketch. The deceased were : Hannah, 
Elizabeth, John, Charles and Catharine. 

Joseph Slingluff was reared on the farm 
in Whitpain township, this county, and re- 
ceived his education in the subscription 
schools of his neighborhood. After work- 
ing on the farm for some time he learned 
the trade of stonemason, and followed that 
occupation for six or eight years. At the 
end of that time he embarked in the general 
merchandise business at Norristown, which 
he continued successfully for a period of 
eight years, and subsequent! v engaged in 
the hotel business at Fremont, Schuylkill 
county, this State. Later he removed to 
Phcenixville, Chester county, where he con- 
ducted the hotel business for some time, and 
then returned to Montgomery, locating at 
Conshohocken. He removed to Norris- 
town, where he has since resided. For 
twelve years Mr. Slingluff occupied the po- 
sition of notary public in Norristown, and 
for twenty years was largely engaged in 
dealing in real estate. In 1892 he was ap- 
pointed a justice of the peace to fill the 
vacancy, and was regularly elected to that 
office in 1893, the duties of which position 
he is still discharging with acceptability. 
Politically, Squire Slingluff is a staunch Re- 
publican. He has served a^ school director 
and was elected assessor in [892, of which 
office he is the present incumbent. 

On August 15, 1838, Mr. Slingluff was 



392 



Biographical Sketches. 



married to Sarah H inkle, a daughter of 
John and Mary Hinkle, of Whitpain town- 
ship, this county. To them were born nine 
children, three sons and six daughters : 
Charles, now a resident of Norristown ; 
Ella, married Daniel A. Reiff, connected 
with the treasury department at Washing- 
ton, D. C; Ida, wedded John Wood, jr., of 
Conshohocken ; Laura, wife of John W. 
Ham-, of Norristown ; Mary E., deceased ; 
Joseph and Sarah (twins), also deceased ; 
John H., who was killed at the battle of the 
Wilderness, May 6, 1864, and Kate, de- 
ceased. 



HIRAM CORSON, M. D., who for a 
period of sixty years enjoyed a large 
and lucrative practice in medicine in a wide 
district, whose centre was Plymouth Meet- 
ing, and who is known and revered as one 
of the broad minded and thoroughly 
progressive physicians of his day, is now, at 
the ripe age of eighty-five years, living re- 
tired amid the scenes of his early profes- 
sional triumphs. His has been, certainly, 
a varied career, not always without its trials, 
but nevertheless uniformly brilliant, and 
one that made him respected and esteemed 
not only by the laity but also by his pro- 
fessional compatriots in this and other 
countries. 

He is a descendant of the Huguenots, 
who sought relief from religious oppression 
by flight from their native France to South 
Carolina. One of the two vessels that set 
out with these pilgrims from France ar- 
rived at Staten Island, and on this bark 
came Cornelius Corson and Maritie, his 
wife, the original immigrant ancestors of 
the family. They, with several other 
families, came to Northampton township, 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where they 



bought land and soon became successful 
farmers. Benjamin Corson, a son of Cor- 
nelius, was of this party, and his son, Benja- 
min 2nd, married Maria Sedan. Their 
son, Benjamin 3rd, married Sarah Dungan, 
grand-daughter of Rev. Thomas Dungan, 
who was a son of William and Lady 
Weston Dungan. The Dungans were refu- 
gees from England on account of the perse- 
cution of the Baptists. 

Joseph Corson, father of Dr. Hiram Cor- 
son, was a sou of Benjamin and Sarah 
(Dungan) Corson. He married Hannah 
Dickinson, a daughter of Joseph Dickinson, 
and a descendant of the first Dickinson, of 
Pennsylvania, whose ancestry is traced back 
to Charles Dickinson, a merchant of Lon- 
don. The three sons of Charles Dickinson 
were followers of George Fox's teachings 
and the}" immigrated to Virginia. His sou, 
John, came to Maryland, and his son, Wil- 
liam, settled at Plymouth Meeting, Mont- 
gomery count}-. After reaching in the 
backward view Charles Dickinson, of Lon- 
don, we can trace his ancestry back to the 
seventeenth century and Dr. Corson's ma- 
ternal ancestry to the eleventh century 
through the noble family of Dudley. Han- 
nah Dickinson Corson, Dr. Corson's mother, 
was a daughter of Hannah Wright (wife of 
Joseph Dickinson), daughter of John 
Wright, a Friend, of Upper Gwynedd, in 
this county, who had come from Wales 
where Friends were not kindly regarded by 
church people. 

Dr. Hiram Corson therefore traces his 
line of ancestry through three lines of re- 
formers, viz.: Quakers, Baptists and Hugue- 
nots. He was born in Plymouth township 
October 10, 1810, and began school at the 
earl}- age of six years in the Friends' school 
at the Plymouth Meeting house, and con- 
tinued to attend Friends' school there for 




/^ht^^ C^t^T^Z^- /t^tfjO-Z^— </£*?*> 4/.- 



N/V 



Biographical Sketches. 



393 



many years. When older he aided his 
father in the store and on the farm until he- 
was eighteen years of age. Then he went 
to a Friends' select school in Philadelphia, 
after which, when nearly twenty years of 
age, he began the study of medicine with 
his cousin, Dr. Richard I). Corson, at New 
Hope, Bucks county. He graduated from 
the University of Pennsylvania after two 
years of close study, and at this date, 1895, 
is the only member of his large class of 
graduates that is living. 

Dr. Corson began to practice his profes- 
sion in the immediate vicinity of his early 
home, nearby Friends' Meeting house, and 
he soon enjoyed a large practice and in time 
succeeded to the practice of Dr. Joseph Lee- 
dom, who was far advanced in years. In 
1833 Dr. Corson married Ann Jones Foulke, 
but as he loved her best under the old 
familiar name, " Nancy," he has always re- 
tained it. She was the eldest daughter of 
Edward and Tacy (Jones) Foulke. In the 
summer of 1833 Dr. Corson built a home 
not far from the Friends' Meeting house 
and here, for sixty years, he had a large- 
practice, yielding him an abundant income 
for all the family needs. During the years 
from 1830 to 1861, when the slaveholders 
brought war upon the country, he was an 
uncompromising opponent of slavery, and 
in 183- he, with a few friends, formed an 
anti-slavery society. This little band of 
abolitionists held many meetings to stir up 
the people against slavery, but for years 
they met most bitter opposition and it was 
often difficult to secure a place for meeting, 
and these meetings were often disturbed by 
the rowdy class, urged on secretlv by those 
holding a high moral place in the commu- 
nity. Dr. Corson then just having begun 
to practice medicine was, because of his ad- | 
vocacy of the abolition movement, boy- 



cotted by the pro-slavery advocates, but re- 
gardless of that, he boldly held to his pur- 
pose, and during the many years that the 
strife went on made seventy public speeches 
on abolition and temperance. The boy- 
cott did not harm him except for a very short 
time, as he had aroused the people to think 
of the subject, and brought them one by 
one to stand by his side in advocacy of the 
unconditional abolition of slavery. 

Dr. Corson retired from the active prac- 
tice of medicine in 1888. Soon after he 
started in practice he inaugurated a great 
and at that time startling reform in the 
treatment of all febrile diseases, and above 
all in the treatment of measles and other 
eruptive diseases. Hot teas and hot drinks 
only were allowed then for these patients, 
and cold water was considered strangely 
fatal. Dr. Corson caused consternation 
among fond mothers and nurses by direct- 
ing the plentiful use of cold water as a bev- 
erage in such cases. Even his colleagues 
in his profession, far and near, were amazed 
at this radical reform, but, as was soon 
learned, their disastrous prophesies came to 
naught. From that time forward, during 
sixty years, in which 3,041 children were 
born under his supervision, hundreds and 
hundreds of them when suffering from at- 
tacks ol measles were treated with very lit- 
tle medicine, but were not only allowed to 
drink cold water to allay thirst, but it was 
urged upon them as the proper remedy to 
allay their fever. Xot a single child was 
lost by death. Fortified and justified by 
his success from the very beginning in this 
reformed treatment in measles, he carried it 
into the treatment of all other affections 
where fever was present. The reform was 
soon caught up by others and the hot drinks 
have been discarded by progressive phy- 
sicians in all febrile affections. 



394 



Biographical Sketches. 



Dr. Corson soon became an acknowledged 
authority on the treatment of all fever affec- 
tions and many papers were prepared and 
read by him, and have since found place in 
reference books and reports of medical 
meetings. More than sixty of these papers 
were prepared by Dr. Corson, and yet, great 
as has been his labor in his practice, he 
does not regard it as the work of his life. 
In his own opinion his great achievement 
was his championship of the female physi- 
cian and his great success after years of 
hard struggle and bitter opposition. The 
Woman's Medical college, of Philadelphia, 
was opened for students in 1850. For ten 
vears the college created little comment. 
Every two years a class was graduated, but 
when the eighth class received their 
diplomas, the male doctors seemed to 
awaken to the fact that their hitherto sacred 
domain had been invaded. They began an 
active opposition to the recognition of the 
female physician and carried the war into 
their city and county societies and even into 
the State and national associations. Reso- 
lutions were passed by the Philadelphia 
physicians and sent to the several county 
societies. Dr. Corson was corresponding 
secretary of the Montgomery county society 
and he laid the resolution before his col- 
leagues, and through his influence the fol- 
lowing substitute was adopted by them : 

" Resolved, that it is with regret that we 
feel ourselves, after a full and free discus- 
sion, compelled to dissent from the action 
of the Philadelphia County Medical society, 
as we believe the time has fully come when 
women should not be excluded from the 
medical profession ; but if properly edu- 
cated and observant of the code of medical 
ethics, should receive the same treatment 
from the male members of the profession as 
is accorded to the male members thereof." 

At this meeting held May 26, i860, there j 



were only nine members present, viz.: Doc- 
tors B. F. Poley, Wm. Corson, Hiram Cor- 
son, Louis (Corson) Read, Frank Yanartz- 
dalen, Jonathan Comfort, YVm. P. Robin- 
son, John Schrack and Milton Newberry. 
( )n this resolution the vote was seven in 
favor. The names are given because on the 
vote of the first seven hung an important 
issue. Dr. Corson was then delegated to lay 
this before the State Medical societv at its 
next meeting. The resolution copied here 
was but one of several expressing the 
strongest opposition to this and any other 
action taken against women physicians. 
When Dr. Corson at the next meeting of 
the State society in Philadelphia, presented 
them, instant opposition was shown, and 
he was strongly rebuked even by some of 
his warmest friends. Some threatened him, 
some appealed to him not to bring into the 
society subjects likely to create bad feeling 
among the members — but all in vain. He 
stood bravely for the resolution. This was 
in June, i860, and year after year, from that 
time until June 14, 1871, he maintained his 
position, when finally a resolution to re- 
scind the resolution presented by the Phila- 
delphia County Medical society, was finally 
adopted and women recognized as full and 
worthy members of the profession. 

During these many years of strife, Dr. 
Corson was the target against which the op- 
position hurled its arrows of abuse. This 
work being done, harmony began to prevail, 
and in 1893 female physicians were admitted 
to the Philadelphia Medical society as well 
as to other county societies. Dr. Corson 
was appointed by Gov. Hartranft, trustee of 
the Lunatic hospital at Harrisburg, and was 
continued there, by reappointment by him 
and Gov. Hoyt, through a busy period of 
seven years. There he saw the great need 
of having educated women physicians to 



Biographical Sketches. 



395 



take entire medical charge of the insane of 
their sex, and the great impropriety of hav- 
ing male physicians perform that duty. So, 
in June, 1877, he asked the .State Medical 
society for the appointment of a committee 
of three persons to report on the propriety of 
haying our female insane under the exclu- 
sive care of female doctors. This commit- 
tee was appointed. As chairman, he made 
the report, quite an exhaustive one, which 
was read at Pittsburg the next year and 
s*ave irreat satisfaction, but was strenuously 
opposed by all the superintendents of the 
State hospitals, and during the next session 
of the legislature a '" bill," drawn by Dr. 
Corson, was enacted into a law despite the 
most persistent opposition of the superin- 
tendents and their friends against Dr. Cor- 
son, whom they denounced in unmeasured 
terms. It so happened that the great hos- 
pital for the insane, at Norristown, was just 
ready to receive patients, and the thirteen 
trustees were a unit in organizing it as Dr. 
Corson suggested by dispensing with a 
superintendent and taking the management 
into their own hands, whereas in the organ- 
ization under a superintendent, the trustees 
were utterly ignored, and regarded as a use- 
less body. See now that great hospital, be- 
yond any in the whole country, with its 
nearly 2,000 patients, at times, with female 
physicians to care for the female insane, and 
with imployment for them — a great neces- 
sity as Dr. Corson perceived in his walks 
through the wards in the hospitals at Har- 
risburg. And what else ? Nearly a thou- 
sand female patients at one time in the hos- 
pital, and yet, all torturing restraints, so 
long used by superintendents, entirely 
abandoned and the patients governed by 
kindness and the soothing, consoling treat- 
ment of Dr. Alice Bennett. 

From the verv besfinine of the new move- 



ment until the present time the employ- 
ment of female physicians in insane hospit- 
als has been a wonderful success, and both 
in the management and in the results in the 
way of cured patients, it shows to have been 
the one great reform needed. To Dr. Cor- 
son is due honor for taking the initative 
and working constantly for this achieve- 
ment. At present there are 40 women phy- 
sicians employed in thirty-four hospitals in 
thirteen States. He was just entering on 
the seventieth year of his life when he- 
saw the fulfillment of this work, and has 
just reason to be proud of his victor)'. 
But a few months had passed after the 
recognition of the female physician when 
the faculty of the Woman's college, togeth- 
gether with twelve eminent male and as 
many female physicians, gave a public re- 
ception to Dr. Corson at the Bellevue hotel, 
Philadelphia, and as the State Medical 
society was then in session in that city, the 
reception was a grand and especially enjoy- 
able one to the large number who availed 
themselves of the opportunity to express 
their regards for the unselfish and valuable 
work done by him. 

In addition to these many evidences of 
his efforts in their behalf, the following cer- 
tificate was presented to Dr. Corson : 

"The Faculty of the Women's college, of 
Pennsylvania, believing that the present use- 
ful and honorable position of women physi- 
cians is mainly due to the disinterested, per- 
sistent and energetic efforts of Dr. Hiram Cor- 
son, of Plymouth Meeting, desire to convey 
to Dr. Corson with mutual congratulations 
their hearty thanks and expressions of the 
highest esteem. Francis Emily White, 
Chairman of the committee." 

" This report was unanimously adopted 
and the dean instructed to send a copy of 
the same to Dr. Corson. Respectfully, 
Rachel Bodley, 
Dean of the Woman's Medical College." 



396 



Biographical Sketches. 



During the ten years prior to 1894, Dr. 
Corson wrote many articles for publication 
in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical 
Reporter, denouncing the then fatal treat- 
ment of pneumonia, and was invited by the 
Philadelphia County Medical society to ad- 
dress them on that subject. He was too ill 
to do this, but a paper prepared by him was 
read by his grand-nephew, Dr. George W. 
Highly. Resolutions were passed by the 
society thanking Dr. Corson and commend- 
ing his views. 

Dr. Hiram Corson and Ann Jones Foulke 
had nine children, all of whom grew 
up. They were as follows : Edward 
Foulke, graduate of medicine, who entered 
the United States navy in 1859, died June 
22, 1864, unmarried ; Joseph, a graduate of 
medicine, Surgeon in United States army, 
married 1874 Ada, daughter of W. A. Car- 
ter, of Fort Bridge, Wyoming ; Caroline, 
died 1865, unmarried ; Tacy Foulke, wife of 
W. L. Cresson ; Charles Follen, married 
1876, Mary Lukens, and in 1889 Margaret 
Slemmer, died 1889 ; Susan Foulke, wife 
of Jawood Lukens, of Conshohocken ; Ber- 
tha, wife of James Yocum, of Philadelphia; 
Frances Stockton, wife of Richard H. Day, 
of Philadelphia; Mary Adamson, unmarried. 



HENRY M. TRACY, Esq., a resident 
of Conshohocken, and an active lawyer 
of southeastern Pennsylvania, is a son of 
James and Margaret (O'Brien) Tracy, and 
was born in Conshohocken, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1861. 
He received his education in the Consho- 
hocken high school and Broad street acad- 
emy of Philadelphia, from both of which 
educational institutions he graduated with 
good rank and standing. Leaving school 



he entered the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, from which he 
graduated in 1882. After graduation he was 
addmitted to practice in the courts of Phila- 
delphia and Montgomery counties, and since 
then has made a specialty of civil and 
orphans court business. His special lines 
of practice has brought him constantlv in 
contact with the industrial enterprises of 
southeastern Pennsylvania, in whose welfare 
he takes a deep interest. He has been ac- 
tive in the formation and promotion of many 
business enterprises in Conshohocken and 
the vicinity, and is a director in the follow- 
ing corporations : The Conshohocken Gas 
Light company, the Conshohocken Electric 
Light and Power company, the, Consho- 
hocken Galvanizing and Tinning company, 
the Lougmead Iron company, the Recorder 
Publishing company, the Norristown Title, 
Trust and Safe Deposit company. He is sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Conshohocken 
Gas company, and secretary of and solicitor 
for the Reliance, Guarantee, Fidelity, Con- 
shohocken and Progress Building and Loan 
associations, of Conshohocken. Mr. Tracy 
is a member of the Philadelphia Lawyers 
club, and Montgomery County Bar associa- 
tion, and of the Merion Cricket club of 
Haverford college. He is a Democrat in 
politics, was solicitor for his borough for 
two years, and secretary of the Democratic 
county committee for two terms. Mr. 
Tracy is a man of wide observation and 
travel, and has made several voyages to 
the old world, visiting the most noted and 
important places in England, Ireland, 
France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, 
Belgium and Morocco. He is capable and 
energetic and has been successful in his pro- 
fession. 

James Tracy, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, is of Irish descent, and has 




2^-^* 





«^ 



Biographical Sketches. 



397 



always lx.cn a man of prominence and influ- 
ence in the communities in which he lias 
resided. He was born at Port Carbon, in 
Schuylkill county, in 1832, .but reared in 
Plymouth township, this county, where he 
received a good English education in the 
common schools. After attaining his ma- 
jority, he remained with his father for a 
number of years and assisted in the manage- 
ment of the farms and a large iron ore mine. 
In these agricultural and mining pursuits 
he acquired valuable experience and a splen- 
did business education, and in later years 
when he resolved upon embarking ill his 
present large and profitable flour, feed and 
coal enterprises, he was fully qualified to 
to win the ample success and patronage 
which he enjoys to-day. Mr. Tracy is one 
of the most substantial and reliable business 
men of his borough. He is a director of the 
First National bank and the Water com- 
pany of Conshohocken, also of the Consho- 
hockeu Woolen Mills company, and the 
Union Mutual Fire and Storm Insurance 
company. Reliable, accurate, prompt and 
energetic he gives force and direction to 
whatever enterprise he undertakes. I [e has 
served as burgess and member of town 
council of Conshohocken, but beyond hold- 
ing that office has never sought for nor 
accepted public place or position, although 
offered such frequently. 



HON. HENRY LONGAKER was bom 
February 4, 1792, at Parker Ford, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, and died 
November 2, 1872. He was a son of Jacob 
and Catharine Longaker, he and his twin 
brother Isaac being the seventh by birth 
in a family of eleven children. His mother 
was a daughter of John Detwilcr, of the 



townships of Skippack and Perkiomen. 

She was the tenth child of a family of 
thirteen: three sous, Abraham, Jacob, and 
John ; and nine daughters, Susanna, wife 
of Henry Kolb ; Barbara, of Isaac Cassel ; 
Mary, of John Landes ; Elizabeth, of Nich- 
olas Haldterman ; Hester, of Henry Hun- 
sicker; Sarah, of John Mover; Catharine, 
of Jacob Longaker; Hannah, of Jacob 
Benner ; Magdalena, of Abraham ( rotwals ; 
Salome, of John Connor. All these had 
children except Susanna Kolb, and their 
ndaiits at this time are numerous, 
many of whom are living in Montgomery 
and adjoining counties. The father of 
Henry removed from Chester count} about 
1797 to his farm on the .Schuylkill river 
near Pawling's Bridge, where he died about 
.December, 1806. His mother survived his 
father, and at the time of his father's 
death he could speak the English and 
German languages, although the latter was 
the usual speech of tin- family. Growing 
up, and remaining in a neighborhood 
where the English was generally spoken, 
he lost his knowledge of the German, but 
regained it while he was sheriff and asso- 
ciate judge by intercourse with the people 
living in the German districts of the 
county. His education was limited to a 
few months during each year and to such 
branches as were then taught in the local 
schools of that neighborhood. His mother 
died about March, 1S17. He was a car- 
penter by trade, and his twin brother, 
Isaac, a shoemaker. He was a soldier in 
the service of the United States in the War 
of [812, a private in the company of which 
John Hall was captain, in the 65th regi- 
ment, commanded by Colonel John P. 
Pearson, and in the brigade commanded 

by brigadier General Samuel Smith. He 
entered the service under date of Octobei 



59 8 



Bn (Graphical Sketches. 



is. 1N14. (See Vol. XII, Penna Archives, 
Second Series, page 171). 

He was married to Catharine Brower, 
the tenth child of Henry and Barbara 
Brower, in January, 1816. In August, 
! s; 7, he purchased from H. Savior two 
tracts of land containing seventy-nine acres, 
located in Upper Providence township, 
about one-half mile from the Perkiomen 
Bridge, fronting on a road leading from 
the turnpike to Phoenixville. and lying 
partlv on the Perkiomen Creek. Here he 
and his wife commenced farming. In 
182 1 this farm was sold to John Burke, 
and soon thereafter he purchased a farm of 
about ninety acres in Lower Providence 
township, lying along the Skippack creek, 
about one-half mile from its confluence 
with the Perkiomen creek, and near a 
point called " The Level," on the road 
leading from Evansburg to Tyson's Mill. 
Here the fanning was continued and the 
rearing and education of his children as 
well, until the spring of 1841, when he 
purchased and removed to the property 
known as The Bridge, on the Perkiomen 
and Reading turnpike in Upper Providence 
township. At this place his death occurred 
in 1X72. His wife died in December, i860, 
and soon thereafter he made his home 
with his youngest son. In 1854 he pur- 
chased in Xorriton township, adjacent to 
the borough of Xorristown, a farm of 
ninet\ -eight acres from John Markley, and 
in the following April sold it to Elijah 
Lewis, with the exception of ten acres; and 
from the date of that sale, in real estate 
transactions this property has been known 
generally as the Lewis farm. By the ex- 
tension of the boundaries of the borough it 
became part of the municipal corporation, 
and the greater part of it is now held in 
town lots whereon many handsome build- 



ings on DeKalb and Powell streets have 
been erected. He also purchased from 
John Markley, about the time of the pur- 
chase of this, farm, several town lots on 
Penn street, then called Court House alley. 
Before his marriage he and his brother 
Isaac, as tenants in common, purchased 
from Daniel Kolb in 1S14 a farm of 106 '_■ 
acres near Shanuonville, adjoining lands of 
Peter Skeen, Joseph Crawford and others, 
and in the same year sold So-^ acres of it 
to William Logan. Isaac married Cathar- 
ine Diehl, of Plymouth township, and 
Henry lived with them for awhile. The 
twin brothers from infancy to manhood 
were inseparable as companions and play- 
mates, and in their first purchase of real es- 
tate they were jointly interested. Their re- 

, semblance was so exact that their father 
could not tell one from the other, and their 
mother was the only one of the family who 
could distinguish them. They were dressed 
alike, alike in growth, in manner and tastes, 
and when one committed an ofnenee and 
chastisement was apprehended, he would 
run quickly to the other, and the offender's 
identity would be lost ; their father not 
knowing which to correct would sometimes 
punish both, and in addressing either one 
of them he would usually say Henry or 
Isaac. In their manhood, and while they 
lived together, their neighbors would often 
ask Isaac about carpenter work and Henry 
about the mending and making of boots 
and shoes. It is related that Isaac's wife 
could not distinguish them except by a 
slight difference in their walk. Francis 
Longaker, the second son of Isaac, bears a 
stronger resemblance to his Uncle Henry 
than does any of Henry's children bear to 
their own father, and Daniel Longaker, the 
first son of Isaac, and A Brower Longaker, 

I the seventh child of Henry, resembled each 



Biographical Sketches. 



399 



other more strongly than they did any one 

of their own brothers. A. Brower resembles 
his father in features more nearly than does 
ony of the other children. 

In 1825 Henry Longaker was appointed 
and commissioned by Governor Andrew 
Shultz, during good behavior, justice of the 
peace for district Xo. 2, composed of the 
townships of Lower and Upper Providence, 
Limerick and Skippack, and Perkiomen. 
In October, 1831, he was elected sheriff and 
commissioned for a term of three years. In 
1836 he was elected a member of the House 
of Representatives of the commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, and re-elected in 1837. In 
[851 he was elected one of the associate 
judges and commissioned for a term of five 
years, and was re-elected in 1855 and com- 
missioned for another term of five years. In 
[834 and 1835 he was colonel of the militia. 
Besides these public offices he was promi- 
nent and active in all matters that con- 
cerned the general welfare of the people of 
his neighborhood, and his opinion was often 
sought and much respected as well as gen- 
erally accepted as final. He was an incor- 
porator of the Perkiomen and Sumneytown 
Turnpike company, whose road was con- 
structed in 1846, and later one of the origin- 
ators of the Perkiomen Railroad company, 
the construction of which was commenced 
in 1867 and completed in 1876. For main 
years he was a member of the board of 
directors of each corporation. 

His official duties were discharged with 
the utmost integrity; possessed of great com- 
mon sense, read} - to perceive motives and 
acts, reading character as if it were by in- 
tuition, having an excellent judgment as 
regards facts as well as law, he rarely erred, 
and generally arrived at correct equitable 
and legal conclusions. 

As a justice of the peace he discounten- 



anced hasty action in minor offences, where 
passion seemed to be the ruling motive 
rather than a subserving of the public good. 
He would often send away the complain- 
ant without granting a warrant, saying that 
"he would consider the law, and if in the 
meantime you do not change your mind 
and you come again, I will advise you what 
it will be best to do." In most instances 
the case thus ended. In civil actions he 
would advise the would-be suitor that an 
amicable settlement of the claim, or of ac- 
counts, was usually better than a compul- 
sory suit, and thus he prevented many 
frivolous prosecutions and actions from 
occurring amongst his neighbors. 

As a legislator he was apt, active and in- 
fluential. Although not a learned and pol- 
ished speaker, he could present his views 
briefly, freely and intelligently on all occa- 
sions which required him so to do. Although 
in some parts of the county many of his 
constituents were opposed to a system of 
public schools, both in and out of the legis- 
lature, he was a firm, active and influential 
supporter of the schools, and he voted for 
the act of 1837, whereby the system was 
enlarged and its privileges extended. < m 
his return home he co-operated with his 
neighbors in building the school house in 
1837 at a point known as " The Level." At 
this school his eldest children received their 
principal education and his youngest chil- 
dren were taught their earliest lessons. 

As an associate judge he was industrious 
and attentive, listening patiently to the ar- 
gument of counsel involving questions of 
fact blended with the legal principles ap- 
plicable, and was often consulted by the 
presiding law judge as to the views which 
he entertained, and especially when matters 
had been discussed which were largely in 
the discretionary power of the court. Illus- 



400 



Biographical Sketches. 



trative of his habit in going to correct con- 
clusions as regards questions involving the 
facts and law, may be produced the suit of 
Buckinan, as complainant, against Phipps, 
et al., as defendants, in equity in the com- 
mon pleas of Montgomery county, No. 3, 
August term, A. D., 1856, and revised by 
the supreme court, and reported in 30 Penn- 
svlvania, page 401. The complainant and 
defendant had entered into a written con- 
tract for the exchange of certain lands and 
tenements, one of which was a grist and 
flouring mill ; there had been part perform- 
ance by executing deeds for most of the 
tenements involved. The bill was for full 
performance, and the defendants resisted 
the prayer of the bill upon the allegation 
that fraudulent representations as to the 
condition of the machinery and its capacity 
of production had been made. Upon this 
issue much testimony was taken, and the 
contention of the complainants was that it 
was insufficient to establish a fraud, and ac- 
cording to the law applicable to the case, 
the defendants had failed to interpose a 
good defence. The presiding law judge 
held that the law and facts were with the 
defendants, but Judges Longaker and Mc- 
Glathery, the lay associates, decided that 
the defense both in fact and law had failed 
to establish fraud by misrepresentation, and 
a decree was accordingly entered by them 
as a majority of the court, that the com- 
plainant have judgment for specific perform- 
ance, and that the defendants be made to 
account for profits. The president judge 
in announcing the decision of the associate- 
judges said, " This case has received as at- 
tentive consideration as it was in my power 
to bestow upon it, and I have now to an- 
nounce the result of our deliberations upon 
it. My associates are of the opinion that 
the contract set forth in the complainant's 



bill ought to be enforced and specific per- 
formance thereof be decreed, and other re- 
lief granted according to the prayer of the 
bill. My own opinion is that the testimony 
leaves the equity of the bill involved in so 
much doubt, that without pronouncing 
upon it, one way or the other, I would leave 
the parties respectively to their remedies at 
law, which for aught I can perceive, 
will afford adequate redress. The opinion 
of the majority of the court being otherwise, 
must prevail." The decree was then or- 
dered to be entered to which the president 
judge filed his dissent. 

An appeal was taken to the supreme 
court, and the decree ordered by the associ- 
ates, and entered as the judgment of the 
court, was affirmed. This case is repro- 
duced, somewhat, in extenso, because of an 
erroneous opinion often entertained, that 
the associate judges, unlearned in the law, 
could not exercise power co-extensive with 
the law judge when it required at least the 
presence of one of them to sit with the law 
judge to constitute a quorum of the court, 
and when the question to be decided re- 
quired a majority of the court to concur. 
Not only in this case, but on all occasions 
the law judge regarded this right of his as- 
sociates with proper deference, and invited 
them to exercise it without apprehending 
any friction upon his part. 

A few years later, another notable case is 
presented in the Orphan's court in the 
estate of Doctor James Anderson. Mary 
\Y. Anderson, the widow of the decedent, 
about one year after the death of her hus- 
band, was cited to determine " whether or 
not " she would elect to take under the pro- 
visions of the will, or her dower according 
to the intestate laws. In answer to the 
citation she appeared in open court and de- 
clined and refused to accept the bequests 



Biographical Sketches. 



r " 



and devise of the will and elected to take 
her dower according to the statutory law. 

Against her election to take dower, a pro- 
test was hied by the guardian of some of the 
minor children, alleging that she had pre- 
viously in fact and in law, elected to take 
the devise and bequest tinder the will. To 
determine this contention, the question was 
referred to an auditor who decided that by 
acts in pais, but not by express agreement, 
she must be held to have elected to take 
under the will. Exceptions were filed to 
this report, and the president judge in an 
elaborate opinion, covering almost eleven 
pages of the reported case, affirmed the au- 
ditor's finding. Associate Judge Longaker 
dissented from this opinion, and the other 
associate agreed with the president judge. 
On appeal taken and heard in the supreme 
court, the case was reversed, thus showing 
that Judge Longaker had formed a correct 
opinion as to the law and the facts of the 
case. 

Politically a Democrat, he was an influ- 
ential leader, and generally popular with 
his party. He was very companionable, 
largely acquainted in every portion of the 
county, abounding in general information 
and in reminiscences ; and apt in anedotes, 
he often became the central figure, and 
always was a welcome companion amongst 
his acquaintances. 

His was more than an ordinary person- 
ality and commanded attention in every 
sphere in which he moved. In his physical 
structure he was shapely and well formed; 
in height, about five feet ten inches; in 
weight, about one hundred and eighty 
pounds ; slightly corpulent, but very mus- 
cular, strong and wiry, with great vitality 
and endurance typical of longevity ; large 
chest and square shoulders; well poised 
head, a little larger than medium ; high 

?6 



forehead ; very prominent and strongly 
marked Roman nose, with bridge ; mild blue 
eyes; well cut mouth with firmly set thin 
lips; a complacent, good natured counten- 
ance; slightly blonde complexion; chestnut 
brown hair, slightly curling, with top of the 
head bald; face always smoothly shaven; 
sanguine nervous temperament ; possessed 
of great self control, self reliant, readily 
adapting himself to circumstances; enjoying 
life without ostentation, resignedly accept- 
ing misfortune or even adversity not brood- 
ing over it, but bearing it heroically with a 
determined effort to regain in the future 
that which had been lost to the present ; 
always charitable, and in his dealings often 
doing better to his neighbor than he did to 
himself; considerate of the comforts of all 
who came under his roof; dispensing liber- 
ally of his substance to relieve the distress 
of others; the way-farer or even the tramp 
(who were then few), who asked for food 
never went from his door hungry. Of quiet 
domestic habits, he lavishly provided for his 
family ; a kind and loving husband, a fond 
and indulgent father, he was loved and re- 
spected by his children for wdiose welfare 
he manifested the greatest anxiety and for 
whose education, start in business or profes- 
sional life he gave timely and financial 
aid. 

In private transactions he regarded "his 
word as good as his bond," and his rule was 
inflexible to meet all appointments and en- 
gagements with strict punctuality or to give 
timely notice and reasons for his inability to 
do so. His religious sentiments were those 
of his forefathers as taught and promulga- 
ted by the Mennonites, and the Dunkards 
burial ground of the Green Meeting near 
Port Providence, was selected as the place 
of burial of himself, his wife and the un- 
married children wdio died before him, be- 






Biographical Sketches. 



cause of his wife's wishes to be buried where 
several of sisters, who held to the faith of 
the Dunkards, are interred. 



FRANCIS S. WILSON, M. D., a very 
successful physician, of Janettown, is 
a son of Charles and Man- (Bickham) 
Wilson, and was born in the city of Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, January 19, 1844. 
The Wilsons are of Scotch-Irish descent, 
and have been residents for several gener- 
ations in the north of Ireland and around 
the city of Belfast, the region from which 
Francis Wilson, the paternal grandfather 
of Dr. Wilson, came to Abingtown town- 
ship, this county. Francis Wilson was a 
Presbyterian, and wdiile in Ireland married 
Miss Hart, by whom he had eight chil- 
dren : Jane, Eliza, Margaret, John, Samuel, 
Francis, Jr., Captain Charles and Henry. 
Captain Charles Wilson was a carpenter 
and builder in Philadelphia, wdiich latter 
place he left to remove to Cairo, Illinois, 
where he now resides. He served as a 
soldier and was captain of the old Monroe 
guards, of Philadelphia, which helped to 
put down the Philadelphia riots of 1844. 
He wedded Man - Bickham, a daughter of 
George Bickham. They reared a family of 
six children : Charles L., who commanded 
Company D, Third New Jersey infantry, 
was wounded three times and passed sev- 
eral months as a prisoner in Libby prison ; 
George W., adjutant of the Sixty-first Penn- 
sylvania volunteers, was killed at the battle 
of Spottsylvania court-house ; Dr. Francis 
S., Mary E., Jackson and Henry. Jackson 
died at Millersville State normal school at 
the age of seventeen ; Mary E. and Henrv 
died in infancy. 

Dr. F. S. Wilson was taken at six vears of 



age from Philadelphia to Swedesboro, N. J., 
and afterwards was a resident successively 
of Chestnut Hill and Horsham township, in 
which he attended the common schools. 
He was then a student at Tennent select 
school at Hartville, Bucks county, and 
West Jersey academy, Bridgeton, New Jer- 
sey, and afterwards taught school for two 
years in Upper Dublin township. At the 
end of that time he commenced the study 
of medicine with Dr. A. J. Hiues, of Doyles- 
town, Pennsylvania, and after reading the 
required length of time entered Jefferson 
Medical college, from which he was gradu- 
ated in the class of 1870. After graduation 
he came to Jarrettown and succeeded his 
former preceptor in the latter's practice 
there. Dr. Wilson has remained ever since, 
and to-day has a large and remunerative 
practice. 

On February 28, 1872, Dr. Wilson mar- 
ried Isabella F. Kessler, who died May 21, 
1S75, aged thirty years, and left two chil- 
dren, Stella J. and Mary G. After his 
wife's death, Dr. Wilson on February 19, 
1879, wedded Hannah E. Jones, a daughter 
of Dr. Joshua Y. Jones, of Three Tuns, who 
served as lazaretto physician under Gov- 
ernor Shunk, and afterwards was a member 
of the State senate from Montgomery 
county. In politics Dr. Wilson has always 
been a Democrat. He has served as school 
director for two terms and is a member of 
Fort Washington Lodge, No. 308, Free and 
Accepted Masons. He was appointed and 
served under Governor Pattison's first ad- 
ministration as lazeretto physician of Phila- 
delphia. Dr. Wilson has attained rank and 
high standing in his profession. He is ex- 
president of the Montgomery county medi- 
cal society and a member of the Pennsyl- 
vania State Medical society, which latter he 
represented at the medical assembly at New 



Biographical Sketches. 



403 



Orleans in 1886. He isalso a member of the 
American Medical association. During the 
year 1894 he was appointed a delegate by 
the Montgomery County Medical associa- 
tion to the International Medical congress 
which met in Washington, D. C. 



JOSEPH HENRY BRANDT, founder 
J and first editor and proprietor of the 
Norristown Review, is a son of Joseph R. 
and Samaria (Schaffer) Brandt, and was 
born January 27, 1863, in Limerick town- 
ship, this county. He received a rudimen- 
tary education in the public schools of Lim- 
erick township, and at the age of sixteen 
years entered the office of D. F. Graham, 
at Pottstown, to learn the printer's trade. 
During his apprenticeship at the trade he 
worked at different times on the following 
publications: The Pottstown Daily Ledger, 
Pottstown Daily NewsaxiA the Norristown 
National Defender. As a journeyman he 
was one of the first compositors on the Nor- 
ristown Daily Times, and later was general 
news editor of the Norristown Daily Reg- 
ister. In 1883, having made sufficient ad- 
vancement in the art of printing and ob- 
tained a good knowledge of the business 
phase of the same, he embarked in the job 
printing business on his own account. 
Soon afterward he began the publication of 
the Advertiser and in 1887 issued the first 
edition of the Review, the publication of 
which he has continued to the present time; 
since 1890 in partnership with his brother, 
Harvey S. Brandt. The paper is indepen- 
dent in matters political and is devoted to 
the chronicling of local and general news 
and is an organ of potential influence in 
the community. In connection with the 
publication of the Review, they do a large 



business in the job printing line and are the 
printers of the Montgomei r County Pro- 
hibitionist, the organ of the Prohibition 
party in the county, and Boehni's Review, 
the church paper of Boehni's Reformed 
church of Blue Bell, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania Since 1891 they have done 
a thriving trade as bicycle dealers. Mr. 
Brandt is a Democrat politically and was 
the founder of the Jefferson club, the lead- 
ing Democratic club of the county, founded 
in 1SS2. He became its first president and 
officiated in that capacity for three succes- 
sive terms. Joseph Rawn Brandt, the 
father, died in 1S72, at the age of forty-two 
years. Mrs. Samaria (Schaffer) Brandt, the 
mother, is still living, at the age of sixty- 
three years. Religiously he is a member of 
the Reformed church and fraternally a past 
officer of the Knights of the Golden Eagle. 
On June 27, 1894, he married Mrs. Lola M. 
Brooke, a daughter of Rev. A. J. Coffman, 
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
church of Virginia, and an ardent advocate 
of anti-slavery. 



JOHN B. YOST, of Green Lane, is a 
<J member of the well known firm of 
Yost Brothers, carriage builders. He is also 
one of the foremost public spirited men of 
the locality and is at present serving his 
fellow citizens as a niemder of town coun- 
cil. Though a Democrat in party affilia- 
tion, Mr. Yost was not elected solely on ac- 
count of his adherence to the principles of 
the Democracy, but because he was recog- 
nized as a man who had the ability and the 
independence to serve them well. He is 
still a young man, having been born in 
Frederick township on Septembor 27, 1863. 
He is a Pennsylvania German by birth and 



4°4 



Biographical Sketches. 



ancestry, being a son of Henry H. and Hen- 
rietta (Bucher) Yost. His paternal grand- 
father, John Yost, was a well-to-do fanner 
in Frederick township, where he resided 
all his life. He was a staunch Democrat 
and a man of strong influence in his locality. 
He was married to Sallie Hallowbush, and 
they had four children : Henry H., Sophia, 
Maria S and one who died young. 

Henry H. Yost, father of the subject of 
this sketch, was born in Frederick town- 
ship.- He was a farmer and followed that 
business exclusively and to good profit. 
Like his father he too was a Democrat and 
took great interest in local politics. The 
family attend the Reformed church, of 
which all are members. He married Hen- 
rietta Bucher, and their union was blessed 
by eight children : Mary, Franklin, Lizzie, 
Jonas, Amanda, Hinby, John B., Henry and 
Savilla. The parents of this interesting 
family are still living. 

John B. Yost learned the trade of carriage 
building with J. K. Weldman, at Green 
Lane, and followed it as a journeyman un- 
til 1886, when he engaged in the business 
on his own account. He had as his part- 
ner his brother, Henry B. Yost, and the 
firm still continues. Their business is very 
prosperous and they turn out many fine 
carriages and wagons in the course of a 
year. They employ five men besides them- 
selves, and are kept busy all the time. Mr. 
Yost is a Democrat and a member of coun- 
cil. He has been in the latter body four 
years. He is an earnest, active politician 
and one of the leaders of the party in his 
district. Mr. Yost belongs to but one 
secret organization and that the Knights of 
the Golden Eagle. He was married on the 
2ist day of January, 1888, to Sevilla, 
daughter of Henry Sweisford, a well known 
farmer of Frederick township. This mar- 



riage has resulted in a family of three chil- 
dren : Sallie Lowrey, who died in infancy, 
Eva May and Harrv Elmer. 



LEWIS H. DAVIS, farmer, of King-of- 
Prussia, is a son of Joseph W. and 
Ruthanna (Hansell) Davis, and was born 
near Gulf Mills, in Lower Merion town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
November 25, 1838. Joseph W. Davis was 
a son of Mishael Davis, a Whig and stone- 
mason, who resided in Montgomery county. 
Joseph W. Davis, who was born March 7, 
1807, resided successively in Montgomery, 
Delaware, and Chester counties. He re- 
ceived an ordinary education, learned the 
trade of cabinet-maker, but followed fann- 
ing during the greater part of his life. He 
was a Whig politically, and a member and 
deacon of Gidf Christian church ; and died 
October 28, 1865, aged fifty-eight years. In 
1835 Mr. Davis wedded Ruthanna Hansell, 
whose father, Isaac Hansell, was a resident 
of Delaware county, Pennsylvania. They 
have three children : Lorenzo F., Lewis 
H , and Rebecca J., wife of William H. 
Davis. 

Lewis H. Davis was reared in Lower and 
Upper Merion townships and Delaware 
county, and after attending the common 
schools came to Bridgeport, where he 
spent three years in learning the trade of 
carpenter, which he did not follow. After 
completing his apprenticeship he returned 
to Lower Merion township, where he was 
engaged in farming for his father from 
1861 to 1867. In the last named year he 
went to Roxborough, where he farmed 
Charles Magargee's land for five years, and 
then rented a farm in Lower Merion town- 
ship which he tilled for five years. At the 





/ 



<-> c 




i 



Biographical Sketches. 



405 



end of that time he removed to the neigh- 
borhood of King-of-Prussia, and after till- 
ing a farm there for thirteen years, came in 
1890, to his present farm in Upper Merion 
township. 

On November 22, 1866, Mr. Davis mar- 
ried Elizabeth R Dull, a daughter of 
Henry Dull. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have 
five children, four sons and one daughter : 
Charles J., Wallace H., Hattie A., Marvin 
R., and Howard M. 

Lewis H. Davis is a Republican in poli- 
tics, and a member of Bridgeport Baptist 
church. He is also a member of Pacific 
Lodge No. 82, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and Merion Grange No. 112, 
Patrons of Husbandry. He has been as- 
sessor of Upper Merion township for fifteen 
years. 



PKKCIYAL K. GABLE, proprietor of 
the Rambo House, Norristown, is one 
of the most prominent hotel men in the 
county. He was born in Skippaekville, 
February 27, i860, and comes from a long 
line of German-American ancestors, all of 
whom were famous as hotel men in their 
day. He is a son of Jesse and Mary (Kem- 
merer) Gable, both of whom are natives of 
Montgomery county. His ancestors on his 
father's side came from Rhenish Bavaria 
in 1732 and fixed their home in Montgom- 
ery county and immediately engaged in 
the hotel business and mercantile pursuits. 
They were of a very industrious nature, as 
Germans generally are, and being frugal, 
they prospered. Mr. Gable has in his pos- 
session at present a license that was granted 
to his grandfather, John Philip Gable, and 
bears the date of September 24, 1788, which 
was just three years after Montgomer) was 
incorporated as a county. The Gable 



family has been identified with the In. til 
business for one hundred and eight years 
in this one county. Jesse Cable, latin 1 of 
Percival, was born in Upper Salford town- 
ship, and was a hotel-keeper all his life, so 
it is only natural to believe that his son is 
by instinct and nature a hotel man, and 
that no doubt in a large measure accounts 
for his success since he has been in charge 
of the Rambo house. It is often said that 
men must be born to certain professions, 
and certainly this can be true of no one 
business more than that of hotel-keeping; 
and the subject of this sketch is certainly 
born to the occupation. His grandfather 
died in 1834, and his father succeeded to 
the hotel business in Skippack and con- 
tinued in it up to the time of his death in 
September, 1874, at which time he was 
proprietor of the Farmer's hotel in Norris- 
town. 

Percival K. Gable commenced his career 
as a hotel-keeper at Skippaekville at the 
age of eighteen years, being proprietor of 
the Valley house for three years. He then 
came to Norristown and was owner and 
proprietor of the Hartranft house in t886, 
and remained there two years. He left 
Norristown at the expiration and took the 
Hotel Appledare, Atlantic City, for one 
season, going to Lansdale then and taking 
charge of the Central house. Two years 
later he again made a change, this time 
going to Quakertown, where he was pro- 
prietor of the Red Lion hotel for five years. 
On May 13, 1895, he returned to Norris- 
town as proprietor of the Rambo house, 
which he conducts as a first-class hostelry. 
In all of his ventures Mr. Cable has been 
verj successful, and since he has been in 
charge of the Rambo house he has made 
some very important improvements and 
changes and is making it one of the best 



406 



Biographical Sketches. 



hotels in the county. The Rambo house 
is a fine four-story building with the offices 
on the lower floor. It contains sixty-four 
rooms, nicely furnished, and has the 
largest dining-room in the county. 

Mr. Gable is a Democrat and has always 
been very prominent in politics. While 
residing at Ouakertown he was elected to 
the borough council and was made presi- 
dent of that body. In 1887 he was chosen 
a delegate to the Democratic State conven- 
tion from Montgomery county, and in 
1893 was a delegate to the State conven- 
tion from Bucks county. While he was 
president of the Quakertown council he 
was instrumental in introducing street 
electric lighting, besides numerous other 
improvements. He is a very prominent 
supporter of fraternal societies, and is a 
member of Warren Lodge No. 310, F. and 
A. M. of Trappe ; Chapter No. 190, Royal 
Arch Masons, of Norristown ; and Hutch- 
inson Commandery No. 132, Knights Tem- 
plar, of Norristown. He is also a member 
of Lansdale Lodge No. 977, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, of Lansdale; Mil- 
ford Castle No. 165, Knights of the Golden 
Eagle, of Truinbauersville, Bucks county ; 
and Camp No. 596, Patriotic Order Sons of 
America, of Truinbauersville. 

On May 1st, 1880 Mr. Gable and M. 
Levina, daughter of John and Levina Kohl, 
of Norristown, were joined in wedlock. 
They had one child, who died in infancy. 
Mrs. Gable died on the 16th of April, 1882. 
On April 23, 1885, Mr. Gable married 
again, his second wife being Ella J., 
daughter of Prof. Henry D. Kulp, of Skip- 
packville. This union has been blessed 
with three children : Rosa L., E. Irene, 
and Mary. The family are members of the 
Reformed church, and are highly respected 
in the community in which thev live. 



GEORGE W. RIGHTER, one of Upper 
Merion township's successful farmers, 
is a son of John and Elizabeth (Legeaux) 
Righter. John Righter was a son of An- 
thony Righter, a millwright by trade and a 
resident of Spring Mill. John Righter was 
a farmer and limeburner, and had lime quar- 
ries near Spring Mill, which he operated 
with commendable success. He was a man 
of importance in his community, and in 
early life supported the Democratic party 
which he afterwards left to become a Re- 
publican. He was a member of the Society 
of Friends, and died in 1870. Mr. Righter 
married Elizabeth Legeaux, a daughter of 
Peter Legeaux, a Frenchman. The family 
consisted of eight children, seven sons and 
one daughter : Peter, Anthony, Joseph, 
John, jr., Charles, Lucressa, George W., and 
Lindley. Of these children three are dead. 
George W. Righter was reared at Spring 
Mill, where he resided until he was twenty- 
eight years of age. He attended the early 
common schools of his township, and after 
taking a course at Tremount seminary at 
Norristown, under the Rev. Samuel Aaron, 
he engaged in teaching which he followed 
for five years. He then abandoned that pro- 
fession and embarked in agricultural pur- 
suits which has claimed his time and atten- 
tion principally ever since. The farm he 
first bought he sold in 1863 to purchase his 
present farm, which lies one-half mile from 
Merion station, P. &. R. R., convenient to 
school, church, store and market. Some 
years ago Mr. Righter became a member of 
the Independent Ordor of Odd Fellows, and 
the Patrons of Husbandry. In politics he 
has stood for some years as an Independent, 
men and measures being everything, and 
nominees and party figuring very slightly 
with him. Believing in the greatest good 
to the greatest number, and in an economi- 



Biographical Sketches. 



407 



cal administration of local and public affairs 
he votes for those whom he thinks will work 
most and best in those directions. 

In 1859, George W. Righter was united 
in marriage with Caroline Hart, a daughter 
of John Hart, a resident of Plymouth. To 
their union have been born four children : 
Harry S., Carrie E., George W. and Mary 
Romania, who all passed away in childhood. 



HON. JOSEPH A. SHOEMAKER, ex- 
member of the Pennsylvania State 
legislature and a prominent business man 
and politician of Montgomery county, has 
since 1885, been living a retired life on a 
small farm of eleven acres within the cor- 
porate limits of the borough of Jenkiutown, 
being one of the most progressive and high- 
ly respected citizens of that town. He may 
truly be said to be of strictly American an- 
cestry, for the families from which he is de- 
scended were of the Society of Friends, and 
his paternal ancestors came to Pennsylvania 
with William Penn, in 1682. They settled 
on a farm in Horsham township, this coun- 
ty. His grandfather was Joseph Shoema- 
ker, who became a prosperous farmer in 
( rwynedd township. His marriage with 
Tacy Ambler, who was of Welsh descent, re- 
sulted in a family of seven children: Ezekiel, 
John, Joseph, Jessie, Ann, Ellen and Hannah. 
John Shoemaker, father of our subject, was 
born in Gwynedd township, in 1790, learned 
the trade of harness maker, and followed 
that business all his life in Jenkiutown. 
His union with Elizabeth, daughter of 
Joseph and Mary Logan, of Aldington town- 
ship, was blessed by the following children: 
Hannah, wife of John Jones ; Maria, marri- 
ed William Steel, now deceased ; Jane, de- 
ceased, wdio was the wife of George Logan ; 



Martha ; Joseph A. our subject ; Elizabeth 
and John deceased. Mr. Shoemaker retired 
from business and removed to Horsham 
township, where he died in 1863. 

Hon. Joseph A. Shoemaker, our subject, 
was born at Gwynedd on the old homestead 
on May 13, 1826. Being a birthright mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends, he received 
his education in the Friends school of his 
native township, and remained there until 
he was thirteen years old, when he went to 
Philadelphia county. At the age of sixteen 
he was apprenticed to learn the trade of 
blacksmith at Bridesburg, Philadelphia, and 
afterwards at Upper Dublin. At the ex- 
piration of four years he went to Broad Axe, 
where he remained until he was twenty-two 
years old, and then started for the west. 
He worked at his trade in Illinois for awhile 
and then returned to the east and became 
engaged in buying and selling horses, and 
for a year was the tenant of a farm in Hors- 
ham township. For three years after this 
he was engaged at work in a sawmill in this 
township, and in 1853 he returned to Jenk- 
iutown, where, with his brother-in-law, 
George Logan, as a partner, he embarked in 
the butchering business. In this business 
he prospered and retired in 1885, contenting 
himself with looking after his small farm at 
his residence and in looking after his invest- 
ments and other enterprises. 

Mr. Shoemaker has been a very active 
business man all his life, and is at present a 
director in the Jenkiutown National bank ; 
treasurer of the Philadelphia Droveyard ; 
director of the Masonic Hall building asso- 
ciation, and president of the Cedar Hill 
Cemetery company of Frankford. ( In Janu- 
ary 1, i-^.S7, Mr. .Shoemaker was married to 
Esther Ann, daughter of William Harper, 
of Abington, and their union was blessed 
with five children : Clara F., wife of Dr. 



408 



Biographical Sketches. 



Henry Waas; William H., Harry, who 
died in infancy ; Lizzie, and Jennie, wife of 
Harry C. Millar. The family are nearly all 
consistent members of the Friends Society 
and attend Abington meeting. 

Politically Mr. Shoemaker is a very ac- 
tive Republican. He was a member of the 
town council and for several terms filled the 
president's chair with credit. He has been 
assistant assessor and assessor of the bor- 
ough, and has served as an election officer. 
In party work he was always very promi- 
nent, and has often been a delegate to 
county and State conventions. In 1887 he 
was elected a member of the State legisla- 
ture by a handsome majority and served two 
successive terms with honor to himself and 
credit to his constituency. In the halls of 
legislation he became a prominent figure. 
During the session of 1887 he was a mem- 
ber of the committee that was instrumental 
in printing 19,000 copies of that magnifi- 
cent work, Birds oj Pennsylvania. He was 
in 1889 chairman of the Geological Survey 
committee and a member of the printing 
committee. He was also on the corporation 
committee, the committee on congressional 
appointment, bank and banking, and the 
committee to compare bills. 

Socially Mr. Shoemaker is very popular. 
Fraternally he is also prominent. He is a 
member of Free Masons, Odd Fellows, 
Knights of Golden Eagle and Junior ( >rder 
American Mechanics. 



HORACE LANDIS, A. M., the effi- 
<J • cient principal of the Conshohocken 
public schools, is a son of John and Anna 
( Hnnsicker) Landis, and was born at Grate's 
Ford, near Collegeville, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1854. 



The Landis family traces its trans-Atlantic 
ancestry back to Holland, but Abram Lan- 
dis (grandfather) was born in Chester 
county in 1765 and came to Upper Provi- 
dence township, where he purchased a large 
farm and where he died in 1830. He was a 
Whig and a member of the Reformed 
church, and wedded Mary Beitler, by whom 
he had four children : Abraham, John, 
Jacob and Hannah, wife of Daniel Long- 
aker. 

John Landis (father) was born in the year 
1813 in Upper Providence township, and 
after receiving a common English educa- 
tion learned the trade of plasterer, which he 
followed for several years at Trappe, Nor- 
ristown, and other places in the county. 
He afterwards quit his trade to engage in 
farming at Grater's Ford, where he now 
owns a good farm of 140 acres. During the 
last few years Mr. Landis has employed his 
time principally in the management and 
supervision of his farm and his huckstering 
teams, which he still runs. He is a con- 
stant reader and well informed on all the 
current issues of the day. He is a radical 
Republican and an active member of 
Trinity Reformed church at Collegeville, 
and in past years was one of the most untir- 
ing workers in the interest of his party and 
church. 

He married Miss Anna Hnnsicker, who 
was born in 1817, and is a daughter of 
Abraham and Anna Hnnsicker, the latter 
of which is now in her ninety-sixth year, 
and hale and hearty. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Landis were born six sons and seven daugh- 
ters : Elizabeth Bechtel (deceased), Mary 
Markley, Anna (deceased), Hattie, Hannah 
Hnnsicker (deceased), Abraham, Katie Har- 
ley, Benjamin, J .Horace (subject), Henry, 
Josephine, Fritz, A. Lincoln and Elias,who 
died in infancy. 



Biographical Sketches. 



409 



J. Horace Laudis was reared on the farm 
and received his elementary education in 
the public schools of Perkiomen township. 
He then attended Ursinus college and then 
entered the Millersville State Normal 
school, from which he was graduated in the 
elementary course in 1S77. In a short time 
afterwards he took the post graduate course 
in the sciences at the last named educa- 
tional institution, and then entered the 
University of Pennsylvania. In 1895 
Ursinus college conferred upon him the 
degree of A. M. While attending college 
he employed his vacations in teaching in 
the public schools. He served as principal 
of the Mauch Chunk public schools, of 
Carbon county, and of the Schweukville 
and Lansdale schools. In 1892 he was 
elected principal of the Conshohocken 
schools, and was re-elected in 1893, 1894 
and 1895. He now has under his charge 
sixteen schools and nineteen teachers. 

On Christmas, 1895, Professor Landiswas 
united in marriage with Lizzie K. Kratz, a 
daughter of Michael Kratz, a business man 
of Green Lane. Their union has been 
blessed with one child, Vesta K. 

In politics Professor Laudis is a Republi- 
can. He is a member of Trinity Reformed 
church. Since assuming charge of the 
Conshohocken schools his policy has been 
to widen out the course of study and secure 
the best of scoool buildings and furniture. 
His efforts have been appreciated in both 
directions. He introduced vocal music and 
manual training in the schools, and $2,500 
has been spent on improving the school 
buildings and for the purchase of modern 
improved furniture. Professor Laudis has 
widened the course of study and raised the 
standard of the schools, and has given repu- 
tation to Conshohocken in its educational 
work. 



DAVID F. REINERT, a prominent 
real estate dealer and business man of 
Pottstown, was born October 12, 1833, in 
Exeter township, Berks county, Pennsyl- 
vania. He is a son of Jonas and Hannah 
(Feather) Reinert, both natives of Berks 
county and both descended from old German 
stock. Jonas Reinert was a tanner by 
trade, a Democrat in politics and a Luth- 
eran in religious belief. He served as sup- 
ervisor of his township and took an active 
part in all public matters. His death oc- 
curred June 27, 1883, and his wife survived 
him only about two months, dying Septem- 
ber 19, 1883. Their ages were respectively 
seventy-nine and eighty-one years. They 
were buried at the Amityville cemetery, in 
Berks county. 

David F. Reinert received his elementary 
instruction in the public schools, and then 
entered Prof. Hunsicker's select school at 
Collegeville, Montgomery county, where 
he remained three years. After completing 
his studies, Mr. Reinert began teaching, 
and devoted himself to that laudable occu- 
pation for a quarter of a century. He was 
successful beyond the usual measure, and 
won repute as an expert in the school-room. 
He taught in various parts of Berks and 
Montgomery counties and also in the city 
of Philadelphia. In 1873 Mr. Reinert en- 
gaged in the real estate and insurance busi- 
ness at Pottstown, and has successfully con- 
ducted that enterprise to the present time. 
In 1X72 he was elected justice of the peace 
and has served, continuously ever since, 
having been elected to that office five times 
in succession. 

In politics 'Scpiire Reinert is a Democrat, 
but has never had any political ambition. 
He served as city engineer of Pottstown for 
twelve years, is a director of the Mutual 
Fire Insurance company of Reading, and 



410 



Biographical Sketches. 



has also served as director in other insur- 
ance companies. He is regarded as a fine 
business man, has been successful in his 
various enterprises and stands high in his 
community. 

On the 3rd of February, i860, Mr. Reinert 
was married to Hannah B. Feather, a 
daughter of Jacob Feather, of New Han- 
over township, Montgomery county. Mrs. 
Reinert died December 5, 1894, aged fifty- 
five years, and was buried at Mount Zion 
cemetery, Chester county, this State. 
'Squire Reinert is a member of Warren 
Lodge No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and is also a Knight Templar. He is a 
member of the Reformed church of Potts- 
town, and has served for a number of years 
as superintendent of the Sunday school. 



MARK R. HAGNER, a resident of 
Upper Merion, and operator of ex- 
tensive lime quarries in Upper Merion 
township, is a son of Henry L. and Catha- 
rine (Rubincam) Hagner, and was born at 
Shawmont, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, October 25, 1842. Henry L. Hagner 
was a first cousin to Charles V. Hagner, 
who, in September, 1820, purchased from 
the Schuylkill Navigation company the 
second water power used along the Schuyl- 
kill. This power was used at the latter's 
mill which he built for making oils and 
grinding drugs, shortly after adding a full- 
ing mill and power looms for weaving 
satinets made by Alfred Jenks of Holmes- 
burg. These latter were the first power 
looms used in Pennsylvania for weaving 
woolen goods, and this humble establish- 
ment became the birth-place of the exten- 
sive mills now along the old canal and 
above Manayunk. He was reared at Rox- 



borough, where he learned the trades of 
carpenter and builder, which he followed 
for a life pursuit. He lived successively at 
Roxborough, the Falls of Schuylkill, and 
in the city of Philadelphia, and in 1870 
retired from active life, returning after a 
number of years to Roxborough, where he 
died, November, 1892, aged seventy-four 
years. He was an old-time Democrat, 
served as tax collector at Roxborough, and 
was a school director for several years in 
Philadelphia, where he was a candidate for 
the legislature from the twenty-fourth 
ward. 

He was an Episcopalian, and in the year 
1830 married Catherine Rubincam, whose 
father was a resident of Roxborough. Their 
family consisted of three sons and three 
daughters: Clara F. , widow of Lewis 
Shrunk ; Charles B., a resident of Phila- 
delphia ; Eleanor, wife of T F. Ross, of 
Philadelphia ; John, of Philadelphia ; Mary 
W., wife of Rev. Isaac Wilson ; and Mark 
R., whose name appears at the head of this 
sketch. 

Mark R. Hagner was reared at Roxbor- 
ough and in Philadelphia where he re- 
ceived his education in the public schools 
of that city. Leaving school, he assisted 
his father on a farm until the commence- 
ment of the late Civil war, when on 
August 5, 1861, he was mustered in as a 
member of Company B, 1st Pennsylvania 
reserve cavalry, and served as corporal 
until September, 9, 1864, when he was 
mustered out with his company at Phila- 
delphia. His company was first com- 
manded by Captain Owen Jones, who after- 
ward became colonel. He participated in 
the following engagements: Drainesville, 
Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, Harrisouburg,Cross 
Keys, Rappahannock, Thoroughfare Gap, 
Bull Run No. 2, Aldie, Warrington, Fred- 



Biographical Sketches. 



411 



ericksburg, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, 
Fairfield, Shepardstown, Culpepper C. H., 
Rapidan Station, Auburn, Bristol, New 
Hope cliurcb, and thirteen others, from 
November 27, 1863, to Weldon railroad, 
August 21, 1864. He was remarkably for- 
tunate in never being wounded or taken 
prisoner, and returning from the army he 
engaged in farming- on his father's farm at 
the Falls of Schuylkill, in which occupa- 
tion he remained for four years. He then 
engaged in the lime business with his 
father-in-law, Lewis Shronk, who had ex- 
tensive lime quarries just below Norris- 
town. 

The Philadelphia yard and Fairmount 
avenue yard was attended to by him for 
thirteen or fourteen years, at the end of 
which time he bought the coal business of 
William P. Spooner and connected with it 
the lime business at the corner of Ninth 
street and Columbia avenue, Philadelphia. 
He disposed of his interests two years later 
and purchased a large farm near Quaker- 
town that he tilled for three years. He 
then removed to Upper Merion township 
and worked Hugh Mclnnes' lime quarries 
up to March 1, 1894, when he rented the 
quarries and bought the tools and stock 
used in operating them. He has success- 
fully operated these quarries since, and his 
lime finds ready sale at home and in the 
city. He works a considerable force of 
hands and has his kilns in constant opera- 
tion. He has been a resident of Norris- 
town and Upper Merion since 1880. 

Mark R. Hagner was a Democrat up to 
1894, but since then has supported the Re- 
publican party. He is a member of Penn- 
sylvania Council No. 342, Royal Arcanum; 
Cassia Lodge No. 273, Free and Accepted 
Masons; and Pennsylvania Reserves, Post 
No. 173, Grand Army of the Republic. 



FAMES BICKHART, clay manager of 
<J the puddling department of the Alan 
Wood Co.'s rolling mills, of Conshohooken, 
is a son of Christian and Mary Bickhart, 
and was born in Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 38, 1845. His father, 
Christian Bickhart, was a native and life 
long resident of East Vincent township in 
Chester county, where he died at eighty- 
two years of age. Christian Bickert was a 
Democrat and a member of the German 
Reformed church. Their union was blessed 
with eight children, six sons and two 
daughters : Jacob Christian, Anne Bowers, 
Ralph, Mary Brownback, Jonas, James (sub- 
ject), and Hiram. 

James Bickhart acquired his education in 
the usual channels of the township schools. 
He was reared on the farm, and during the 
spring and summer months labored in the 
fields, while his attendance at the public 
schools was limited to the winter season. 
He progressed in the common branches as 
far as they were then taught in the public 
schools, and at seventeen years of age left 
both the school and the farm to try life for 
himself. 

His first employment after leaving the 
paternal roof was as a helper to a pud- 
dler in a rolling mill of Pottstown. In 
1868 he left Pottstown and settled at Cons- 
hohocken, where he entered the rolling mill 
of the Alan Wood Co. He served as helper 
and next as puddler, and then became 
night boss of the puddling department, 
over which he was appointed day boss or 
manager in 1881. By experience and 
natural endowments Mr. Bickhart is well 
qualified for his present position. 

In 1870 Mr. Bickhart wedded Elizabeth 
Staley, and to their union have been born 
six children, three sons and three (laugh- 
ters. The sons are Ira, Vincent and Frank- 



412 



Biographical Sketches. 



lin, and the daughters are Zella May, 
Bertha and Flora. 

In politics James Biekhart is a decided 
Republican, although not a politician in 
the sense of office holding or office seeking. 
He is a member of Washita Tribe, Im- 
proved Order of Red Men, and the Schuyl- 
kill Relief association. He is interested in 
the Guarantee Building and Loan Associa- 
tion and in some other business enterprises 
of the busy borough of Conshohocken. 



CHARLES S. JENKINS, cashier of 
the First National bank of Lansdale, 
and a citizen of prominence, was born in 
Gwynedd township, on April 14, 1822, and 
is a son of Edward and Margaret (Sorver) 
Jenkins. This family is descended from 
ancestors who came from Wales in the 
early part of the eighteenth century. His 
paternal grandfather was John Jenkins, who 
came into the possession of a large tract of 
land in the vicinity of Lansdale, Pennsyl- 
vania, and was a prosperous tiller of the 
soil. He took very little interest in party 
politics, but left his plow to defend his 
country when his services were needed. 
He was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Lukeus, 
whose maiden name was Walker. They 
had the following children : John, Owen, 
Edward, Jesse, Sarah and Elizabeth. 

Edward Jenkins, father of the subject, 
was accorded a common school education 
and became a prosperous farmer. In poli- 
tics he was a Whig and afterwards a Re- 
publican, and while he did not aspire to 
office himself, he took an active part in 
electing others. He married Margaret 
Sorver, and four children were born to them. 
These were : Philip, Mary Ann, who mar- 
ried Charles Matthews; Charles, and Lydia, 



who died in infancy. He died in the 
eighty-sixth year of his age. 

Charles S. Jenkins went to the county 
schools of his period and then attended 
boarding school at Line- Lexington for some 
time. After finishidg his education he de- 
cided to follow teaching as a profession, 
and for eleven years he acted as an instruc- 
tor, part of his time being under the old 
pay school system. By reason of failing 
health, Mr. Jenkins resigned his position as 
teacher and became engaged in farming. 
In 1864 he was elected cashier of the First 
National bank and has held that position 
ever since, with honor and credit, over 
thirty-one years. 

Mr. Jenkins is a remarkable man in many 
ways. He is not only a business man, and 
a good executive, but he is also a careful 
financier and a real, natural born, mechanic. 
He has genius of an inventive kind that 
has brought him prominence and a goodly 
income. He invented a revolving map 
roller that is becoming extensively used and 
he is now supplying a large number to the 
government, to railroads and other large 
corporations. He is also the inventor of a 
steel plow, apparently of unusual merit, 
but which has never been put upon the mar- 
ket. 

Mr. Jenkins married Tacy, daughter of 
Stephen Styes, a farmer of Whitpain town- 
ship. Only three children have been born 
to this couple : Charles S., and Mary, both 
of whom are very popular ; and Annie, who 
died in 1880, aged twenty-four years. Mr. 
Jenkins is a man of very studious habits, 
extraordinary common-sense and has a com- 
mendable thirst for knowledge leaning 
strongly toward mechanics. In the bank 
his long term of service speaks for his effi- 
ciency, and in social life he commands the 
highest esteem. 



Biographical Sketches. 



4i3 



WILLIAM BROMER, a wide-awake 
business man, and the proprietor of 
the Bromer merchant tailoring establish- 
ment at Schwenksville, is a sou of Alfred 
and Catharine (Shepherd) Bromer, and was 
born at Schwenksville, Montgomery coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania, November 6, 1864. He 
attended the public schools until he was fif- 
teen years of age, and then took a full six 
mouths course at Bryant and Stratton's 
Business college, of Philadelphia. Return- 
ing he worked in various departments of his 
father's merchant tailoring establishment 
until 1889, when he succeeded to the pro- 
prietorship of the entire business. Mr. Bro- 
mer employs seven hundred hands, and has 
a regular output of eight thousand gar- 
ments per week which are taken by the 
leading wholesale clothing houses of Phila- 
delphia; while during the busy trade sea- 
son of the year he manufactures about ten 
thousand garments per week. His estab- 
lishment is a two story structure containing 
two ware and packing rooms 35x60, a but- 
ton hole factory 30x40, and two finishing 
and shaping rooms 12x16 feet. Mr. Bromer 
is a Republican and a member of the Re- 
formed church, in which he has served for 
some time as a trustee. 

On October 16, 1888, William Bromer 
married Katie Mary Willard, a daughter of 
Peter Willard, of Trappe. Their union has 
been blessed with two children, a son and a 
daughter. 

The Bromer family is one of the old and 
respectable families of the city of Kiehl, in 
the grand duchy of Baden, Germany. 
Frederick Bromer of that city owned an ex- 
tensive bakery and wine cafe, which were 
destroyed three times in as many different 
wars, when Kiehl was subjected to bombard- 
ment. These losses reduced him from 
affluent circumstances to a state of limited 



means at the time of his death. He reared 
a family of two sons and one daughter. 
The eldest son served as a soldier under 
Napoleon Bonaparte, and was killed during 
the invasion of Russia. The younger son, 
Jacob Bromer, learned the trade of tailor and 
became a merchant tailor in Kiehl. He 
came to Philadelphia in 1869, but not find- 
ing the facilities for business that he was led 
to believe existed there, he returned to his 
native city, where he died a few years later. 
He married and had eight children : Sophia, 
widow of Richard King, of Schwenksville ; 
Jacob, a soldier in the German army, who 
took part in the revolution of 1848, in Ger- 
many, and came to Philadelphia where he 
followed merchant tailoring until his death 
in 1854 ; Frederick and Minnie who both 
died in early life ; Louise, wife of Christian 
Maver, of this county ; Alfred ; and two 
others deceased in infancy. 

Alfred Bromer was born September 2, 
1837, received a fair education, and at fif- 
teen years of age came to Philadelphia, 
where he learned the trade of tailor with his 
brother Jacob. After the death of the latter 
in 1854, he became a journeyman tailor and 
worked for ten years in various places. At 
the end of that time, in 1864, he came to 
Schwenksville and started a small merchant 
tailor manufacturing establishment, and dis- 
posed of his products to the leading cloth- 
ing houses of Philadelphia. From thence- 
forward his business career was one of 
abundant success until he disposed of his 
establishment to his son William, on Janu- 
ary 1, 1889. Since then Mr. Bromer has 
not been engaged in active business. He is 
a Republican and a member of the Re- 
formed church, and on April 9, i860, wed- 
ded Catharine Shepherd, a daughter of 
William Shepherd, of Philadelphia. They 
have eleven living children : Elizabeth, 



414 



Biographical Sketches. 



wife of Irvin Schwentz, teller of the First 
National bank ; Susan, married Samuel 
Weller, a salesman of Philadelphia ; Rev. 
Albert, a graduate of Yale college and pas- 
tor of a Reformed church in Philadelphia ; 
William, whose name heads this sketch ; 
Rev. Edward, a graduate of Yale college 
and a pastor of the Orwigsburg Reformed 
church, in Schuylkill county ; Frank, now 
in his senior year at Lehigh university ; 
Jacob, engaged in business with his brother 
William ; Katie, a graduate of the Phila- 
delphia High school ; Minnie, a student at 
Ursinus college; Cartney and Ralph, who 
are at home with their parents. 



RICHARD T. S. HALLOWELL, is a 
son of Charles and Mary (Stewart) Hal- 
lowell, and was born near Swedesburg, in 
Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1849. 
The Hallowell family is of English Quaker 
ancestry and came from England to south- 
eastern Pennsylvania prior to the year 1700. 
Nathan Hallowell, the grandfather of 
Richard T. S. Hallowell, was reared in the 
religious faith of his American ancestors 
and was a consistent member of the Society 
of Friends. He was a Whig and Repub- 
lican in politics, and resided in close prox- 
imity to the Old Swedes church near 
Swedesburg. His son, Charles Hallowell, 
was born in Upper Merion township, where 
he obtained a good common English edu- 
cation. He then learned the trade of wheel- 
wright, which he followed for a life vo- 
cation. He worked at different places 
throughout the county and was employed 
for some time at Swedes furnace. He was 
a Whig and Republican politically, and 
died February 12, 1886, aged seventy-one 



years. He served as an officer in the old 
militia organization of the State, and was 
first lieutenant of the 2nd Montgomery 
troop of cavalry that helped to quell the 
Kensington riot at Philadelphia in 1847. 
He married, in 1844, Mary Stewart, whose 
father, James Stewart, was a resident of 
Upper Merion. To their union were born 
four sons and three daughters : Eugene, 
Richard, Nathan, Annie, Stewart, Mrs. 
Eliza Templin, and Mary. 

Richard T. S. Hallowell was reared and 
lived in Upper Merion excepting one year 
(1851), when his parents resided in Ply- 
mouth township. He attended school at 
Swedeland, and then learned the trade of 
carpenter, which he has followed ever since 
in connection with contracting and build- 
ing. He has served as foreman on the 
erection of several large buildings, super- 
intended the restoration of Washington's 
headquarters at Valley Forge in 1887, and 
was superintendent in 1894, of the construc- 
tion of the Pennsylvania Soldiers' Orphan 
Industrial School building in Franklin 
county. Mr. Hallowell is a staunch Re- 
publican, has been a member of the county 
committee, and is serving on his third term 
as auditor of his township. He is an active 
member and vestryman of the Old Swedes 
Episcopal church, and has been a member, 
for twenty-five years, of Washington Camp 
No. 121, Patriotic Sons of America, in 
iwhich organization he served as State presi- 
dent in 18S7-88. He is also a member of 
the board of directors and secretary of the 
Centennial and Memorial association of 
Valley Forge. Mr. Hallowell is a skilled 
workman, a competent builder and is active, 
energetic and patriotic. 

On September 5, 1877, Mr. Hallowell 
wedded Jennie Eakins, a daughter of Au- 
gustus Eakins, of Philadelphia. Their 



Biographical Sketches. 



4i5 



union lias been blessed with one child, a 
son, named Frank Thomas Stewart, who 
was born September 5, 1888. 



WILLIAM MOWLDS, the proprietor 
of a large butchering establishment 
and meat market at Conshohocken, is a son 
of Jacob and Ann (Davis) Mowlds, and was 
born in Plymouth township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1845. 
His paternal great-grandfather Mowlds 
came from Ireland, and his father, Jacob 
Mowlds, was born and passed the greater 
part of his life at Conshohocken. He after- 
wards removed to West Conshohocken, and 
finally removed to Phoenixville, in Chester 
county, where he died. He was a Republi- 
can politically and wedded Ann Davis. Mr. 
and Mrs. Mowlds reared a family of nine 
children : George, Mary Jane, who died in 
infancy ; Sallie, wife of Rev. Scott, a mis- 
sionary to Burmah at the time of their mar- 
riage ; Cordelia, William, subject ; Thomas 
D., Mary Emma Moore, John H. and 
Jerry K. 

William Mowlds was reared on a farm 
and received his education in the Mt. 
Pleasant public schools. At eleven years 
of age he found employment with his uncle, 
William Davis, and four years later went 
to assist William Davis, sr., with whom he 
remained for four years. He then drove a 
butcher wagon for his brother-in-law for 
two years, and next worked for a short time 
in a stone quarry, which he left to spend 
two years as a workman in the Alan Wood 
Company rolling mill. At the end of that 
time he became a clerk in the grocery store 
of A. S. Leedom, with whom he remained 
for two years. He then, in July, 1869, 
established his present butchering yards 



and meat market at West Conshohocken, 
where he does a very profitable business. 
IK- owns the property where he resides, 
which is one and three-quarter miles from 
the borough. Killing and dressing all of 
his own meat he furnishes to his patrons a 
fresh and wholesome article of food. Mr. 
Mowlds is a supporter of the Republican 
party, has served as a councilman and is a 
member of the present board of school di- 
rectors of West Conshohocken. He is a 
member of the Baptist church and inter- 
ested in the Rising Sun Building and Loan 
association. Mr. Mowlds also takes inter- 
est in fraternal and beneficial societies, 
being a member of Fritz lodge, Free and 
Accepted Masons, and Gratitude lodge, In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. 

On March 31, 1870, William Mowlds 
wedded Sallie Wilde, whose parents are 
Charles and Elizabeth Wilde. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Mowlds have been born two children : 
Eugene and Ethel, the latter now deceased. 
Eugene Mowlds entered the department of 
civil engineering of Lehigh university, 
from which institution he was graduated in 
the class of 1895. He is now engaged as a 
civil engineer with Barnes ec Davis, a large 
engineer and contracting firm of Philadel- 
phia. 



GEORGE W. DAVIS, one of the fore- 
most and most substantial business 
men of West Conshohocken, is a son of 
William and Phebe (Supplee) Davis, and 
was born at West Conshohocken, Montgom- 
ery county, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1832. 
The earliest members of the Davis family in 
this country, settled in Plymouth township, 
where it is said that the father of Jefferson 
Davis, the president of the Southern Con- 



416 



Biographical Sketches. 



federacy, was born and resided for some 
years. 

Reese Davis, the paternal grandfather of 
George W. Davis, was born in Plymouth 
township, where he died at an advanced 
age. He was a farmer and a Friend, and by 
his marriage had four children : Thomas, 
Daniel, William and Rebecca Green. Wil- 
liam was born in Plymouth township. By 
a series of misfortunes his father became re- 
duced in means, and he was placed at a ten- 
der age with a farmer by the name of Peter- 
man, to be reared to manhood. After at- 
taining his majority he left the Peterman 
place and rented a farm in Upper Merion 
township near the Christ's Swede church, 
and in the vicinity of Bridgeport. In 1826 
he removed to West Conshohocken, where 
he purchased a farm and was engaged until 
his death in various lines of business. He 
followed farming, operated a marble mill, 
handled lime, and for several years ran a 
line of teams to transfer freight and baggage 
for the Philadelphia,. Germantown and Nor- 
ristown railroad company. He owned five 
good farms besides town property, and was 
the wealthiest man in his section of the 
county. He was a Democrat and a Friend, 
and lived an honest, upright and useful life. 
He served for a number of years as a mem- 
ber of the school board, but declined all offi- 
ces of a civil or political character. He was 
twice married. 

George W. Davis received a common 
school education, and after serving as a 
clerk for four years in a store in which his 
father was interested, he was sent at nine- 
teen years of age to superintend the cutting 
of timber on a two thousand acre tract of 
land owned by his father, in Wayne county. 
After some seven or eight years spent there 
he returned home to become a partner with 
his brother in a store which they conducted 



up to 1875. He then sold out his interest 
to his brother, and has been engaged since 
in various business enterprises. Mr. Davis 
bought forty-nine acres of his father's estate 
at West Conshohocken, owns seven houses 
and lots and has an interest in a store at the 
latter place, besides owning, in connection 
with his brothers, a farm of seventy-seven 
acres in Lower Merion township. He is a 
stockholder in the Montgomery National 
and the First National banks of Consho- 
hocken, the bank of North America of 
Philadelphia, and Title, Trust and Safe De- 
posit company. 

Mr. Davis married Margaret C. Cress. 
To their union have been born five chil- 
dren, two sons and three daughters : Mary 
Jacobus, Emma, Annie, Lydia, George I. 
(deceased), and Reese M. 

Mr. Davis is a Republican, although his 
father was a Democrat. He has served as a 
member of the town council and was bor- 
ough treasurer for several years. He is a 
man of good judg ment and practical busi- 
ness experience, who has been very success- 
ful in the various enterprises in whicn he 
has been engaged. He is a member of 
Fritz lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. 



DR. CHARLES W. EVERHART,who 
since 1887 has been a very successful 
and highly respected practicing physician 
of Grater's Ford, is a descendant of German 
ancestry and was born in Sellersville, 
Bucks county, January 26, i860. He is a 
man of wide experience in his profession 
and deservedly popular. Dr. Everhart's 
grandfather on his paternal side was born 
in Philadelphia in $74. He was a mer- 
chant by occupation and was highly re- 
spected. He was a Democrat in politics 



Biographical Sketches. 



4i7 



and a member of the Reformed church. 
Dr. Everhart's father was born in 1X09 at 
Philadelphia. He secured a common school 
education and then went to Jefferson Medi- 
cal college, Philadelphia, where he made 
rapid progress and graduated with honor. 
He immediately entered on the practice of 
medicine and soon won a high name in his 
profession at Sellersville, Pennsylvania. He 
was a Republican in politics and was prom- 
inent in the affairs of his party in Bucks 
comity. 

He was the father of the following 
children : Josephine Ella, now the wife 
of Alfred Crist, Esq.; Mary Catharine, 
who died young ; Kate, wife of Dr. C. D. 
Fretz ; Maggie, wife of Rev. S. A. Lein- 
bach, and who died at the age of twenty- 
three ; Man - , wife of Pierson Mickley ; 
Clara, wife of L. S. Shrimer ; Lizzie, Annie 
and the subject of this sketch. He died at 
the age of seventy-nine. 

Dr. C. W. Everhart is the son of C. W. 
and Elizabeth Everhart. He was educated 
in the public schools and studied medicine 
with Dr. C. D. Fretz as his preceptor. He 
graduated from Jefferson Medical college 
and then began the practice of his profes- 
sion at Sellersville, Bucks county, but four 
years later removed to Grater's Ford, where 
he has since prospered. He has a very 
large practice and has earned a prominent 
place in the community and vicinity. He 
was married to Lizzie L. Ashenfelter in 
1889. 

Mrs. Everhart is the daughter of H. 
J. Ashenfelter and an accomplished woman. 
Dr. Everhart is a member of the Reformed 
church, and among his neighbors is known 
to be a man of enterprise and always ready 
to take an interest in anything that will 
result in the good of the town in which he 
lives. 

27 



JOSEPH M. WILSON, who has been 
<J established in the carpet weaving busi- 
ness at Lansdale since the 1st of February, 
1895, was born in Philadelphia, on June 28, 
1857, his parents being John and Mary 
(Morris) Wilson. He is descended from a 
family of carpet weavers, his paternal grand- 
father, William Wilson, having followed 
that trade all his life in Scotland. He was 
born at Glasgow about 1750, and was early- 
put to the trade. When he became a jour- 
neyman he engaged in business for himself 
and soon built up a large trade. He was a 
Whig and afterward a Republican ; was a 
consistent and upright member of the Pres- 
byterian church and also a life long mem- 
ber of the Masonic order. In 1775, he mar- 
ried Jennie Brown, and they had a family 
of three children : John, Fanny and Kate. 
He died in 1840, aged ninety years. John 
Wilson, the father, was born 1798, at Glas- 
gow, and was given a common school edu- 
cation. He was a deep student and in his 
mature years was a very well informed man. 
After finishing his school life he learned 
weaving from his father and followed that 
vocation with profit all his life. In politics 
he was a Republican and in religion was an 
active worker in the Presbyterian church. 
On April 24, 1853, he married Mary Morris, 
of Philadelphia, and their wedded life was 
blessed with onlv three children : Fanny, 
William and Joseph, our subject. He was 
a man of high literary attainments and was 
a writer of much force, and contributed 
often to the press. He died April 9, 1879. 

Joseph M. Wilson was sent to the district 
schools where he mastered the common 
branches. He was forced to turn out to do 
battle with the stern side of life at an early 
age, and he went to his father's shop and 
learned the trade of carpet weaver. After 
mastering the trade he engaged in business 



418 



Biographical Sketches. 



on his own account at Oxford, Chester 
county, Pa., where he remained twenty-four 
years and prospered. He then removed to 
Germantowii, where he remained three 
years, and from there went to Newtown, 
Berks county. At the expiration of two 
years he again made a change, this time 
going to Doylestown, where he did very 
well for four years. On the ist of last Feb- 
ruary he made his final change and located 
in Lansdale, where he is enjoying a very 
fine trade. Mr. Wilson is a true example 
of the self-made man. He started in life at 
a tender age and with no backing save the 
trade his father had taught him. But he 
was full of ambition and enterprise and that 
soon made itself felt and he made a success 
of his calling where he located. 

On December 22, 1881, Mr. Wilson mar- 
ried Ida E., daughter of J. C. McDonald, of 
Oxford. This union was productive of 
seven children : Richard, who died August 
28, 1883 ; Mary A., William C, J. Harri- 
son, Bruce, Maud and Florence. He is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and is a Republican in political belief. Ht 
belongs to but one fraternal organization, 
Tribe No. 176, Improved Order of Red Men, 
of Doylestown. 



GEORGE W. PAWLING, ex-recorder 
of deeds and an active and popular 
Democrat of Montgomery county, is a son 
of Dr. H. D. W. and Anna (Bull) Paw- 
ling, and was born at King of Prussia, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, Janu- 
ary 21, 1848. He was reared at King 
of Prussia, where he received a good Eng- 
lish education, and after leaving school en- 
gaged in the drug business with Dr. Wil 
Ham Wetherill, of Philadelphia. He re- 



mained in the drug business until 1869, 
when he returned home and assisted his 
father until the death of the latter in 1893. 
In the meantime he had taken considerable 
interest in political affairs, and in 1890 the 
Democrats made him their nominee for re- 
corder of deeds of Montgomery county, to 
which office he was elected at the succeed- 
ing election. He served as recorder from 
1 891 to 1894, and is now interested in the 
stone business with Frank Patterson at 
Valley Forge, where the first tracts on 
which they opened quarries were merged in- 
to the Valley Forge National park, laid out 
in 1895. Mr. Pawling is an active Demo- 
crat in political affairs, and while promi- 
nent in the county council of his party, 
always gives close attention to the township 
organization. He has served for nine years 
as a member of the school board at King of 
Prussia, and is a member of the Protestant 
Episcopal church. Of an honored and re- 
spected family, George W. Pawling has 
been active and useful alike in village, 
township and county affairs. 

The Pawlings are descendants of that 
Henry Pawling who, with his son and 
grandson Henry, are thus described in an 
old document : " Henry Pawling came from 
Maine to New York in 1684, was sheriff 
there, married Nattee Roosa, daughter of 
Albert Heyman Roosa, of New York State. 
His son, Henry Pawling, born 1689, mar- 
ried Jacomyte Hegt, who was the daughter 
of Cornelius Barnes Hegt, born in South 
Holland. This Henry Pawling and his 
brother John came to Upper Providence in 
1720, Henry taking up land on the south 
side of the Perkiomen, John on the north. 
Henry's remains are buried at Evans- 
burg. The son of this Henry and Jacomyte 
Hegt was also called Henry, who was born 
in 1714 and died 1792. He and his wife 



Biographical Sketch es. 



419 



Eleanor died some time apart and their re- 
mains lie in Evansburg graveyard. Their 
son, Henry Pawling, who was born in 1746, 
and married Rebecca Bull, and was the 
Henry Pawling who was appointed associ- 
ated judge by Henry Ross on January 20, 
1789, and was the Henry Pawling, jr., who, 
as one of the commissioners, located and 
purchased ground for the present court- 
house and jail. Judge Pawling had three 
sons and a daughter. William married 
Rebecca Butler and had three sons : Henry, 
Albert, Thomas, now dead. Henry died 
unmarried ; Hon Levi, the grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, and Eleanor, who 
married the Rev. Dr. James Milnor, rector 
of St. George's Episcopal church, New 
York city." 

Hon. Levi Pawling was born in 1772, and 
at twenty-three years of age was admitted 
to the Norristown bar, where he practiced 
for many years and ranked with such emi- 
nent lawyers as William Moore Smith and 
Thomas Ross, the elder. He held many 
offices of trust and responsibility, but in 
political faith being a Federalist and in a 
county strongly Democratic, no legislative 
office was within his reach or the gift of his 
party. In 1816 his county was in a Fed- 
eral district and he was elected to Congress, 
in which body he served from 181 7 to 1819. 
On October 17, 1804, Mr. Pawling was 
married by Rev. Henry A. Muhlenberg to 
Elizabeth Hiester, a daughter of General 
Joseph Hiester, afterwards Governor of 
Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Pawling had 
seven children : Elizabeth, wife of Hon. 
Thomas Ross, of Doylestown, Pennsyl- 
vania; Ellen, who married Henry Friedley, 
of Norristown, and died ; Rebecca, the first 
wife of Henry Friedley, of Norristown ; 
Mary, who married Sylvester Rich, of 
Philadelphia ; Joseph H., who died in 1849; 



James M., a promising lawyer, died in C838, 

and Dr. Henry Dewitt, who was born at 
Norristown, October 38, 1.S10, and died No- 
vember 26, 1893. 

Dr. Henry DeWitt Pawling was gradu- 
ated from the University of Pennsylvania, 
served as assistant surgeon on the United 
States frigate Potomctc in a three years 
cruise around the world, and in 1836 located 
at King of Prussia, where he had an exten- 
sive practice over parts of three counties. 
He was a Democrat and an Episcopalian, 
and was a very prominent at>d active man. 
In 1837 Dr. Pawling married Anna Bull, 
who was a daughter Levi Bull, of Chester 
county, and died July 4, 1862, age forty- 
five years. Their children were : Nathan, 
Eva and Levi, who all died in infancy ; Dr. 
Nathan 2nd, accidentally killed in 1872 ; 
Dr. Henry, now dead ; George W., whose 
name appears at the head of this sketch ; 
Anna, wife of I. Hestou Todd, of Port Ken- 
nedy, and who has taken considerable time 
to trace the early history of the Pawling 
family in this country ; Ellen, who married 
George Schall, of Norristown ; Rosa N., 
Eva 2nd and Mary. 



JOSEPH K. MOORE, the present post- 
master of Conshohocken, is a son of 
William and Elizabeth (McKnight) Moore, 
and was born in Newtown township, Dela- 
ware county, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1839. 
His paternal grandfrther, Samuel Moore, 
came with his wife from Ireland to Phila- 
delphia and removed to Leacock township, 
Lancaster county, which he soon left to lo- 
cate on the site of Allegheny city, where he- 
owned a farm and died. He was of Scotch- 
Irish descent, a Presbyterian, and died at 
forty-two years of age, while his widow 



420 



Biographical Sketches. 



lived to see her fiftieth year. He wedded 
Hannah McAllister, and their children, six 
in number, were : William, Samuel, James, 
Alexander, Hannah Reed, and Jane, who 
died in childhood. William, the eldest 
child, was born near McKeesport, this State, 
October 14, 1799, and became a textile 
manufacturer. Sometime after his father's 
death, he and his brothers, Samuel, James 
and Alexander, removed to Newtown town- 
ship, Delaware county, where they were 
prominent and leading woolen manufac- 
turers up to 1857. He was a Whig and Re- 
publican, and a member and deacon of the 
Newtown Baptist church, and died March 
1 6, 1 89 1, at ninety-two years of age. He 
married Elizabeth McKnight, who died 
February 19, 1886, aged seventy-four years. 
Their children were : Sarah J. Schofield, 
Hannah T. Wilfang, Joseph K., subject ; 
Samuel, Mary A. Williams, and Anna E. 
Martin. Mrs. Moore was a daughter of 
Kenneth McKnight, who served at Marcus 
Hook, in the War of 1812, and was a rela- 
tive of General Hancock. Mr. McKnight 
wedded Sarah Haxworth, and their child- 
ren were : Amy Lewis, Jennie Rowland, 
John, Joseph, Owen, Mary A. Scattergood 
and Mrs. Moore. 

Joseph K. Moore received his education 
in the common schools of Delaware county, 
and learned the trade of carpenter, which 
he followed up to 1862. On August 14, of 
that year, he enlisted in Company A, 138th 
Pennsylvania infantry. He saw hard and 
active service in the Army of the Potomac, 
and participated in the battles of Brandy 
Station, Mine Run, The Wilderness, Spott- 
svlvania, Cold Harbor, Fisher's Hill, Cedar 
Creek, Petersburg and Sailor's Creek, be- 
sides numerous skirmishes and minor en- 
gagements. He received three wounds, but 
neither of them was serious. He was hon- 



orably discharged near Washington city, 
June 28, 1865. Returning from the army, 
he followed carpentering for two years, and 
then became a trimmer in the Alan W T ood 
company's mill, at Conshohockcn, in which 
he remained for fifteen years. At the end 
of that time he opened a grocery store on 
Elm street, and two years later, removed to 
Hector street, where he continued up to 
1885. In that year he disposed of his stock 
of groceries to embark in the wholesale 
smoked meat business. In the latter line 
he operated extensively and had a large 
trade but sold out his establishment and 
routes in 1892, when he was appointed to 
his present position as postmaster of Con- 
shohocken. 

Mr. Moore is a Democrat in political af- 
fairs, and some years ago was very active in 
the interest of his party. He also takes 
interest in educational matters, having 
served for twelve years as a member of the 
school board, from which he recently re- 
signed and refused to accept a re-election. 
He is a member of Gratitude Lodge, In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows ; Fritz 
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; and 
George Smith Post No. 79, Grand Army of 
the Republic, of which latter he was the 
first commander. Mr. Moore has been 
identified with the various building and 
loan associations of his borough. He and 
his family are attendants of the services of 
the Baptist church, in whose faith and 
practice he believes. He is active and 
energetic in whatever enterprise he em- 
barks. 

On March 28, 1866, Joseph K. Moore 
married Anna Holt, and to their union have 
been born two sons and two daughters : 
William, Walter, Elizabeth, attending the 
West Chester State Normal school ; and 
Rachel, now deceased. 



B IOGR A PH ICA L vS K ETC 1 1 ES. 



421 



TAMES B. SMITH, ex-chief burgess, and 

«J at present one of the most popular men 
in Jenkintown, was born in Bucks county, 
on the 14th of July, 1836, and is a son of 
Robert and Rosanna (Barron) Smith. He 
is of American ancestry, his paternal grand- 
father having been James Smith, a pros- 
perous farmer of Bucks county. His 
father, Robert Smith, was born in Bucks 
county and lived there all his life as a 
farmer. He was prominent in the military 
organization of the State, and was a mem- 
ber of the State militia. His brother, Hon. 
Samuel A. Smith, was a member of con- 
gress from Bucks count) - and was also asso- 
ciate judge of the county. Both men were 
prominent and active in Democratic poli- 
tics. The marriage of Robert Smith with 
Rosanna Barron resulted in the birth of 
two children : Sarah, and our subject. He 
died when still an active young man at the 
age of thirty-eight years. 

James B. Smith was educated in the 
schools of the district and later in New 
Jersey. He also went to a private school 
at New Hope. He learned the trade of car 
builder at Lambertville, New Jersey, and 
afterwards that of carpenter, finishing his 
elementary mechanical education by a 
thorough course in pattern making. He 
worked for some years at Lambertville and 
then went to Trenton, New Jersey, where 
he had charge of the car shops of the 
Belvidere railroad. He is a Democrat, and 
while in New Jersey was very active in 
politics and served as president of the town 
council of Lambertville. 

In 1879 Mr. Smith removed to Jenkin- 
town and has ever since been the popular 
proprietor of the Jenkintown house. He 
has been very successful as a landlord and 
has made his hostelry famous all over the 
district. Mr. Smith became very promi- 



nent in local politics and, being recognized 
by his fellow townsmen as a man of great 
executive ability, was elected chief bur- 
gess in 1886 and served four years. He was 
also a member of council and showed him- 
self fully abreast of the times and reach 
and willing to work for the advancement of 
his town. Fraternally he is connected 
with the Knights of Pythias and the Inde- 
pendent order of Odd Fellows, in both of 
which he is verv active. 



GEORGE SMITH MILLER, cigar 
manufacturer, of Sumneytown, this 
county, is a son of George and Barbara 
(Smith) Miller, and was born December 21, 
1841, at Sumneytown, this county. Pri- 
marily, the family was from Germain', 
whence members of it, becoming dissatis- 
fied with their condition and longing for a 
greater freedom than was accorded them 
in their native land, emigrated to the 
United States. They located in eastern 
Pennsylvania, perhaps within the limits of 
what is now Montgomery county. In this 
county, in the township of Gwynedd, was 
born George Miller, the father of the sub- 
ject of this biographical record. He was of 
a mechanical turn of mind and learned the 
carpenter trade, which he followed for a 
time, and then turned his attention to 
merchandizing, but latterly owned a farm. 
Politically, he always affiliated with the 
Republican party, through the suffrages of 
which party he was elected to the office of 
justice of the peace. In this office his 
judgments were characterized by their im- 
partiality, and manifest rendition in ac- 
cordance with the facts and the law. His 
marriage with Barbara Smith resulted in 
the birth often children : Frank, Angeline, 



422 



Biographical Sketches. 



Eliza, Henry, Daniel, Lydia, Sarah, George 
S., subject, Matilda and James. George 
Smith died at the age of sixty-three 
years. 

Mr. Miller received but a limited educa- 
tion in the public schools of Sumney- 
town, this county, learned the trade of a 
tobacconist and followed it for a time, when 
he in partnership with his brother, Frank 
Miller, under the firm name of Miller & 
Brother, engaged in the manufacture of 
powder near the village of Suinneytown. 
This partnership was dissolved, but the 
business was continued by Mr. Miller, 
making in all about eight years' experience 
in this line of manufacturing. Retiring 
for a time from the powder business, he 
purchased a hotel and farm at Hillegas 
Station, which he operated for a period of 
two years, when he retired to Suinneytown 
and again resumed for a short time the 
manufacture of powder. Subsequently he 
began the quarrying of Belgian block for 
street paving purposes, at Sellersville, Bucks 
county, doing a large and prosperous busi- 
ness in this line, employing at times as 
high as two hundred hands. In 1893 he, 
in partnership with C. F. Shively, under 
the firm name of Shively, Miller & Co., 
embarked in the manufacture of cigars at 
Suinneytown. They have been extensive 
manufacturers in this line, employing as 
many as one hundred hands. In addition 
to these interests, Mr. Miller is interested 
in real estate in the village and owns a 
farm of forty-eight acres near it. Politi- 
cally, he is a Republican, and formerly 
took an active part and still evinces a com- 
mendable interest in his party. 

Mr. Miller married Ella, a daughter of 
Peter Truxall, a farmer and ore miner of 
Lehigh county, and two children have 
been born to this union : Anna, wife of 



Morris Kratz, an ice dealer at Kratz Sta- 
tion, this county, and Lucretia. 

George S. Miller has demonstrated his 
ability to win success in various lines of 
business. He possesses rare good judg- 
ment, unusual executive ability, and that 
comprehensive insight into the details of a 
business that can but insure success. 



WINFIELD WHITE, justice of the 
^-J • peace of Lansdale since 1891, and a 
man of superior business qualifications and 
intelligence, is a native of Montgomery 
county and comes from a family belonging 
to the Society of Friends, that for genera- 
tions has been identified with the early his- 
tory of this section of the State. He is a 
son of Thomas J. and Hannah (Conrad) 
White, and was born in Philadelphia, on 
the 9th of May, 1851 James White was 
his paternal grandfather and he was born in 
Montgomery county, in 1755. He was a 
tailor by trade and followed that business 
for a number of years. He then became a 
hotel keeper at Union Square, and also con- 
ducted a general store for some years. 
With his other business he coupled that of 
farming and owned four fine farms in Mont- 
gomery county. In 1840 he retired from 
active business and lived on one of his farms 
until his death in 1859, at the remarkable age 
of one hundred and four years. He was a 
Whig and an active politician in his section. 
He was a consistent member of Friends 
meeting and universally respected. In 1790 
he married Elizabeth Jones and they had 
the following children : Humphrey, Thom- 
as J., John, Jesse, James, Charles, Mary and 
Margaret. Two of the sons, Humphrey and 
James were physicians. 

Thomas J. White (father) was a promi- 



Biographical Sketches. 



423 



nent school teacher for twenty years. He was 
born in the township of Gwynedd, on De- 
cember 6, 1793, and was given the best edu- 
cation that could be secured in the schools 
of his district. He then began teaching 
school. He taught at one place, Towa- 
mencin, for fifteen years. In 1840 he gave up 
this profession and engaged in the general 
store business near Lansdale which he con- 
ducted with great profit until i860, when he 
bought a large farm near Lansdale and re- 
moved to it. Mr. White was a man of great 
intelligence, and was looked up to and re- 
spected by the community. He was ac- 
tive in his district in the affairs of the Whig 
and afterward the Republican party, but 
was never an office seeker. In 1847 he 
married Hannah Conrad, and their union 
was blessed with one child : J. Winfield. 

J. Winfield White, our subject, was given 
a common school education and then attend- 
ed Line Lexington academy for two years, 
finishing his scholastic career with a two 
years course in Norristown high school. 
He then secured a position as clerk in a 
store at Lansdale, where he remained two 
years, and left there to go to Philadelphia 
to accept a position in a large wholesale 
dry goods house. He remained in that city 
until 1878 when he came back and located 
on a farm. Mr. White is interested in the 
stone business and was in the excursion 
business from 1885 to 1891. He has been 
a very active man in business, and a suc- 
cessful farmer. In politics he is a staunch 
Republican and has always been a willing 
and energetic worker. In the spring of 
1892 he was elected justice of the peace and 
has held that position ever since. 

On July 4, 1876, Mr. White was joined 
in marriage with Lizzie L., daughter of 
William R. Rittenhouse, of Eagleville. 
Four children have come as the fruit of this 



union : William Raymond, born Septem- 
ber 3, 1878; Leon R., born October 12, 
1880; Stella R., born July 26, 1883, and 
Harry Willard, born April 8, 1889. 



GEORGE W. HOLSTEIN, M. D., a 
prominent citizen of Bridgeport, and 
a grand-nephew of General Wayne of Revo- 
lutionary fame, is a son of Col. George W. 
and Elizabeth Wayne (Hayman) Holstein, 
and was born October 30, 1820. His 
mother was a niece of General Anthony 
Wayne, her mother being his sister, and 
during boyhood, Dr. Holstein frequently 
drove his mother to the old homestead of 
General Wayne near Paoli, Chester county, 
to visit her cousin, Colonel Isaac Wayne 
and family, where they found the library 
room of the general just as he left it. 

Dr. Holstein received his elementary edu- 
cation in the old academy in Norristown, 
under the direction of Mr. Eliphalet Rob- 
erts, as a classmate of Gen. W. S. Hancock 
and Gen. Samuel K. Zook. Afterwards he 
attended the University of Pennsylvania, 
from which institution he was graduated in 
the medical department in the class of 1843. 
Shortly after his graduation he located at 
Bridgeport, where he was engaged in active 
practice for fifteen years, but owing to ill 
health at the end of that time, he abandoned 
medical practice and embarked in the drug 
business, which he conducted until 1869. 
In that year his son, Charles Elliott, was 
graduated from the Philadelphia College of 
Pharmacy, and succeeded him. Later Dr. 
Holstein was employed by the Philadelphia 
and Reading Railroad company, to assist J. 
Lowrie Bell, the general freight agent of 
the road and who, during General Har- 
rison's administration, was second assistant 



424 



Biographical Sketches. 



postmaster general. Dr. Holstein is still 
assisting the company and has an office at 
Fourth and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia. 
He is a Republican in politics, and an ener- 
getic party worker. Under Col. John H. 
Taggart, he served for seven years, during 
the administrations of Lincoln and Grant, 
as deputy revenue collector of the ' First 
district of Pennsylvania. He was once a 
candidate for the legislature, but being a 
member of the minority party, was defeated 
with the remainder of his ticket. For three 
years he served as a member of the town 
council of Bridgeport, as burgess one year, 
and for thirty years was secretary of the 
school board of his district. In educational 
affairs he has taken great interest, and as- 
sisted in the organization of the first graded 
schools of Bridgeport. He is a prominent 
member of Montgomery Lodge No. 57, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in 
which he has served as secretary for thirty- 
seven years. He is also secretary of Norris- 
town Lodge No. 32, Knights of Pythias ; 
and is a member of Christ (Swedes') church, 
Upper Merion, of which he has been vestry- 
man for fifty years. He served in Company 
B, 17th regiment, Pennsylvania militia, at 
the Battle of Autietam, and was afterwards 
called upon to act as surgeon at the time of 
the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1886 Mr. B. 
Thomas, recorder of deeds for Montgomery 
county, invited him to act as his deputy, 
which position he filled to the great satis- 
faction of the legal fraternity, during the 
term of Mr. Thomas. 

On October 19, 1847, ne was united in 
marriage with Abby Turner Brower, a 
daughter of Daniel R. Brower, of Phoenix- 
ville. 

Matthias Holstein, the ancestor of a Ions* 
line, was born in Philadelphia in 1644. 
His parents came from Sweden with Gov- 



ernor Peter Minuit, in the good ship Key of 
Kalmar. The Holsteins are numerous in 
Sweden, Germany and the United States, 
but this family is the only one of the Swed- 
ish branch in the county, and tradition 
states that the name has descended through 
a noble line in Sweden. Matthias Holstein 
died April 9, 1708, at the age of six- 
ty four years, and Matthias Holstein, 
jr., his second son, removed with his wife, 
Brita (Rambo) Holstein, to Amasland, now 
Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, and shortly afterward purchased 
one thousand acres of land which com- 
prises what is now the borough of Bridge- 
port and extended back to Red Hill. The 
oldest date for this tract is 1708. For a 
time he resided at Swedesford, and in 17 14 
built a stone house upon his farm one and 
a half miles from the Schuylkill river, on 
Spring creek, it being the custom of the 
old Swedish settlers to locate near streams 
of water. In that old stone dwelling house 
four generations of the Holstein family 
were born and reared and the house still 
remains in good condition. A large barn 
was built at the time the dwelling was 
erected and was standing until just re- 
cently. 

Colonel George Washington Holstein, 
father, was born April 10, 1778, the year 
that Washington with his army were at 
Valley Forge, and when but eighteen years 
of age he was one who responded to Wash- 
ington's call for fifteen thousand men to 
suppress the Whiskey insurrection. By oc- 
cupation he was a farmer, and on Novem- 
ber 5, 1801, he married Elizabeth Wayne 
Hayman, of Chester county. The marriage 
ceremony was performed at the residence of 
the bride's uncle, Major General Anthony 
Wayne. 

Colonel Holstein was a public spirited 



Biographical Sketches. 



425 



man and was the chief promoter of the 
Schuylkill Navigation company, in which 
he served as director. Later he became the 
chief promoter, and also a director of the 
company constructing the Norristown 
bridge across the Schuylkill. He was an 
active director of the Bank of Montgomery 
county, and was known to be a good coun- 
sellor and adviser in business affairs. He 
died in 1841. For forty years he served in 
the capacity of vestryman of the Old Swedes 
(Christ) church of Upper Merion township, 
and his congeniality, pleasantness and en- 
tertaining conversation won him friends 
wherever he was known. 

Dr. Holstein and wife have three chil- 
dren : Charles E., druggist, Bridgeport ; 
Ella, intermarried with William W. Potts, 
Swedelaud ; George Meade, intermarried 
with Sarah Corson Highley, in charge of 
the extensive zinc works of R. T. Wilson 
& Co., Pulaski, Virginia. 



TRVIN S. WEBER, the present post- 
1 master at North Wales, is the eldest and 
only surviving son of Jacob and Eliza 
(Shearer) Weber, and was born at North 
Wales, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
June 12, 1861. His paternal grandfather 
was a farmer and a well respected citizen 
of Worcester township, where he was 
active in local politics. He was a Jackson- 
ian Democrat, and married Elizabeth 
Markley, by whom he had four children, 
three sons and a daughter : George, Jacob, 
John and Etneline. Jacob Weber followed 
farming in Worcester township until past 
middle age, and then engaged in butcher- 
ing in North Wales, which he conducted 
up to the time of his death, February 8, 
1883, when in the fifty-eighth year of his 



age. He was influential in political affairs 
like his father, and served as a delegate to 
Congressional and other conventions and 
did his share towards changing the county 
politically in i860. He was a member of 
the Masonic Lodge at Fort Washington, 
and also held membership in I. O. O. F. 
and the Knights of Pythias. 

Irvin S. Weber was reared at his native 
place, received his education in the public 
schools and Brunner's academy at North 
Wales, and then entered the printing office 
of the North Wales Record, where he 
learned the trade of printing. Alter com- 
pleting his trade he worked for ten years 
as a compositor, spending part of that time 
on the Record and several months in the 
office of the Philadelphia Item. At the 
end of that time he went to Ambler where 
he started and ran the Gazette for one 
year. He then returned to Philadelphia 
where he was engaged in the trade until 
1892. In that year he accepted a position 
on the Record, which he held until the 
succeeding year when he was appointed by 
President Cleveland, postmaster of North 
Wales, which he has held up to the pres- 
ent time. 

On October 30, 1889, Mr. Weber married 
Lizzie Kriebel, of West Point, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Mr. Weber has always faithfully dis- 
charged the duties of every position in 
which he has served. He is an active 
Democrat, has been a county committee- 
man for several years, and was elected 
several times as an election inspector in 
his polling precinct as well as a delegate 
to the Democratic State convention. He 
is a member of St. Peter's Lutheran church, 
a member of North Wales Lodge No. 610, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Gilt 
Edge Castle No. 138, Knights of the 



426 



Biographical Sketches. 



Golden Eagle ; and has been representative 
for the latter to the Grand Castle for two 
terms. 



CYRUS H. CALEY, a prosperous farmer 
of near Abrams, is the eldest son of 
Samuel and Lucy C. (Hickman) Caley, and 
was born at Radnor, Delaware county, 
Pennsylvania, February 11, 1842. He was 
reared in Delaware and Chester counties, 
received his education in the public schools 
and the Millersville State Normal school, 
and then was engaged in farming for his 
father until his marriage. After his mar- 
riage he rented a farm near White House, 
in Chester county, which he left three years 
later to purchase a farm in Delaware 
county, on which he resided up to 1882. 
He then spent one year in Plymouth town- 
ship, and afterwards became interested in 
the Jacob Beidler place, where he remained 
until 1887, when he purchased his present 
farm of fifteen acres of land near Abrams 
and in Upper Merion township. Mr. Caley 
is a careful and prosperous farmer and a 
safe and reliable business man. He is a 
Republican and a member of Valley Meet- 
ing of the Society of Friends. He is a 
school director and was also a supervisor of 
highways for two years while residing in 
Delaware county. When Lee's invading 
legions were sweeping northward in 1863, 
Mr. Caley enlisted for ninety days in Com- 
pany E, Forty-seventh Pennsylvania volun- 
teer militia and served near Gettysburg and 
along the Potomac river. 

On March 16, 1865, Mr. Caley married 
Annie L. Beidler, whose parents are Abra- 
ham and Sarah Beidler, of Upper Merion. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Caley have been born 
eight children : Harry (deceased), Sarah 
L., Ella B. (Mrs. William Frederick), Laura 



M., J. Oswald, Jonathan R., D. Ashmore 
and Hannah M. 

The Caley family is of English descent 
and locate their first new world home at 
Newtown Square, in Delaware county, 
where in the third generation from the im- 
migrant ancestor was born Samuel Caley, 
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
Samuel Caley was a farmer and Whig, and 
first united with the Baptists, but after- 
wards joined the Friends or Quakers. His 
son, Samuel Caley, was born March 14, 
1815, and passed his life at Newtown 
Square in Delaware county, except six 
years, during which he resieed at Radnor, 
Delaware county. He was a well-to-do 
farmer and a consistent Friend or Quaker. 
He was a Whig, and after that great politi- 
cal party went down he became one of the 
early Republicans. He was active and in- 
dustrious and died November 31, 1886, 
aged seventy-one years. In 1841 Samuel 
Caley was united in marriage with Lucy 
C. Hickman, a daughter of Cyrus Hick- 
man. They reared a family of six chil- 
dren : Cyrus H., Samuel, jr., William, 
Elizabeth, Hannah (Mrs. E. Garwood), and 
Margaret. 



WILMER H. JOHNSON, the editor 
and proprietor of the North Wales 
Record, is a son of Richard A. and Elizabeth 
Hampton Johnson, and was born near Pine- 
ville, in Buckingham township, Bucks 
county, Pennsylvania, March 16, 1849. The 
Johnsons are Hollanders in lineage, and 
their original immigrant ancestor, Dick 
Johnson, came to America about 1614. He 
was an early settler at Germantown, and 
one of his descendants, John L. Johnson, 
lived in Bucks county, owning for some 
time there, Henricks' Island, near Centre 



Biographical Sketches. 



427 



Bridge, in the Delaware river. John L. 
Johnson learned the trade of miller with the 
celebrated Livsey's, on Wissahiekon Creek, 
at Roxborongh, and then became a resident 
of Bucks county, in which he purchased a 
large tract of land from the Paxson family, 
from which Judge Paxson was decended. He 
was a Quaker, and an earnest advocate of 
free schools, and married Sarah Ridgeway, 
of Mount Holly, New Jersey, by whom he 
had ten children. Their son, Richard A. 
Johnson, was reared and educated in his 
native country. 

Wilmer H., son Richard A., attended 
Excelsior Normal institute, at Carversville, 
one of the instructors in which was L. New- 
lin Fell, who afterwards became a Supreme 
Court Judge of Penna. Wilmer afterwards 
went to Doylestown, where he learned the 
printing trade in the office of the Bucks 
County Intelligencer. Leaving Doylestown, 
October, 1869, he secured his first situation 
on the New York Anti-Slavery Standard, 
which he soon left to become editor of the 
Brooklyn Advocate. At the death of this 
paper he became assistant foreman on the 
Brooklyn Daily Times, but was soon placed 
on the reportorial staff to look up and write 
whatever of historic interest he was able to 
gather in connection with the growing City 
of Churches, and his work was so compe- 
tently done that he was engaged in a similar 
capacity by the Argus and also the Eagle, 
two leading afternoon papers of Brooklyn. 
His health, became impaired by the strain 
and the enervating labor of his important 
position, and at the close of the famous 
Beecher-Tilton trial, which concluded his 
newspaper work in Brooklyn, in 1875, he 
returned home to recuperate. In the spring 
of the ensuing year he went to Philadelphia 
and acted there as the Centennial corres- 
pondent of the Saturday Evening Post. 



With the termination of this engagement 
his service as a correspondent ended, as he 
determined to enter upon journalism for 
himself, and accordingly purchased a half 
interest in the North Wales Record. Nine 
months later he secured the other half in- 
terest, and since then has been actively en- 
gaged in improving it and in increasing the 
circulation. The Record is an independent 
Republican paper, and has been an active 
and forcible factor in. the advancement of 
the interests of that section of the county. 
While local matters have prominence, yet 
general news and everything of importance 
has faithful and intelligent record. Mr. 
Johnson is a clear and entertaining writer, 
and has always been in the van of every 
improvement made at North Wales. He is 
a Republican, and has served as a school 
director and a councilman. He is an En- 
campment member of Odd Fellows and a 
member of the Odd Fellow Dodge, No. 610, 
and Othello Lodge, No. 50, and Knights of 
Pythias. 

On March 23, 1872, Mr. Johnson married 
Bella Geary Bleiler, of Doylestown, who 
died October 14, 1886, leaving four children : 
George, Roydon, Russell and Byron. On 
November 1, 1888, Mr. Johnson wedded 
Alice Hoffman, of Norristown, and their 
wedding trip extended through the north- 
west to the Rocky mountains. To his sec- 
ond union have been born three children : 
Inna Alice, David Lawrence and Miriam 
Hoffman. 



EZRA H. BROWN, real estate dealer, 
insurance agent and tax collector for 
the borough of Norristown, is a son of 
Clayton L. and Emma (Haines) Brown, and 
was born April 27, 1848, in Burlington 
county, New Jersey. He is a descendant 



428 



Biographical Sketches. 



of William Brown, an English Quaker, 
who was among- the pioneer settlers of the 
State of New Jersey. Isaac Brown, grand- 
father, was born in New Jersey, where he 
pursued the avocations of a lumberman and 
a farmer. He adhered all his life to the 
tenets of the Quaker church and was a 
Whig in political belief and practice. He 
married Sarah Lippincott, and their chil- 
dren were: William L., Clayton L., father; 
George and Beulah. Isaac Brown died in 
1877, at the age of eighty-eight years. 

Clayton L. Brown, father, was born in 
Burlington county, New Jersey, 1820, and 
died in the same county June 11, 1876. He 
obtained a good educatiou and for a time 
was engaged in the profession of teaching ; 
later he added to this the pursuits of hus- 
bandry. In his early manhood he was a 
Whig, but upon the dissolution of that 
party in 1856, became a Republican and 
held many local offices in the community 
in which he lived. 

On March 19, 1846, he wedded Emma, a 
daughter of Ezra Haines, of Burlington 
county, New Jersey, and three children 
blessed their union : Sarah L., the wife of 
J. B. Joyce, of New Jersey ; Ezra H., sub- 
ject ; and Rachel H. 

Ezra H. Brown was educated in the 
Westtown Boarding school, a Quaker in- 
stitution of Chester county, this State. Ob- 
taining a liberal education, Mr. Brown en- 
tered upon the profession of teaching for 
six years in Burlington county, New Jersey. 
Subsequently he accepted a position as 
book-keeper in Philadelphia, in which ca- 
pacity he was employed for a period of nine 
years. In 1882 he removed to Norristown, 
and in 1888 was elected receiver of taxes 
for that borough, a position he has held 
ever since. In 1888 he associated himself 
with Charles F. Cloud and Charles Johnson 



for the purpose of conducting a real estate, 
insurance and money brokerage business, 
under the firm name of Brown, Cloud & 
Johnson. Since 1891 Mr. Brown has been 
secretary and treasurer of the Consumer's 
Ice company. A Republican, he has al- 
ways taken a deep interest in the success 
of his party, and when a young man, served 
as clerk of the township in which he re- 
sided. 

On November 12, 1872, he married Emma 
M. Sheppard, a daughter of Charles Shep- 
pard, and three children have blessed their 
married union : Elizabeth S., Clayton L., 
and Mary S. Elizabeth married George 
Lane, of Poughkeepsie, New York, April 
11, 1895; Clayton L. is taking a course of 
five years at Westtown school, Chester 
county, Pa. ; and Mary S. died aged four 
months. 



B BROOK ADAMS, a retired business 
• man and quarry operator, is the only 
surviving son and child of David and 
Elizabeth Adams, and was born at King-of- 
Prussia, in Upper Merion township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, January 14, 
1838. David Adams was a son of David 
Adams, sr., who was a stone mason by 
occupation, a Democrat politically, and 
resided near Bridgeport. David Adams 
was a life-long resident of Upper Merion 
township, in which he died September 19, 
1885, when in the seventy-fifth year of his 
age. He learned the trade of pump-mak- 
ing and carried on the business up to 1843, 
in which year he retired from the occupa- 
tion, which had, by that time, lost some of 
its profitable and remunerative features. In 
the same year that he closed up his pump- 
making establishment, he purchased the 
Reeseville lime quarry, which he operated 



Biographical Sketches. 



429 



quite successfully for the long period of 
thirty-four years. A few weeks later, on 
February 10, 1877, he sold his plant, com- 
prising; quarries, kilns, and buildings, to 
Franklin Derr, and lived in a manner re- 
tired during the rest of his life. He was a 
Democrat and loyally supported his party 
in its days of adversity as well as in the 
hours of victory and seasons of triumph. 
Mr. Adams wedded Elizabeth Brook. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Adams were born four chil- 
dren : Jehu, Samuel B., Brook, and Francis, 
all of whom are dead except B. Brook, whose 
name heads this sketch. 

B. Brook Adams was reared in his native 
township, trained to habits of industry, 
and received his education in the common 
schools. At fifteen years of age he com- 
menced working at his father's marble 
quarries, and in a few years became mana- 
ger and then secured an interest in the 
business. He remained in the marble 
business for twenty-four years, but since 
the sale of the plant in 1877 to Francis 
Derr, he has not been actively engaged in 
any particular enterprise, and gives his 
time principally to the supervision of his 
personal affairs. 

In political matters Mr. Adams takes a 
proper and due interest, and has served one 
term as township auditor. He is an Inde- 
pendent Democrat. Some years ago Mr. 
Adams joined the Odd Fellows, Knights of 
Pythias, and Knights of Friendship. He 
is a careful and safe business man. 



JOHN F. WEYAND, a man of extended 
business experience, of Pennsburg, this 
county, is a son of Charles and Sarah 
(Fagley) Weyand, and was born July 14, 
1866, in New Hanover township, this 



county. Charles Weyand, father, son of 
John Weyand, was one of two sons, Wil- 
liam being the other, and was born in 
Berks county, this State, in the year 1820, 
and died in New Hanover township, this 
county, in 1888. He was reared on his 
father's farm in Berks county, until eigh- 
teen years of age, when he migrated to 
Montgomery county and settled in the 
woods. With characteristic German in- 
dustry and frugality, he began to clear up 
a farm and establish a home. In this 
worthy object he was successful and in ad- 
dition to becoming a well-to-do fanner and 
cattle dealer, was engaged for a number of 
years in the mercantile business in New 
Hanover township. He was a follower of 
the Jeffersonian Democracy and a member 
of the Reformed church. His marriage 
with Sarah Fagley resulted in the birth of 
two children : John F., subject ; and 
Charles, deceased. 

John F. is indebted to the common schools 
of the township and Perkiomen seminary 
for his educational training. At the age of 
sixteen, he was engaged by a drover, with 
whom he remained a few weeks, making 
but one trip. Having thus gained some 
knowledge of the business and being of an 
ambitious spirit, he resolved to enter upon 
the same line of operations on his own ac- 
count, which he later did, and continued 
up to the year 1884. Upon the latter date 
he took up merchandizing at Pleasant Run, 
this county, which he continued until No- 
vember, 1888, the date upon which he sold 
out. He then came to Pennsburg and went 
into the carriage and harness dealing trade, 
adding to this line the next year, the livery 
business. He built in 1892, the large livery 
stable which he now occupies. Mr. 
Weyand is a Democrat and is serving his 
fourth term as burgess of Pennsburg, being 



43° 



Biographical Sketches. 



the second man to hold that office. As one 
of the first burgesses of the borough, many 
matters of importance pertaining to the in- 
auguration of the municipal government 
have been disposed of, and Mr. Weyand's 
policy on all these matters has been com- 
mended by all the progressive citizens of 
the town. Fraternally he is a member of 
the Pennsburg Lodge No. 449, I. O. O. F., 
and of Pennsburg Encampment No. 234, 
I. O. O. F. 

In November, 18S9, Mr. Weyand wedded 
Martha C. a daughter of Levi and Caroline 
Bitting, and two children are the issue of 
this union : Huldah S., and Charles. 

Mr. Weyand is a director of the Farmers' 
National bank and takes a lively and in- 
telligent interest in the welfare and material 
advancement of his borough. 



WILLIAM H. SHOEMAKER, who for 
a number of years has been extensive- 
ly engaged in mercantile pursuits at Ogontz, 
is one of the most successful business men 
of that section of Montgomery county. He 
was born in Jeukintown on June 29, 1859, 
and is a son of Joseph A. and Esther (Har- 
per) Shoemaker. He is descended from 
the Huguenots, who immigrated to this 
country in the seventeenth century. A full 
detailed account of his ancestry will be 
found in the sketch of his father on another 
page of this work. 

Mr. Shoemaker was sent to the Friends' 
school in Abington township and after- 
ward attended the Friends' Central high 
school at Sixteenth and Race streets, Phila- 
delphia. He then took a course in the 
Pierce Business college. In i88ohegradu- 
ated from this school and engaged in the 
butchering business with his father. At 



the expiration of two years he went to Col- 
orado, where for another year he was en- 
gaged as a horse buyer, shipping large 
quantities of horses to the east. He then 
returned to Jeukintown and became en- 
gaged in the meat business once more. For 
six years he remained here and then pur- 
chased the ice business of James Satterth- 
waite at Ogontz, where he has continued 
ever since. 

Mr. Shoemaker is of a very progressive 
and enterprising disposition, and in addi- 
tion to his ice business engaged in quarrying 
stone and selling coal. Three years ago he 
put in an ice making plant with a capacity 
of forty tons per day, and he now supplies 
a wide territory in his immediate neighbor- 
hood with manufactured ice. Though hav- 
ing large business interest in Ogontz Mr. 
Shoemaker resides in Jenkintown, where 
he is very influential as a Republican poli- 
tician. He was elected a member of the 
town council in 1893 and has served ever 
since. In 188S he married Madge H. 
Wentz, daughter of A. D. Wentz. They 
have no children. Mr. Shoemaker is an 
earnest advocate of improvement in his 
town and is respected and esteemed by his 
fellow citizens. 



CHARLES IRA CHRISTMAN, book- 
keeper for the Whiting Paper com- 
pany of Philadelphia, is a son of Charles 
and Mary T (Miller) Christman, and was 
born June 8, 1852, at Norristown, this 
county. His paternal grandfather was 
Charles Christman, of German extraction, 
a farmer near Limerick Station in Linfield 
township, this county. 

Charles Ira Christman was educated in 
the public schools of Norristown and at 



Biographical Sketches. 



43i 



Treeinount seminary under the direction 
and tutelage of Prof. John W. Loch. He 
took the regular course in that institution 
and served an apprenticeship of four years 
to learn the trade of a carpenter. Becom- 
ing dissatisfied with this line of work, he- 
attended Bryant S: Stratton's Business col- 
lege at Philadelphia, from which institu- 
tion he graduated. He then accepted a 
position as book-keeper for E. J. Spangler, 
an envelope manufacturer of Philadelphia, 
where he remained three years, when he 
went west and for some time held a posi- 
tion of responsibility and trust in the 
general store of John M. Kilton & Co. in 
Michigan. He returned to Norristown 
and took a position as book-keeper in the 
employ of the Whiting Paper company of 
Philadelphia, a position he has held to the 
present time. Mr. Christman is a Republi- 
can politically, and a member of the Cen- 
tral Presbyterian church, whilst fraternally 
he belongs to the Royal Arcanum and the 
National Union. 

On June 10, 1880, Mr. Christman and 
Sarah S., a daughter of Dr. William M. 
McEwen, were united in marriage, and 
two children, William H. and Mabel 
McEwen, bless their marital relation. 

Dr. William M. McEwen was a promi- 
nent physician of Norristown and Mont- 
gomery county. He was born in 1809 and 
died in Norristown in 1872. He was edu- 
cated in that renowned institution of learn- 
ing, the Jefferson Medical college, of Phila- 
delphia. He then took up the practice of 
his profession in Montgomery county, prac- 
ticing in various points in the county, and 
at one time was engaged in the drug busi- 
ness at the corner of Third and Race 
streets, Philadelphia. During his latter 
days he lived in Norristown. At one time 
he held a position as member of the pen- 



sion examining board of Montgomery 
county. His wife's maiden name was 
Sarah Snyder, and their children were : 
Emma L. ; Mary E. ; Rachel C. ; Ellen H., 
deceased ; Sarah S. ; Rebecca S. ; Frank 
and Oscar, both deceased. 



WILLIAM H. KRIDER, a prominent 
carriage merchant of Norristown, son 
of Solomon and Sarah (Haines) Krider, was 
born August 30, 1838, in Upper Macungie 
township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. 
His paternal grandfather, John Krider, of 
German parentage, settled sometime prior 
to the Revolutionary war in what is now 
Lehigh county, where as a pioneer settler 
he followed agricultural pursuits. He was 
a member of the Lutheran church and an 
ardent Whig politically. He was twice 
married and had a large family. A num- 
ber of his sons fought for freedom's cause in 
the Revolutionary war, in which conflict 
one of them lost his life at the battle of 
Long Island, where his remains now lie 
buried. Solomon Krider was born in what 
was then Northampton but now Lehigh 
county. The schools that marked his boy- 
hood days in Northampton county were 
very inefficient, but by dint of close appli- 
cation as a student coupled with good 
natural ability, he obtained a good educa- 
tion for the times, then taught school for a 
period of ten years. After he gave up teach- 
ing, he was engaged in the manufacture of 
household goods at Trexlertown, Lehigh 
county, where with the exception of two 
years, he lived all his life. He was a chem- 
ist of considerable practical ability for the 
time, and was the author and publisher of 
a treatise on " Practical Family Dyeing," 
that possessed considerable merit, and had 



432 



Biographical Sketches. 



a large sale for that day. A Whig prior to 
the organization of the Republican party 
and an ardent Republican from the incep- 
tion of that party in 1856, he took a com- 
mendable interest in the political measures 
that were brought before the people and 
was always well posted on the current affairs 
of the day. He was a reader and a thinker, 
a man of good judgment and possessed the 
confidence of all who had dealings with him 
and was frequently sought for his advice on 
business, legal and social matters. His 
marriage resulted in the birth of six chil- 
dren : Sarah S., Joseph, William H., 
Franklin H., Jane S. , and Anna M. Solo- 
mon Krider died at the age of seventy-nine 
years. 

William H. Krider received but the ele- 
ments of an education through his attend- 
ance at the public schools of his township. 
Leaving school he served an apprenticeship 
to learn the trade of a carriage builder, and 
followed that trade as a journeyman for two 
years. He then entered upon the study of 
the art and science of dentistry in the office 
and under the preceptorship of Dr. Joseph 
Miller. After completing the course he 
practiced the profession four years, when 
disliking the confinement incident to the 
work, he gave it up and again took up his 
trade at which he worked for a time, and 
then for five years was engaged as a sales- 
man. In 1891 he embarked in the carriage 
selling business on his own account in Nor- 
ristown, and has continued in that line to 
the present time. He is a Republican 
politically and has served as a member of 
the school board of Norristown borough, 
always showing a deep interest in the cause 
of popular education. He is a devoted 
member and deacon of the Lutheran church 
and a respected member of Lehigh Lodge, 
No. 526, Free and Accepted Masons. 



In i860 he wedded a daughter of John 
Lutz, of Bucks county, and seven children 
have blessed their union : Robert C, a 
salesman, and resident of West Philadel- 
phia ; Emma, a teacher; Annie L-, wife of 
Henry L. Field, a salesman, of Allentown, 
Pennsylvania ; Sarah, deceased ; Margaret 
E., a stenographer and typewriter ; Mary J., 
deceased, and William S. 



JACOB H. BEIDLER, an industrious 
<J farmer and pork butcher, living near 
Abrams, is a son of Abraham and Sarah 
(Stevens) Beidler, and was born in Upper 
Meriou township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, March 21, 1859. He was 
reared in his native township until he was 
fourteen years of age and then went to 
Chester county, where he remained until 
he had attained his majority. He received 
his education in the public schools of Upper 
Merion township and Chester county, and 
at twenty-one years of age commenced life 
for himself as a farmer in Norriton town- 
ship, the following year coming to where 
he now resides. His farm, which is within 
one mile of Abrams, contains no acres of 
land, which is well adapted to agricultural 
purposes in general. To its cultivation and 
improvement he gives his time principally. 

On March 31, 1887, Mr. Beidler was united 
in marriage with K. Jennie Shainline, a 
daughter of Jonathan Shainline, a resident 
of Upper Merion. Their union has been 
blessed with four children, one son and 
three daughters : Helen, Warren, Ethel 
and Anna. 

Jacob H. Beidler is a Republican in politi- 
cal opinion and has served as tax collector 
of his township for one term. He is a 
member of Valley Meeting of the Society 



Biographical Sketches. 



433 



of Friends. The Beidler family is of Ger- 
man descent, and has resided for over a 
century in Chester county, where Jacob 
Beidler, the grandfather of Jacob H. Beid- 
ler, was born and reared and lived to be 
ninety years of age, dying in 1865. He was 
a fanner and a Whig, and his son, Abra- 
ham Beidler, was reared and educated in 
Tredyffrin township, Chester county, and 
became a school teacher, but not liking that 
profession turned his attention to farming 
and dealing in wood lands. He purchased 
wood options on large tracts of land and 
cut the timber, which he sold to the large 
wood yards in Philadelphia and elsewhere. 
He afterwards purchased a farm containing 
fifty acres of woodland near Port Kennedy 
and in Upper Merion township, which he 
cleared and upon which he erected build- 
ings, consisting of a barn and two houses. 
This he tilled until he died, May 9, 1872, 
aged sixty-two years. He was a Republi- 
can and Quaker and held the offices of 
school director and road supervisor in his 
township. • In 1841 he married Sarah 
Stevens, a daughter of Stephen Stevens. 
Their living children were : Hannah M., 
wife of M. Davis ; Anna L., married Cyrus 
Caley ; Maggie C, wife of Abraham Metz ; 
Stephen L., Ella P., wife of J. Klliott ; 
Fannie E., married M. Thomas; Louisa, 
wife of J. J. Roberts, and Jacob H, whose 
name heads this sketch. 



DANIEL S. ALTHOUSE, carriage 
manufacturer, of Pennsburg, Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Daniel S. and 
Sarah (Stahl) Althouse, and was born May 
1, 1848, near East Greenville, Upper Han- 
over township, this county. 

Henry Althouse, paternal grandfather, 

3 S 



lived in the latter part of his life in Here- 
ford township, Berks county, where he 
owned a small farm and followed the pur- 
suits of agriculture. His wife's maiden 
name was Julia Shultz, and their marriage 
resulted in the birth of two sons and three 
daughters : Daniel, Lydia, Henry, Han- 
nah and Sarah. 

Daniel S. Althouse, father, was born in 
Hereford township, Berks county, on April 
13, 1812, and died August 11, 1891. When 
a young man he learned the trade of a shoe- 
maker, which he followed exclusively for a 
number of years, but latterly followed farm- 
ing in Upper Hanover township in connec- 
tion with his trade. He was a devout and 
consistent member of the Reformed church, 
in which he held various official positions, 
and always took an active part in all mat- 
ters pertaining to the welfare and the evan- 
gelization of the race. He was philanthro- 
pise and generous and one of the provisions 
of his will stipulated that twenty per cent. 
of his estate should be bequeathed to the 
church and missionary work. Five chil- 
dren blessed his marriage union with Sarah 
Stahl. They are as follows : Henry, Daniel 
S., Elizabeth, Harrison and Samuel. 

Daniel S. Althouse learned the coach 
building trade with Horace Miller, in Up- 
per Hanover township, this county, serving 
an apprenticeship of three years, and one 
year more to still further perfect his trade. 
He then worked at journey work six years 
at various places, and in 1S71 went into the 
business on his own account at Milford 
Square, Bucks county, where he remained 
two years, after which he came to Penns- 
burg and established his present business. 
He built a factory 80x23 f eet > two stories 
high, and since then has built a warehouse 
v »\24 feet, three stories high, a blacksmith 
shop 24x30 feet, and a lumber shed 32x26 



434 



Biographical Sketches. 



feet. Recently lie built the fine residence 
in which he now lives. It is a pressed 
brick structure of fine architectural appear- 
ance, 32x40 feet, and two and one-half 
stories high, handsomely, substantially and 
tastefully finished inside and outside, and 
combines in an eminent degree the ele- 
ments of beauty and utility. Mr. Althouse 
is a Republican and a consistent member 
of the Reformed church. On December 
24, 1870, he married Elizabeth Nase, a 
dauehter of Elias Nase, and two children 
bless their union : Frank and Howard. 
Mrs. Elizabeth (Nase) Althouse died in 
1882 at the age of thirty-eight years, and 
Mr. Althouse married as his second wife 
Mary Ann Erb, a daughter of George Erb, 
ex-countv commissioner. Three daughters, 
Annie Irene, Ella May and Eva Leona bless 
this marital alliance. 



JOSEPH C. JONES, retail lumber dealer 
*-J of Conshohocken, is a son of Charles 
and Sarah (Reed) Jones, and was born De- 
cember 5, 1841, in Conshohocken, then in 
Whitemarsh township, this county. He is 
of Welsh-Quaker stock, but his great-great- 
grandfather, Jonathan Jones, transferred his 
residence from the old world to the new in 
1747. He settled in the vicinity of the 
present borough of Conshohocken where he 
took up a tract of land containing two hun- 
dred acres on a part of which Conshohocken 
now stands. He was one of the pioneer 
settlers and passed through the customary 
trials. One of his sons was John Jones who 
had a son Isaac Jones, who was the grand- 
father of the subject of this record. Isaac 
Jones was born on the homestead founded 
by his grandfather, and lived in that vicini- 
ty all his life mainly engaged in agricultural 



pursuits, but was also extensively engaged 
in lime burning, shipping the product via 
the Schuylkill canal and river to Maryland 
and New Jersey. Politically he was a Whig 
and regliously a minister of the Hicksite 
branch of the Quaker church, belonging to 
Plymouth Meeting. 

Charles Jones, father, was born in 181 1, in 
Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, 
was reared upon the paternal acres, and fol- 
lowed farming as a life vocation, owning a 
farm now included in the limits of the bor- 
ough of Conshohocken. He was a member 
of the Society of Friends, and a Republican 
in political principle, taking an active part 
in the local government of his borough and 
all matters pertaining to the welfare of the 
community at large. His marriage with 
Sarah Reed, was blessed in the birth of 
seven children : Ellen C, wife of David R. 
Jones, of Norristown ; Joseph C, subject ; 
Martha, Jonathan R., Sallie, Charles and 
James Cresson, deceased. 

Joseph C. Jones received a good academic 
education in Treemount seminary at Nor- 
ristown, under such competent and skilled 
educators as Professors Samuel Aaron and 
John W. Loch. Leaving school, he en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits with his 
father, and continued in this line until the 
outbreak of the Civil war when he enlisted 
in the 4th regiment, Pennsylvania militia, 
under Colonel Knowerder, of Allentown 
and Captain Henry Bonsall of Norristown. 
The regiment was taken to Hagerstown, 
Maryland, where it was held for a time and 
was then mustered out. He then enlisted 
in the 17th Pennsylvania cavalry, in the 
army of the Potomac, and served in all the 
battles of his regiment from the battle of 
Chancellorsville to the close of the conflict. 
The most important are the following : 
Cold Harbor, Seven Days battle, Gettys- 



Biographical Sketches. 



435 



burg, and the surrender of Lee at Appomat- 
tox. Although he took part in some of the 
most hotly contested battles of the war, yet 
he was never seriously wounded. He was 
captured while on a reconnoitering party 
near Lynchburg, Virginia, but soon made 
his escape. Having served his country 
faithfully in its hour of greatest peril and 
discharged with fidelity his every duty as a 
soldier, he returned home and once more 
resumed the peaceful pursuits of a farmer. 
His father having died in 1863, he succeed- 
ed to the management of the farm in White- 
marsh township, where he remained three 
years and then removed to Conshohocken 
aad became a member of the firm of E. D. 
&. J. C. Jones, and engaged in the lumber- 
ing business. This business relation con- 
tinued until 1880 when the caption of the 
firm became Evan D. Jones & Company, and 
has remained the same to the present 
time. 

Mr. Jones is recognized as a careful, 
methodical and successful business man, and 
in addition to giving a careful supervision 
to the interests of the business with which 
he is connected, finds time to take part in 
other matters of a financial and industrial 
nature that stand as the mutual measure of 
the thrift and progress of his town. He is 
president of the Guarantee Building and 
Loan association, and a director of the Home 
Building and Loan association. Politically 
he is a Republican, has served a number of 
years as a member of the school board of 
his borough and as councilman two terms. 
He is member in high standing of George 
Smith Post No 79, G. A. R., at Consho- 
hocken. 

On December 5, 1867, Mr. Jones married 
Emma, a daughter of Charles Wood, for- 
merly of Conshohocken, and to this union 
have been born five children : Nellie, who 



died at the age of twenty-four years; Charles 
W.; J. C. Frank, a clerk with his father; 
Florence and Alan. 



JOHN T. DYER, a prominent and an 
extensive railroad contractor of Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania, is a son of Richard H. 
and Caroline (Huff) Dyer, and was born in 
Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, April 19, 
1848. Mr. Dver's maternal and paternal 
progenitors were of English-Quaker origin, 
and figured prominently among the pioneer 
settlers of eastern Pennsylvania. Both fami- 
lies settled in the same vicinity, and the 
Dyers founded the village in Bucks county, 
which was christened Dyerstown in their 
honor. 

Jesse Dyer, grandfather, a prosperous and 
well-to-do farmer, was born at Dyertown 
and died near Doylestown, the county seat 
of Bucks county, in 1855, aged eighty-two 
years. He was an orthodox Quaker and 
married Lucinda Huff, who bore him the 
following sons: Thomas P., Richard H., 
and John S. 

Richard H. Dyer, father, was born at 
Warrington, Bucks county, in 1S17, and 
after obtaining a good education, he en- 
gaged in teaching in the public schools of 
Lehigh county. After pursuing this line 
of work a short period of time, he engaged 
in contracting and building, and finally 
drifted into the lumber business in Lehigh 
county. He was also engaged in general 
merchandising, shipping produce, etc, to 
Philadelphia, New York and other eastern 
cities. He was a careful, conscientious and 
methodical business man, and was uni- 
formly successful in the various business 
enterprises with which he was connected. 
Aggressive, enterprising and public spirited, 



436 



Biographical Sketches. 



all useful enterprises found in him a hearty 
and earnest support; humane, philanthropic 
and charitable, no worthy poor or eleemosy- 
nary institution ever sought his aid in vain; 
and a thorough, consistent and zealous 
Christian, he contributed liberally to the 
churches of all denominations. In 1854 he 
located at Slatington, his home at the time 
of his death, which occurred in 1876. In 
1845 tne nuptials were celebrated which 
made Mr. Dyer and Caroline Huff, husband 
and wife. Their marriage was productive 
of six children : William P., John T., 
Eugene, Elizabeth, Emily and Laura. 

John T. Dyer was educated in the public 
schools, and after leaving school, was en- 
gaged for a time in the capacity of a clerk 
in the quarries at Slatington. Sub- 
sequently he was employed for a period of 
years superintending the construction of 
railroads. In 1880, he launched extensively 
into railroad contracting on his own ac- 
count, and was first employed on the New 
York, Ontario and Western and the Schuyl- 
kill Valley railroads. Afterwards he built 
the Bay Ridge and Annapolis railroad ; 
fourteen miles of the Ohio River railroad, 
from Parkersburg, West Virginia, south ; 
fourteen miles on the Chicago, Milwaukee 
and St.' Paul railroad. He also built the 
terminal at Waterbury, Connecticut, and 
seven sections of the Trenton Cut-Off rail- 
road. 

Mr. Dyer is a member of the German 
Reformed church. On December n, 1876, 
he was united in marriage with Man- P., 
a daughter of the late Dr. Cornelius S. 
Baker, who was a prominent physician of 
Norristown. To the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Dyer were born six children : Elsie, 
Caroline, Frederick, John L., William 
Gordon and Marion. 

Mr. Dyer is an energetic, enterprising 



and careful business man and preeminently 
the architect of his own fortune. Thrown 
upon his own resources in early life, he has 
by persevering toil and indefatigable effort 
won success and position, and to-day he 
ranks as one of the most reliable and suc- 
cessful railroad contractors of eastern Penn- 
svlvania. 



HENRY M. BROWXBACK, a rising 
young lawyer of the Norristown bar, 
who has served three years as district attor- 
ney, is the youngest son of James and Ellen 
(March) Brownback, and a native of West 
Vincent township, Chester county, Penna., 
where he was born, December 17, i860. The 
Brownback family, now numerous and in- 
fluential in Eastern Pennsylvania, traces 
its origin back to Germany, and was 
planted in America by Garrett Brownback 
(originally written Gerhard Brumbach),who 
came over from Amsterdam in the sailing 
ship Concord in 1683, and settled first at 
Gennantown, near Philadelphia, and later 
removed to Chester county. There he be- 
came a large land holder, kept the first hotel 
in his section, and was the founder of 
Brownback's German Reformed church. 
He died in 1757, at an advanced age. One 
of his descendants, in the third generation, 
was William Brownback, paternal grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, who was 
a prominent farmer of Chester county, 
where he died July 29, 1890, aged eighty- 
four years. He was a lifelong member of 
the Reformed church, in the upbuilding 
and success of which he took a lively inter- 
est, and was a well known and esteemed 
citizen of his county. 

He married Eliza Wilson, by whom he 
had a family of four children, one of his 
sons being James Brownback (father), who 




j^?(|^*W 




Biographical Sketches. 



437 



was born March 4, 1833, in Chester county, 

Pennsylvania. After obtaining a common 
school education James Brownback em- 
barked in agricultural pursuits, which he 
followed successfully for a number of years. 
In 1865 he disposed of his other interests 
and engaged in the foundry business. He is 
president of the March-Brownback stow 
company, of Pottstown, this county, though 
he still resides at Linfield. He is also 
financially interested in a number of other 
industrial enterprises. Politically he is an 
ardent Republican, and has always taken 
an active part in local politics and public 
affairs, though he has never cherished any 
ambition for political preferment himself, 
being better pleased to devote his energy en- 
tirely to business. He is a member of the 
Reformed church and of the Masonic frater- 
nity, and served for some time as trustee of 
Ursinus college at Collegeville. In 1857 
he married Ellen March, of Lawreneeville, 
Chester county, and to them was born a 
family of three children : Ada E., now the 
wife of Henry G. Kulp, of Pottstown ; Wil- 
liam M., married Annie Yocum, of Bryn 
Mawr, and Henry M., subject of sketch. 

Henry M. Brownback was brought by 
his parents when only seven years old to 
Linfield, this county, where he grew to 
manhood and obtained his primary educa- 
tion in private and select schools and at 
Ursinus college, Collegeville, Pennsyl- 
vania. Subsequent to his college career he 
began reading law in the autumn of 1878 
with Franklin March, of the Montgomery 
county bar. Having completed the course 
of study and passed the usual examination, 
he was duly admitted to the bar of this 
county December 6, 1882, and at once be- 
gan the practice of his profession. He sub- 
sequently formed a law partnership with 
his former preceptor, Franklin March, un- 



der the firm name of March X: Brownback, 
which continued in force until January 1, 
1893, at which time the partnership was 
dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. 
Brownback has since conducted his law 
practice alone. Being earnestly devoted to 
his profession, Mr. Brownback early at- 
tracted public attention, and in November, 
18S9, was elected to the position of district 
attorney for a term of three years. His 
official duties were carefully and consci- 
entiously discharged. He is now solicitor 
for the sheriff and register of Montgomery 
county, and has a large general practice. 

On July 2, 1890, Mr. Brownback was 
united by marriage to Augustine Margue- 
rite, a daughter of Prof. T. S. C. Lowe, 
late of Norristown, but now a resident of 
Southern California. Prof. Lowe has been 
largely interested in railway construction 
and is a progressive man of wealth. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Brownback have been born 
two sons : Henry Lowe and Russel James. 

In political faith Mr. Brownback is an 
enthusiastic Republican and a firm believer 
in the policy of protection to American in- 
dustries. Ever since his admittance to 
the bar he has taken an active interest 
in local politics and is regarded among the 
best posted leaders of political thought. In 
addition to his law practice at Norristown, 
where he has resided since 1890, he is also 
financially interested in the March-Brown- 
back stove company, of Pottstown, and is a 
director of the Montgomery Insurance 
Trust and Safe Deposit company, of Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania. 



FREELAND G. HOBSON is an attor- 
ney in active practice at the Montgom- 
ery county bar ; the treasurer and trust 



438 



Biographical Sketches. 



officer of the Norristown Title, Trust and 
Safe Deposit company ; and an active and 
enterprising business man. He has a State 
wide reputation as a member of the Pa- 
triotic Order Sons of America, having 
been for years very prominent in its coun- 
cils, and having served as State president 
in 1S94. He was born at Collegeville, 
Montgomery county, on October 13, 1857. 
He is a son of Frank M. and Lizzie (Got- 
walts) Hobson. A complete sketch of his 
father, who is still living, appears on page 
seventy of this work. 

Mr. Hobson is of English ancestry on his 
paternal side, the immigrant ancestor 
being Francis Hobson, who came from 
England in 1720, and located in New Gar- 
den township, Chester county, with his 
wife and family. They were of the Society 
of Friends and were among the earliest 
settlers of that county. Mr. Hobson was a 
farmer. His sou Francis came to Limerick 
township, Montgomery county, in 1743, and 
bought a farm of two hundred and sixty acres, 
near Royersford, which is still known as the 
Hobson farm. This ancestor had a family, 
one of whom, Francis Hobson, inherited 
the Limerick farm in 1748 and resided 
there all his life. He was a country jus- 
tice of the peace and a surveyor, and many 
of the old surveys of the county were made 
by him. One of his sons, John Hobson, 
was the great-grandfather of our subject. 
He in his turn inherited and worked the 
Limerick farm, making three generations 
on this property. A brother, Moses by 
name, succeeded his father as county sur- 
veyor and justice of the peace. John Hob- 
son was the father of four children : Moses; 
Mary ; Charlotte, wife of Homer Kimberly, 
of Batavia, New York ; and Francis, grand- 
father of our subject, who was born October 
10, 1803, and died August 4, 1874. He 



inherited the farm in Limerick township 
and lived there many years, subsequently 
removing to Reading, where his widow and 
several children still reside. He was a 
soldier in the war of the Rebellion. He 
married Matilda Bringhurst, and they had 
two children : Frank M., father of our sub- 
ject, born January 22, 1830 ; and Sarah H, 
who married Rev. Henry W. Super, D. D., 
ex-president of Ursinus college. 

William Bringhurst, father of our sub- 
ject's grandmother, married Mary Morris, 
on June 4, 1769, and had two children: 
Elizabeth, wife of Adam Harkness ; and 
Israel, who was born February 28, 1770, 
and died February, 1807. Israel Bringhurst 
had a family of eight children, among 
whom was Wright A. Bringhurst, who was 
a member of the State legislature and be- 
came a man of considerable note. At his 
death he bequeathed $200,000 for the sup- 
port of the destitute poor of Norristown, 
Pottstown, and Upper Providence town- 
ship. The bequest was apportioned accord- 
ing to the population of each district. He 
died in 1876. His sister Matilda married 
Francis Hobson as above stated. Through 
the mother of Israel Bringhurst our subject 
is a descendant of Jenkin Jenkins, who was 
born in Wales, in 1659, and came to this 
country in 1729 and located in Gwynedd. 

Through the maternal line Mr. Hobson 
is descended from the Vanderslice, Got- 
walts, Hunsieker and Peunypacker fami- 
lies. His mother was Lizzie Gotwalts, a 
daughter of Jacob and Esther Gotwalts and 
a sister of Jacob V. Gotwalts, a prominent 
Norristown lawyer. Esther Gotwalts, ma- 
ternal grandmother of our subject, is still 
living at the advanced age of eighty-five. 
She was a daughter of Anthony Vander- 
slice. The Yanderslices at a very early 
age came from Germanv to Pennsvlva- 



Biographical Sketches. 



439 



nia and settled in Providence township. 
Through the same line our subject is also 
a direct descendant of the Pennvpaekers, 
the Hunsickers, and the Kolbs, three old 
and prominent colonial families. 

Freeland G. Hobsou, the subject of this 
sketch, was educated in the public schools 
of Upper Providence township, and subse- 
quently took a full course in and graduated 
from Ursinus college in 1876. He then 
entered the law office of Jacob V. Gotwalts, 
at that time district attorney of Montgom- 
ery county, and was admitted to the bar on 
October 1, 1880. He immediately opened 
an office in Norristown, where he soon 
began to build up a lucrative practice and 
where he has remained ever since. He is 
an eloquent pleader, and has been uniformly 
successful in the trial of cases. He de- 
fended Antonio Frederieko, an Italian, who 
was tried in 1890 for the murder of a 
fellow countryman. The murder oc- 
curred at Conshohocken, and Frederieko 
was captured at San Francisco. The trial 
was a most thrilling one, and resulted in 
the absolute acquittal of the accused. Mr. 
Hobson received the congratulations of his 
colleagues for the manner in which he had 
conducted the defense. 

In September, 1888, Mr. Hobson put on 
foot the movement to organize the Norris- 
town Title, Trust and Safe Deposit com- 
pany, and solicited most of the stock. He 
was made its secretary, treasurer, and trust 
officer. These positions he has held since 
that time. This institution has rapidly 
grown in popular favor, and now ranks as 
one of the most flourishing financial insti- 
tutions of the county. He is also the 
founder and publisher of the Montgomei r 
County Law Reporter^ which is now in its 
eleventh volume. He is a member of the 
Montgomery County Historical society, and 



is the author of the History of Providence 
Township, and one of the contributors to 
Colonel Bean's History of Montgomery 

County, writing much of the township 
work. He has always taken great interest 
in public movements, and in 1884 when the 
Centennial celebration of Montgomery 
county was celebrated he was chairman of 
the Executive committee. It was in no 
small degree owing to his energy that this 
celebration was such a success. He was 
editor-in-chief of a beautiful memorial vol- 
ume commemorating this event. 

Mr. Hobson is a leader in the Patriotic 
Order Sons of America and is a member of 
Camp 267, at Ironbridge. In August, 1893, 
he was elected State president at the State 
convention, held at Chester, Pa. At the 
conclusion of his term, at Erie, Pa., he was 
made the happy recipient of a handsome 
cane made from a piece of the hull of the 
old flagship Lawrence. The presentation 
was made by Hon. J. F. Dowling, mayor 
of Erie. He is a prominent member of the 
Valley Forge Memorial association and is 
at present treasurer and chairman of its ex- 
ecutive committee. He is filling the post 
of secretary of Riverside cemetery, which 
was recently organized. He is one of the 
directors of Ursinus college, Collegeville, 
Pa., in which he has taken a very active 
interest. 

Mr. Hobson is a Republican but has 
never sought political office. He is a mem- 
ber of the Trinity Reformed church of 
Collegeville, and has been an elder for five 
years. He takes an active part in church 
work, having served as secretary and treas- 
urer of the Montgomery County Sunday- 
school association, and as president of the 
Schuylkill Valley Union of Christian En- 
deavor. He has been upon the program at 
two international Christian Endeavor con- 



44o 



Biographical Sketches. 



ventions; one at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1894, 
and again at Boston, in 1895. He has been 
a delegate to the classes, synods and general 
synod of the Reformed church in the United 
States. In all of these bodies he has taken 
a very active part. He has on several oc- 
casions argued some most important ap- 
peals in these ecclesiastical judicatories. 

On September 15, 1881, Mr. Hobson mar- 
ried Ella M. Hendricks, daughter of Rev. 
Joseph H. Hendricks, now pastor of Trinity 
Reformed church at Collegeville. This 
union has been blessed with three children: 
Frank H., aged twelve years ; Anna Mabel, 
aged ten years ; and Catharine, aged six 
vears. 



JACOB V. GOTYVALTS, a prominent 
lawyer and ex-district attorney of Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Jacob and Esther 
(Yanderslice) Gotwalts, and was born in 
Lower Providence township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1840. The 
Gotwalts family is of German descent, and 
can be traced back in the county to the days 
of early settlement in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century. One member of this 
family was Christian Gotwalts, the paternal 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
Christian Gotwalts was a farmer by occu- 
pation, and lived and died in this county, 
where he married and reared an industrious 
family. His son Jacob Gotwalts (father), 
followed farming, the chief occupation of 
his day, and died June 29, 1851, aged forty- 
eight years. He was a Mennonite in relig- 
ion and church membership, and a Henry 
Clay Whig, in politics. Mr. Gotwalts wed- 
wed Esther Yanderslice, who is a daughter 
oi Anthony Yanderslice, and is living, being 
now in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. 
and Mrs. Gotwalts had a family of four chil- 



dren of whom two are living: Jacob Y., 
and Elizabeth, wife of Frank M. Hobson, a 
resident of Collegeville and a trustee and the 
secretary of Ursinus college. 

Jacob Y. Gotwalts, was reared on the 
home farm until he was ten years of age, 
at which time his father's death occurred. 
He was then sent to Freeland seminary 
where he fitted for college. Five years later 
he entered Dickinson college, Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, from which well known in- 
stitution of learning he was graduated in 
the class of i860. Leaving college he be- 
came principal of the Cape May high 
school, of New Jersey, which position he 
held for some time. He afterwards was a 
member of the faculty of Treemount semi- 
nary for a year or more, and then declined 
all further offers of educational positions in 
order to commence the study of law with 
Hon. George N. Corson, of Norristown. 
He was admitted to the Montgomery county 
bar in August, 1867, and immediately com- 
menced practice at Norristown, where he re- 
mained until 1895, when he became a mem- 
ber of the law firm of Gotwalts & Savior, 
and removed to Pottstown. Mr. Gotwalts 
does a general law practice, but makes a 
specialty of criminal law in which he has 
been very successful. He is a strong Demo- 
crat in politics, and for a quarter of a cen- 
tury has been both active and prominent in 
the political affairs of the county. He served 
as a councilman and school director of Nor- 
ristown, of which borough he was also 
solicitor. He served as district attorney of 
Montgomery county from 1875 to 1878 ; was 
a candidate for the nomination for State 
senator some time later and has been fre- 
quently mentioned as an exceedingly strong 
and available candidate for congress on the 
Democratic ticket in his congressional dis- 
trict. 



Biographical Sketches. 



441 



On December 3, 1873, Mr. Gotwalts was 
united in marriage with Henrietta Royer, 
whose father, the late Dr. Lewis Royer, 
served with credit and ability in the State 
senate of Pennsylvania. 

Air. Gotwalts is a man of fine personal 
appearance, and occupies a front rank in the 
practice of his profession. He is now a law 
partner of Hon. Henry D. Saylor, of Potts- 
town. Mr. Gotwalts is a prominent Mason, 
being a member of Phoenix Lodge, No. 75, 
Free and Accepted Masons. 



JOSEPH Y. BECHTEL, M. D., who has 

<J been in active practice at Schwenks- 
ville for thirty-nine years, is a son of John 
and Catharine (Yost) Bechtel, and was born 
in a part of Pottstown, then in Pottsgrove 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 25, 1832. The lineage of his 
family is traced back authentically to John 
George Bechtel of Germany, who left his 
native land in 1728, as one of a colony of 
emigrants of the Reformed church faith. 
He came on the ship M or tollhouse, John 
Coultas, master, which weighed anchor at 
Diehl, June 15, 1728, and arrived at Phila- 
delphia, August 24, the same year. Mr. 
Bechtel settled near the site of Pottstown, 
where he bought a farm. Some years after- 
wards, upon the death of his father, he re- 
turned to Germany in order to obtain his 
share of the paternal estate, and died on his 
return voyage, while the vessel was along 
the coast of one of the Carolinas. His 
widow, whose maiden name was Anna 
Mary Clingman, remained on the farm and 
reared their two children, George and Catha- 
rine, the latter of whom wedded Samuel 
Landis. 

George Bechtel was born and always re- 



sided on the home farm, on which he died 
April 29, 1S1S, at seventy-three years of 
aoe. He was a farmer and a member of 
the Reformed church, and married Hannah 
Schwinhart, by whom he had seven sons 
and four daughters. The sons were: David, 
George, William, Jacob, Peter, Colonel 
John and Samuel. The daughters were : 
Mary, wife of Conrad Carver; Elizabeth, 
who wedded Jacob Harner ; Hannah, wife 
of Matthias Gilbert ; and Catharine, who 
married John Yocum. Colonel John Bechtel, 
third in descent from John George Bechtel, 
was born November 4, 1793, and died July 
3, 1S77. He followed milling for a few 
years and then rented a hotel below Potts- 
town, which he ran for some time. He 
then owned and tilled a farm of seventy 
acres near Sanatoga station, afterwards re- 
moved to Allentown, and shortly before his 
death, came to his son, the subject of this 
sketch, to be treated for dropsy, which proved 
fatal in his case. He served at sixteen 
years of age in the War of 18 12, was a colo- 
onel of a militia regiment afterwards, and 
served from 1838 to 1841, as county com- 
missioner. He was a life long Democrat, 
and a consistent member of the Reformed 
church. He married Catharine Yost, and 
to their union were born five sons and two 
daughters : Jeremiah, John, Mary, Loomis, 
Washington, Jacob, Lovinia Haas and Dr. 
Joseph Y. Mrs. Bechtel was a daughter of 
John Yost, an extensive farmer of near 
Pottstown. She died May 14, 1863, aged 
sixty-nine years. 

Dr. Joseph Y. Bechtel was reared on the 
farm, received his education in the common 
schools and Pottstown academy, and taught 
for three years, being one of the first free 
school teachers in Pottsgrove township. 
He quit teaching in 1854, to read medicine 
with Dr. G. W. Wimley, of Limerick, and 



442 



Biographical Sketches. 



afterwards entered the Pennsylvania Medi- 
cal college, from which he was graduated 
in March, 1856. He immediately opened 
an office at Birdsboro, Berks county, but on 
October 20, 1856, came to Schweuksville, 
then but a small village. He soon acquired 
a large practice, which he held for thirty- 
five years, but for the last four years, owing 
to failing health, has been obliged to cur- 
tail his professional business. In the zenith 
of his professional career he was frequently 
called to treat patients ten to twelve miles 
away. Dr. Bechtel is a Democrat, and 
served as postmaster of Schwenksville from 
1885 to 1889, his oldest son, Allen K. 
Bechtel, officiating as assistant postmaster. 
He is a member of the Reformed church, 
served one term in 1892 as physician to the 
Montgomery County Home, but declined a 
re-appointment. He was appointed as an 
assistant surgeon during the late Civil war, 
but resigned. 

On October 21, 1858, Dr. Bechtel wedded 
Margaret Koons, a daughter of James 
Koons, a farmer of Perkiomen township, 
and a zealous member of Trappe Reformed 
church. To Dr. and Mrs. Bechtel have 
been born four children : Allen K., a gradu- 
ate of the National Institute of Pharmacy, 
Chicago, who died July 10, 1893, aged 
thirty years ; Laura, wife of the Rev. Silas 
L. Messinger, pastor of Pleasantville Re- 
formed church, at Eureka, Bucks county ; 
John, a clerk in his father's drug store ; 
and M. Evelyn, a graduate of Ursinus col- 
lege, class of 1895. 



B PERCY CHAIN, a lawyer of the 
• Norristown bar, is the only son of 
Benjamin E. and Louisa B. Chain, and 
was born at Norristown, Pennsylvania, De- 



cember 22, 185S. The family was estab- 
lished in America by John Chain, the elder, 
who during the eighteenth century crossed 
the Atlantic, and finally settled on the west 
bank of .Stony creek, in what is now West 
Norristown, Montgomery county. Here on 
September 5, 1770, he purchased of Mary 
Norris a farm of one hundred and seventy- 
six acres, including the ground on which 
the greater part of West Norristown is now 
located. A part of this property is still in 
possession of his descendants. His son, 
Matthew Chain, paternal great-grandfather 
of the subject of this sketch, succeeded his 
father by last will in the ownership of the 
farm. He married, and reared two chil- 
dren, one of whom was John Chain (grand- 
father), who was born December 16, 1781, 
grew to manhood, and lived on the old 
homestead during all of his life. Like his 
progenitors, John Chain devoted his life to 
agricultural pursuits, and died in Norris- 
town, April 9, 1829. He married, October 
24, 1808, Ann Evans, a sister of Benjamin 
Evans, one of the early and eminent law- 
yers of this county, and a descendant of the 
founders of Evansburg, in Lower Provi- 
dence township. They had a family of five 
children : Eleanor, who died unmarried ; 
Hannah, who married Jno. S. McEarland, 
Esq., of the Montgomery county bar, both 
of whom are long since dead, leaving no 
children ; James ; Mark ; and Benjamin E. 
James and Mark had no children. Benja- 
min E. Chain (father) was born at Norris- 
town, Pennsylvania, October 15, 1823, and 
educated at the Norristown academy, Law- 
renceville (New Jersey) seminary, and 
Washington and Jefferson college, Cannons- 
burg, Pennsylvania, from which latter in- 
stitution he was graduated in 1842. After 
graduation he read law one year with the 
late Gilbert Rodman Fox, Esq., of Norris- 



Biographical Sketches. 



443 



town, and completed his preparation for 

the bar under Hon. James M. Porter, of 
Easton. He was admitted to the bar in 
November, 1844, and began practice at 
Norristown. In 1850 he was elected dis- 
trict attorney, being the first to fill that 
office by a vote of the people. He was 
connected as counsel with a number of 
noted cases, had a large practice in the 
Orphans' court, and continued the active 
duties of his profession until his death, 
March 28, 1893, when in the seventieth 
year of his age. In politics, he was a Jack- 
sonian Democrat, and during the early part 
of his career took an active part in political 
affairs, though in later life he devoted his 
attention to business. He was one of the 
originators and a director in the First 
National bank of Norristown, and served 
as vice-president and solicitor of the Mont- 
gomery Insurance Trust and Safe Deposit 
company. He also served as the first 
president of the Norristown Gas company, 
and was interested in a number of other 
enterprises. During Lee's invasion of 
Pennsylvania he served as a member of the 
emergency corps. He was a life-long 
friend and the legal adviser of General W. 
S. Hancock, who was frequently his guest 
at his home, and did considerable campaign 
work for the Democracy during the gene- 
ral's candidacy for president in 1880. At 
his death in 1886 Mr. Chain attended to 
the details of his final sepulture. In re- 
ligion he was a member of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, and for a period of 
twenty years occupied the position of ves- 
tryman and senior warden in St. John's 
church at Norristown. In 1845 he married 
Louisa Bean, a daughter of John Bean, of 
Norristown, then recently deceased, and by 
that union had four children. Two died 
in infancy and two survive : one, a daugh- 



ter named Mary C, married Francis D. 
Farnum, now deceased, who was a promi- 
nent cotton manufacturer of Norristown ; 
and the other, B. Percy, the subject of this 
sketch, is the last of the male descendants 
of this branch of the Chain family. 

B. Percy Chain grew to manhood in his 
native borough of Norristown and received 
a liberal education at Treemount seminary 
and Lafayette college. He studied law 
with his father, and was admitted to the 
bar of Montgomery county in 1884. He 
at once began the practice of his profession, 
in which he has been continuously engaged 
to the present time. In addition to his law 
practice Mr. Chain is interested in business 
and other enterprises in and around Norris- 
town. He is a director in the Montgomery 
Insurance Trust and Safe Deposit com- 
pany. 

On August 30, 1893, Mr. Chain was 
wedded to Bessie Brooke, youngest daugh- 
ter of Lewis T. Brooke, of the firm of 
Lewis T. Brooke & Son, real estate dealers, 
of the city of Philadelphia. Politically 
Mr. Chain is an advocate of Democracy, 
though he takes little active part in poli- 
ties. He is a member and vestryman of 
St. John's Episcopal church, Norristown, 
and is also connected with a number of 
social and musical organizations in the 
borough, among them being the Ersine 
Tennis club, of which he was one of the 
incorporators and a director. He and Mrs. 
Chain are both very popular socially, and 
their home is at the south corner of Jacoby 
and Arch streets. 



EUGENE DAMBLV, business manager 
of the Skippack Transcript and the Ger- 
man Der Neutralist, is a man of practical 



444 



Biographical Sketches. 



knowledge of his business. He is one of 
the youngest newspaper men in the interior 
of the State, and his success is rather due to 
hard work and ambition than to educational 
advantages. His may be said to be a news- 
paper family, for his father was the editor 
and publisher of a newspaper, and three of 
his brothers are or were engaged in the 
same business. 

Mr. Dambly comes of an ancient family. 
His ancestors were residents of France and 
traces of the family are found as far back as 
the year 1 1 12. In those days and up to the 
time of the French Revolution they were a 
powerful family, but at that time they, with 
many others, were driven into exile and 
their estates confiscated. They subsequent- 
ly found a refuge in Germany. 

Mr. Dambly's paternal grandfather was 
Dr. August Ernst Dambly, a veterinary sur- 
geon, who was born and lived at Ludwigs- 
burg, Germany. He was connected with 
the German army in his professional capaci- 
itv. He was married to Hannah Snyder, 
and they had six children : Bertha, now 
Mrs. E. V. Sowville, of Chicago, 111.; Louisa, 
now Mrs. George Kessler, of Philadelphia, 
Pa.; Marie Dambly, of Philadelphia, Pa.; 
August Ernst, Alexander and Harry. 

August Ernst Dambly was the father of 
the subject of this sketch. He was born at 
Ludwigsburg, Wurtemberg, Germany, No- 
vember 11, 1839, and came to this country 
with his widowed mother when he was but 
ten years of age. His mother died shortly 
after their arrival in this country, and being 
without friends or relatives in America, he 
was thrown upon his own resources. When 
he was less than fifteen years of age he ap- 
prenticed himself to a publisher of a Ger- 
man paper at Doylestown, Pa., where he 
learned his trade. After serving his appren- 
ticeship he connected himself with the Ger- 



man Neutralist, published at Skippack, Pa., 
and by dint of hard work and close applica- 
tion became manager and finally, in 1862, 
became proprietor. He continued in the 
business up to the time of his death, De- 
cember 19, 1885. He was editor of the only 
German Republican paper in his county and 
was widely known as an able German writer, 
and a warm exponent of the Republican 
principles. Few politicians in the county 
enjoyed a wider and more favorable acquain- 
tance among his own and other parties. 
He was a member of the Skippack church 
and a trustee, also secretary of the Sunday 
school. He was a member of Warren 
Lodge, No 310, F. and A. M.; Providence 
Lodge, No. 345, I. O O. F., of Kulpsville ; 
Knights of Pythias, at Zieglerville, and of 
the Knights of the Mystic Chain, at Centre 
Square. He was married to Rosa Witman, 
of Reading, Pa., on August 17, 1862, and 
they had eight children : John A., B. 
Witman, Eugene ; Grace, now Mrs. J. B. 
Frank, of Norristown ; Harry, Rosa, Han- 
nah and Clara. 

Mr. Dambly, the subject of this sketch, 
was born at Skippack, on August 15, 1868. 
When he arrived at a proper age he was sent 
to public school and remained until he was 
fifteen years of age. He then entered his 
father's printing establishment and learned 
the trade. Two years later his father died, 
when his brother and he took charge of the 
business and conducted it for their mother. 
In 1888 they established the English Mont- 
gomery Transcript, which has since become 
one of the widely read and influential Re- 
publican weeklies in the county. In 1890 
the Damblys purchased the weekly Har- 
leysville News, and the subject of this sketch 
successfully managed that paper for about 
two years, when it was sold out to I. R. 
Haldeman. He returned to Skippack again 




C 7 




Biographical Sketches. 



445 



and has since been devoting his time to the 
newspaper business. He is a Republican in 
politics. Mr. Dambly is a member of 
Trinity Reformed church of Skippack and 
a trustee of the church. He is a member of 
Providence Lodge, No. 345, I. O. O. F., of 
Kulpsville ; Harmony Grange, No. 891, 
Patrons of Husbandry, of Creamery ; Har- 
leysville Beneficial Association and other 
organizations. 

Mr. Dambly is a married man. On 
February 21, 1894, he was united to Mat- 
tie, daughter of the Rev. S. M. K. Huber, 
of Skippack. 



DR. THOMAS READING was born at 
Hatboro, Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania, November 3, 1864. He is a de- 
scendant of a long line of American ances- 
try. He is the son of Dr. Edward and Jane 
Bonsai Willard Reading. His grandpar- 
ents on the paternal side were Thomas and 
Maria Reading. The former was born at 
Paper Mill village, near Hatboro, was an 
earnest member of the Methodist church 
and a successful farmer and merchant ; the 
latter a native of Bucks county. His great- 
grandparents on the paternal side were 
William and Ruth Reading, both natives 
of New Jersey, who came to this State and 
settled in this county. Maria Reading, his 
grandmother, was a descendant of the old 
and well known family of Vandykes, for- 
merly of Bucks county. 

His grandparents on the maternal side 
were Lewis R. and Ellen Willard. Lewis 
R. Willard was born near Hulmeville, 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and belongs 
to the large, prominent and much respected 
family of that name, scattered over the two 
counties. His brother Thomas is residing 



on the old homestead, "Millbrook." Ellen 
Willard was born in Philadelphia, and after 
marriage resided there for a number of 
years, but subsequently moved to Moreland 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania. She was a descendant of the Twad- 
dle and Bonsai families, who were promi- 
nent in the early history of Philadelphia, 
and continue to enjoy a distinguished posi- 
tion. 

Dr. Edward Reading was born in Somer- 
ton, Philadelphia January 3, 1829. After 
a liberal academic education he commenced 
his medical studies in Hahnemann Medical 
college, Philadelphia, and graduated in the 
year 1853. He located in Hatboro, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, as a pioneer 
of homoeopathy, , and succeeded at once to 
build up a large and lucrative practice, 
which he retained until his death. He had 
brilliant attainments, highest conception of 
public and private purity and integrity and 
a mind well stored with useful knowledge, 
gained by research and experience. He was 
a member of several medical societies and 
was very prominent in the Masonic order. 
He was one of the charter members of the 
W. K. Bray Lodge, No. 410, F. and A. M., 
located at Hatboro, Pennsylvania, and its 
first worshipful master. He was an earnest, 
active and devout member of the Metho- 
dist church and very prominent in all the 
affairs concerning the advancement of the 
borough. 

On February 14, [856, he was married to 
Jane Bonsai Willard. She' was born in 
Philadelphia and spent her early life in that 
city, but a few years previous to this her 
father moved to Montgomery county, near 
Hatboro, and at this place, " Pennell Plan- 
tation," she was married. The following 
children blessed this union : Estelle, born 
March 19, 1857, now tne w '' c °f Thomas 



446 



Biographical Sketches. 



E. Paxson, of Hatboro ; Dr. Lewis Wil- 
lard, born January 9, 1859, who graduated 
from the Hahnemann Medical college 
March, 1880, and practiced his profession 
for seven years in Hatboro, but moved to 
Philadelphia in 1887, where he is now 
located, and Dr. Thomas Reading, the sub- 
ject of our sketch. 

Dr. Thomas Reading commenced his 
early education in the borough schools and 
subsequently attended the Millersville 
State Normal school, from which he gradu- 
ated with distinction. After a few months 
rest from his studies he started forth in life 
by entering a large mercantile house in 
Philadelphia. Although he was success- 
ful, the confinement was not agreeable 
and healthful and competition was so great 
that through his own judgment and the 
persuasion of his father and brother he en- 
tered the Hahnemann Medical college, Oc- 
tober, 1885, and graduated in March, 1888. 
Immediately after leaving college he, by 
his high average, was successful in becom- 
ing the resident physican and surgeon of 
the Homeopathic hospital, Pittsburgh, 
Penna. After remaining here a year he 
was suddenly called home by the death of 
his father, and immediately entered upon 
the duties of his profession by becoming 
his father's successor ; but by doing this he 
was obliged to relinquish his fond hopes 
and plans of finishing his medical educa- 
tion abroad in the large hospitals and col- 
leges of Vienna, Berlin, Heidelberg, etc. 

His hospital practice while at Pittsburgh 
was of vast importance to him in his early 
practice. It gave him experience that it 
would have taken years to acquire in pri- 
vate practice, and it is due to this that his 
success has been so phenomenal. 

He has by his ability, skill, energy, 
genial qualities and personal magnetism 



drawn unto himself a large patronage, con- 
sisting of the most intelligent and best 
families of this and surrounding counties. 
There are not many physicians of the same 
period in practice who enjoy such a large 
and lucrative practice. 

But with such demands upon his time, 
such a rich harvest to reap and glean, yet 
he is very active in several medical socie- 
ties, being a member of the Allegheny 
County Medical society, Pennsylvania State 
Medical society, Germantown Homeo- 
pathic Medical society and the American 
Institute of Homeopathy. 

He is a member of the W. K. Bray 
Lodge, No. 410, Free and Accepted Ancient 
York Masons, and its present worshiptul 
master, also belonging to the T. B. Freeman 
Chapter, No. 243, of Philadelphia. 

On November 17, 1893, Dr. Reading 
married Ellen, daughter of C. S. and Ellen 
Ahl Stayman, of Carlisle, Pa., grand- 
daughter of Cary W. and Catharine Ahl, 
of Cumberland Valley, Pa. 



HENRY R. GABLE, member of the large 
general store firm of Smith & Gabld 
at Salfordville, is a native of Montgomery 
county, and is descended from many gen- 
erations of Montgomery county residents. 
The family gets its origin in German}-, but 
back so many generations that it is right to 
say he is of strictly American ancestry. He 
is a business man of recognized ability and 
the firm has been very successful during all 
its long career. Mr. Gable was born and 
reared in Salfordville. He is a sou of 
Charles and Mary (Ratzel) Gable, and was 
bom October 13, 1837. Philip Gable, his 
grandfather, was a well known farmer and 
hotel keeper in Upper Salford township. 



Biographical Sketches. 



447 



He also kept a large general store and was 
an important business man in that vicinity. 
He was an adherent to the principles of the 
Democratic party, and was an active mem- 
ber of the Lutheran church. He married 
Mary Snyder and seven children came to 
bless their wedded life : Charles, Philip, 
Jessie, Esther, Sallie, Elizabeth and Catha- 
rine. He died in 1835. 

Charles Gable, father of the gentleman 
whose name heads this sketch, was born on 
his father's farm in Upper Salford township, 
on the nth of April, 1799. He had a com- 
mon school education, and followed farm- 
ing all his life and made money. He 
worked for and voted the Democratic ticket, 
and was a very active member of the Luth- 
eran church. In fact, he was one of the 
most prominent members of the congrega- 
tion, and at one time or other held all of 
the offices in the church. He married Mary, 
daughter of Jacob Ratzel, on February 15, 
1824, and eight children were born to them: 
Philip, deceased ; Mary, intermarried with 
Henry Snyder ; Kate, wife of Henry Barnes; 
Levinia, wife of William Smith ; Sarah, 
married to John Gerhart; Henry R., Charles, 
who is dead, and Jessie. He died March 
29, 1863. 

After attending the common schools of 
Salfordville until he was sixteen years old, 
Henry R. Gable secured a position as clerk 
in the grocery store of Thomas H. Ham- 
burger, Philadelphia, where he remained 
for ten years. He then returned to Mont- 
gomery county and took to farming, which 
occupation he followed until 1882. In that 
year he became associated with his brother- 
in-law, Augustus H. Smith, as a partner in 
a large general store, and the firm still con- 
tinues increasing their business every year 
and making money. Both men are of the 
strictest honesty and of broad gauge in busi- 



ness methods and the firm has always been 
very popular. Mr. Gable is a Democrat 

but takes very little interest in politics and 
never aspired to be an office holder. 

On March 6, 1S64, Mr. Gable and Kate 
A., daughter of Frederick Smith, and sister 
of his partner^were married and they have 
had a very happy wedded life. Only two 
children have been born to them : Jacob, 
who is still living, keeps the Salfordville 
hotel ; and Harry, who died at the age of 
two years. The family belongs to the 
Lutheran church, and Mr. Gable is an 
earnest worker, having been a deacon, 
trustee and an elder respectively, and hold- 
ing each position a number of years. 



BENJAMIX THOMAS, a prominent 
citizen and business man of Bridge- 
port, this county, is a son of Thomas and 
Susannah (Fryer) Thomas, and was born 
February 28, 1838, in Upper Merion town- 
ship, this county. 

The Thomas family, as the name indi- 
cates, is of Welsh origin, the original Amer- 
ican progenitor being William Thomas, 
who came from Wales to this country in 
the early part of the eighteenth century 
and located at Philadelphia. The later 
generations of his descent, however, have 
settled chief!}' in Chester county. 

Thomas Thomas, father of Benjamin 
Thomas, formerly an old-time teacher, 
surveyor and conveyancer, and latterly and 
at the time of his death engaged in the 
wdiolesale coal business at Bridgeport, was 
a son of Benjamin and Abigail (Powell) 
Thomas, and was born December 24, 1805, 
in Charlestown township, Chester county, 
Pennsylvania. He received such educa- 
tional training in the then ordinary schools 



44 8 



Biographical Sketches. 



of his native township, as fitted him to 
teacli successfully in the old subscription 
and the common schools of that day. In 
connection with his teaching he followed 
surveying and conveyancing for many 
years. 1 11 1830, he came to Norristown, 
where he taught in the public schools of 
of that borough and vicinity for a number 
of vears While here engaged in teaching 
he married, and soon after located in the 
wholesale coal business at Bridgeport, in 
which he continued successfully up to his 
death, March 30, 1S86, at the age of eighty- 
one vears. In 1S36 he married Susannah 
Fryer, a daughter of William and Cathe- 
rine Fryer, who was born July 15, 1813, 
and is still living, and in the enjoyment of 
health. Mr. Thomas' marital union was 
blessed with five sons and one daughter : 
Benjamin; William F. ; Charles S.; George 
W. H., deceased ; John W. ; and Mary E. 
A. ; all of whom are still living except 
George W. H., who died November 22, 
1891, and who was at the time of his death 
extensively engaged in the real estate, con- 
veyancing and insurance business at Bridge- 
port. 

Benjamin Thomas was born and reared 
to manhood in Upper Merion township, 
Montgomery county, and received a limited 
scholastic training in the district schools of 
his native township by irregular attend- 
ance up to fourteen years of age, when he 
gave up the employment of school to take 
up more practical pursuits, and accordingly 
accepted a clerkship in the book and sta- 
tionery store of Franklin D. Sower, at 
Norristown. After remaining here for 
some time, he engaged himself with the 
firm of Ezekiel Potts & Co., at Bridge- 
port, and learned the trade of machinist, 
which he followed for a period of twelve 
years in various localities, and at the ex- 



piration of which time he associated him- 
self with his father in the wholesale coal 
business at Bridgeport, and continued in 
this business relation up to his father's 
death. Upon the death of his father in 
1886, he succeeded to the sole proprietor- 
ship of the business and has so continued 
ever since. By industry, vigilance and 
fair dealing he has established an extensive 
and profitable trade, extending over a radius 
of about twenty miles. 

In November of 1891, upon the death of 
his brother, George W. H., he succeeded 
him in the discharge of his extensive real 
estate, conveyancing, and insurance busi- 
ness, which he has carried on ever since. 
Besides these varied and absorbing busi- 
ness interests, he has been prominently 
identified with most of the local industrial 
enterprises of Bridgeport for twenty-five 
years. He was one of the projectors and 
chief promoters of the Fame Building and 
Loan association of Bridgeport, organized 
187 1, and has served as its secretary ever 
since its organization. He has also been a 
director for the past five years in the Mont- 
gomer\ r National bank of Norristown. 
While Mr. Thomas has been thus active 
and potent in civil and industrial enter- 
prise, he has likewise manifested the same 
interest in secret and benevolent organiza- 
tions. He is a member of Charity Lodge 
No. 190, Free and Accepted Masons; Nor- 
ristown Chapter No. 190, H. R. A. M. ; 
Hutchinson Commaudery, No. 32, Knights 
Templar; Norris Lodge, No. 130, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and numer- 
ous other similar societies and organiza- 
tions. Mr. Thomas has kept up the relig- 
ious traditions of the family in their strict 
adherence to the Episcopal church in re- 
ligious faith, having served as a vestryman 
of Christ (Swedes') church, Upper Merion, 



Biographical Sketches. 



449 



for eighteen years, and is also at present 
serving as one of its wardens and treasurer. 
Politically, Mr. Thomas is a staunch Re- 
publican and always takes a lively interest 
in the snecess of the party in all mat- 
ters politic, local, State, and national. 
He has always stood prominent in the 
councils of the local politics of the party, 
having served successfully as school direc- 
tor, councilman, and for a number of terms 
treasurer of the borough of Bridgeport ; 
and in 1887 was elected recorder of deeds 
of Montgomery county, in which capacity 
lie served with credit to himself and to the 
entire satisfaction of his eonstitnencv np 
to January 1, 1S91. 

On October 18, 187 1, Mr. Thomas mar- 
ried Mary Elizabeth, a daughter of Thomas 
and Catherine Van Horn, of Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Thomas has always been in the front 
rank in support of the various movements 
of enterprise inaugurated for the benefit of 
his town and vicinity, and has probably 
contributed as much toward the enterprise 
of the borough as any other one man. 
While thus active and valuable in civil 
and industrial movements he has been 
equally conspicuous fraternally and relig- 
iously, being always found in support of 
all worthy charitable and philanthropic 
movements brought forward by the church 
and other organizations of which he is a 
member. 



JOHN J. HOUGHTON, an organizer and 
J the cashier of the First National bank 
of Ambler since its establishment, in 1884, 
is the eldest son and second child of Dr. 
Jesse N. and Emily (Janney) Houghton, 
and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
September 7, 1862. The Houghtons are of 

29 



English Puritan stock, and their first 
American ancestors came to Massachusetts 
Bay colony some twenty years after its 
founding in 1630. The Rev. Jesse Hough- 
ton was a prominent man in his New Eng- 
land community a century later, and served 
as chaplain in the Revolutionary war. His 
son, Rev. Jesse Houghton, jr., was a Bap- 
tist clergyman at Dedhatn, Massachusetts, 
where he operated a cabinent making shop 
and married Mary Chase, by whom he had 
seven children : Dr. Jesse H., Dr. John S., 
Edwin H., Stanley, Martha, Mary, and 
Susan. Mr. Houghton died about 1850, at 
sixty-five years of age. His eldest son, Dr. 
Jesse H. Houghton, was born September 
1828, and died October 1877. He was 
reared at Dedham, and Boston, Massachu- 
setts, and after attending Harvard college 
entered Andover Theological seminarv, 
from which he was graduated at the close of 
his course. Having changed his mind in 
regard to a professional life shortly after 
graduating, he came to Philadelphia, where 
he took a full course in both the Allopathic 
and the Homeopathic schools of medicine, 
and was graduated from the Jefferson and 
Hahnneman medical colleges. After com- 
pleting his medical courses he formed a 
partnership with his brother, Dr. John S. 
Houghton, of Philadelphia. They made a 
specialty of nervous diseases, were the 
founders of the Howard hospital, and or- 
ganized numerous field hospitals during the 
Civil war. In 1874, Dr. Jesse H. Houghton 
removed from Philadelphia to Norristown, 
where he lived in retirement for the three 
remaining years of his life. Dr. Houghton 
was a Republican and a Congregationalist 
and always took an active part in all reform 
movements. In October i860, he married 
Emily Janney, a native of Philadelphia, and 
a daughter Israel Janney. To their union 



45° 



Biographical Sketches. 



were born five children: Elizabeth, John 
J.; Henrj J. (deceased), Emily J., and Anna 
M., who died in 1870, in infancy. 

John J. Houghton was reared in Phila- 
delphia and Norristown, received his educa- 
tion from private instruction by his father, 
and in the Norristown public schools, and 
then in 1877 he entered the employ of F. 
D. Sower, a book seller of Norristown, with 
whom he remained up to 1881. In that 
year he became teller and book-keeper in 
the banking house of J. M. Albertson & 
Sons, and three years later helped to organ- 
ize tin First National hank of Ambler, of 
which he was elected and has served as 
cashier ever since. After coming; to Am- 
bler Mr. Houghton became interested in its 
improvement and progress, was one 
of the organizers of its improvement 
company, and has done much indi- 
vidually to build up the eastern part of 
the borough in which he now owns consid- 
erable valuable property. He has been very 
successful in financial and business life. 
He is a Repnbliean in politics, and has 
served as a member of Fort Washington 
Lodge, Xo. 308, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, and Hutchinson Commandery, Knights 
Templar of Norristown. 

( >n October 20, 1891, John J. Houghton, 
married Mary P. Thomas, a daughter of 
Elliott Thomas, and their union has been 
blessed with one child, a daughter named 
Dorothy. 



HON. A. 15ROWKR LONGAKER was 
horn in Lower Providence township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on 
the 28th day of April, A. D. 1828. 
He and his twin sister Elizabeth 
were the seventh by birth in a family 
of eleven children, seven sons and four 



daughters. Elizabeth died when sixteen 
days old. His father and mother were 
Henry and Catharine (Brower) Longaker, 

a sketch of whom and their ancestry are 
found in another part of this volume. He 
was named after his maternal uncle, the 
Hon. Abraham Brower. His early school- 
ing was had at the public school near his 
birthplace, known as "The Level " school- 
house. In 1841, by the change of resi- 
dence of his parents, he became a day pupil 
of the Washington Hall academy at the 
Trappe, where he prosecuted his studies 
until the autumn of 1847, at which time he 
entered the Sophomore class of Franklin 
and Marshall college, then located at Mer- 
cersburg, Franklin county, but now located 
at Lancaster. At the conclusion of the 
Sophomore year he entered the Junior class 
of Union college, Schenectady, N. Y., and 
graduated from that institution in the class 
of 1850. His scholarship was maximum in 
all studies. He was one of the ten class 
orators selected out of a class of about 
eighty-, and was one of about one-third of 
the class who were entitled to admission in 
the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. While 
prosecuting his studies in the academy he 
taught in the public schools during the 
winters of 1845 and 1846, and after gradua- 
tion he taught during the school terms of 
1850 to 1851 and 1851 to 1852 in 
the public schools of Philadelphia. 
As a teacher he was energetic and 
progressive, apt in imparting what he 
knew, devoted to the advancement of his 
pupils, a great lover of children, a mild but 
stern disciplinarian, ruling by merit and 
punishing the laggard and disobedient by 
marks of demerit. Yery early he discarded 
the rod, and was ever afterwards an inex- 
orable foe to corporal punishment in the 
schools. In his own household, where the 





-f r 



3-z^?p&-&£ 




Biographical Sketches. 



45i 



rod was sparingly used, he would say the 
infliction of the punishment hurt his feel- 
ings more than it did the body of the 
child. 

In college, besides the regular classical 
course, he took the special courses of medi- 
cine and law, and while teaching at Brides- 
burg in Philadelphia he devoted his leisure 
hours to the reading of medicine with Dr. 
Wile}-, and the compounding of medicines 
and preparation of prescriptions in the 
Doctor's drug store. In the meantime, 
while spending his vacations at home, he 
studiously read Blackstoue, Kent, and 
works on international law. In the autumn 
of 1852 he was fully prepared to enter the 
medical department of the Pennsylvania 
University, and at the opening of the term 
his brother Henry D. and he entered that 
institution. After the expiration of the 
third week it became necessary for the 
students to matriculate, and vacillating be- 
tween adopting the profession of medicine 
and law, and, in order to gratify the wishes 
of his father he changed from medicine to 
law. He therefore went directly from the 
University to Balston Spa, N. Y., and en- 
tered the State and National Law school, 
which occupied the San So/tci, a building 
which was famous when the Spa was a 
favorite summer health resort. This insti- 
tution contained about eighty students 
coming from New York State, and main 
of the different States of the Union. In 
January, 1853, the law school was located 
at Poughkeepsie, abandoning the San Souct, 
because of the severity of the cold of 
winter, the buildings having been erected 
only as a summer resort. In July, 1853, he 
graduated, receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Law, and having studied the code of 
New York State, was entitled to admission 
to the courts of that State. He was desir- 



ous, however, of obtaining early admission 
to practice in his own Slate, and conse- 
quently entered at Easton, Pa., the law 
school of the Hon Washington McCartney, 
president judge of the courts of Lehigh and 
Northampton counties, and on the 19th day 
of August, A. D. 1853, was admitted to 
practice in the several courts of North- 
ampton county. He soon thereafter located 
at Xorristown and was admitted to practice 
in the courts of his native county. About 
the time of his admission he purchased 
from Israel Thomas, Esq., who retired on 
account of ill health, his law library and 
good will in practice, and thus obtained a 
clientage by which he was introduced at 
once prominently to a varied and lucrative 
practice. In 1855 he represented Mont- 
gomery county as a delegate in the Demo- 
cratic State convention. In the same year he 
was elected a member of the Pennsylvania 
house of representatives and re-elected in 
the years 1856 and 1857, serving during the 
sessions of 1856, 1857 and 1858. In 1858 
he was elected speaker of the house, and in 
October of the same year was appointed 
notary public for a term of three years. In 
1861 he was elected secretary of the Penn- 
sylvania State Agricultural society, and 
was re-elected annually thereafter until 
January, i860, when he declined by reason 
of his incumbency as president judge of the 
third judicial district. 

He was also elected a director of the 
bank of Montgomery county, and was re- 
elected annually until 1869, when he re- 
moved from Norristown to Allentown to 
enter upon his judicial term. 

In March, 1867, he was appointed and 
confirmed collector in the fifth congres- 
sional revenue district, which office he re- 
signed on account of the judgeship, to take 
effect December 1, 1868. 



452 



Biographical Sketches. 



He was one of the sergeants in the inde- 
pendent cavalry company of State militia, 

organized September 13, 1862, for the 
emergency service, and a private in Com- 
pany H, Captain B. Markley Boyer, mus- 
tered in July 1, 1863. Upon the organiza- 
tion of the Forty-first regiment of emer- 
gency militia he was elected regimental 
quartermaster, and mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United States to "serve during 
the pleasure of the president or the continu- 
ance of the war." This regiment marched 
forthwith to the Cumberland valley and 
became one of the five lying beyond 
Chambersburg which formed the brigade 
under command of Colonel James Nagle, 
acting brigadier. While Colonel James 
Nagle was acting as brigade commander 
Mr. Longaker became the acting commis- 
sary of the brigade, division of General 
Couch, department of the Susquehanna. 
This position he held until the brigade was 
dissolved and the emergency men dis- 
charged. 

In October, 1868, he was elected presi- 
dent judge of the third judicial dis- 
trict, composed of the counties of Lehigh 
and Northampton, for a term of ten 
years. After his vacation of the bench 
in 1878, he resumed the practice of 
law in Allentown, where he had resided as 
judge ; from 1S84 to 1888 he spent the win- 
ter months in Florida, and in 1889 located 
at Easton, and in May, 1893, returned to 
his native county, where he resumed prac- 
tice at Norristown. 

In his boyhood Judge Longaker very 
early manifested a disposition to be a 
leader amongst his companions in their 
neighborhood sports and school diversions, 
and was dubbed " captain " because he 
would frequently form his playmates into 
a company for " playing soldier." He was 



an apt scholar, and at the age of thirteen 
had learned most of what was taught in 
the public schools. He then became a 
pupil at the Washington Hall academy, 
where he studied Latin, Greek, and some 
of the higher mathematics, and in the au- 
tumn of 1847 was fully prepared to enter 
the Sophomore class in college. 

At Union college he was a member of 
the Philomathean literary society and a 
member of the A. O. (Oitdin Adalori) fra- 
ternity, which has since been merged into 
Delta Upsilon. In the performing of all 
literary exercises he was punctual, and as a 
member of the moot senate and house of 
representatives, which met weekly for the 
discussion of political questions, and whose 
proceedings were conducted, as far as prac- 
ticable, according to the rules of parlia- 
mentary bodies, he exhibited an interest that 
the future worked into actuality. While a 
pupil at the academy he was a ready writer 
of compositions and a fluent debater, not 
only with the pupils but with the members 
of the local societies which met for debate 
in the neighboring school houses, and al- 
though a mere youthful stripling, he was 
often pitted against the older and more ex- 
perienced in these contests. This fondness 
for debate and composition enabled him to 
hold first rank amongst his college mates 
in all literary contests, and in after life this 
served him well in his profession, in his 
political campaigns and in the discharge of 
legislative duties. After his admission to 
the bar his forensic efforts soon placed him 
in the front amongst the younger members, 
and his varied practice to which he suc- 
ceeded from the clientage of Mr. Thomas, 
gave him opportunity to appear in court 
and to be recognized as apt and well read 
in the law. From the inception of his prac- 
tice to his elevation to the bench he en- 



Biographical Sketches. 



453 



joyed a reputation and obtained a clientage 
attained only by the few. 

During the legislative session in 1856, as 
a member of the judiciary, and in 1857, 
chairman of the committee on corporations, 
as well a member of the judiciary, he was 
one of the active and leading members of 
the House. Ardent and able as a debater, 
well versed in parliamentary rules and an 
expert tactician, he maintained a well de- 
served prominence amongst the members. 

At the special session of October 5, 
1857, convened to legalize the suspension 
of specie payments of State banks, he was 
appointed a member of the special com- 
mittee of thirteen, to whom was referred 
the Governor's message, and all bills rela- 
tive to "suspension with instructions to re- 
port upon the same by bill or otherwise." 
He was subsequently appointed chairman 
of the committee of conference upon the 
differences between the two houses upon 
Senate bill No. 1, providing for the re- 
sumption of specie payments, etc., and made 
report to the house, of the bill agreed to by 
the committees of conference, which bill 
was adopted, and signed by the governor, 
legalizing the suspension of the banks. 

During the session of 1857, pending the 
consideration of the bill proposing to sell 
the main line of the public improvements, 
he labored earnestly to secure a fair bill 
open alike to all bidders, and to secure 
a greater minimum price than the one fixed 
by the bill. He was not opposed to the 
policy of a sale, but was opposed to many 
of the provisions of the bill. The bill, 
among other things, provided in the third 
section that " if the Pennsylvania company 
shall become the purchasers, they shall pay, 
in addition to the purchase money at which 
it may be struck down, the sum of $1,500, 
in consideration whereof, the said railroad 



company, and the Harrisburg railroad com- 
pany, shall be discharged forever from the 
payment of all tonnage taxes, and all other 
taxes whatever, except for school, city, bor- 
ough and township purposes." It was ar- 
gued and contended that the legislature 
could not alienate an}' of the rights of sov- 
ereignty so as to bind future legislatures 
not to lay taxes. To admit the right to ex- 
ercise such power by contract would intro- 
duce a policy by which the life of the State 
might be endangered, because, if carried to 
its full extent, all revenues by the power of 
taxation might be bartered away, and the 
State rendered powerless to meet its ordi- 
nary expenditures. Besides, the constitu- 
tional mandate is equality of taxation on 
all classes of subjects as nearly as may be 
practicable, and therefore, the proviso was 
contrary to public policy, as well as un- 
constitutional. The bill passed under pro- 
viso. The canal commissioners, by the ad- 
vice and at the suggestion of those who had 
opposed this section of the bill, Messrs. 
Buckalew, Heist, Walton and Meredith, ap- 
pearing as their attorneys, filed three bills 
in equity, to restrain the sale, etc , reported 
in 30 Pa., page 9, wherein the Supreme 
court says that any contract to effect an 
exemption from taxation would be void, 
and that the rights of sovereignty are a 
trust to be exercised for the benefit of the 
people, as occasion may require, not to be 
abandoned or bargained away at the dis- 
cretion of their agents. The court then de- 
creed that so much of the bill as above re- 
cited was void, and enjoined the parties 
who were to execute the provisions of the 
act from entering into any contract con- 
taining such exemption. 

In 1858 he was nominated for and elected 
speaker, and in a caucus of sixty members, 
had a majority of forty. Although one 01 



454 



Biographical Sketches. 



the youngest speakers who had presided for 
late years, he was calm, dignified, courteous, 
impartial and prompt, displaying rare ex- 
ecutive ability and great dispatch of busi- 
ness. His rulings were generally accepted 
without appeal, and in the very few in- 
stances in which appeals were taken, they 
stood as the judgment of the house. No 
one of his decisions were reversed by the 
house. Pending the consideration of an 
important bill, two members called the 
yeas and nays (the bar of the house having 
been closed previously) and the clerk re- 
corded fifty members voting. It appeared, 
however,that the two calling the yeas and 
nays had not voted. At this time the house 
was composed of one hundred members. 
The speaker decided that by the record 
there was a quorum present, and that it 
was the duty of the two members who 
called the yeas and nays, to vote. From 
this decision an appeal was entered, and a 
vote being taken, the decision stood as the 
judgment of the house. On the call of the 
names of the two members, the} - still re- 
fused to vote. The speaker held that a 
quorum was present on the question pend- 
ing, whether or not the non-voting mem- 
bers were in contempt, and ruled that their 
conduct was decorous to the speaker, but, 
that their act was in contempt with the 
rights of the other members of the house. 
On a submission of this question to a vote 
of the house, it was decided in the affirma- 
tive ; this was followed by a motion put and 
carried, that the non-voting members be 
ordered under arrest by the speaker, for 
contempt. Before executing this order, 
however, the speaker directed that their 
names again be called, whereupon one of 
them voted, nay. The clerk then reported 
that fifty-one members had voted, and the 
speaker declared that a quorum had voted. 



The other member still refusing to vote, 
upon motion made and carried, he was ex- 
cused from voting. The house then pro- 
ceeded with the further consideration of the 
bill. 

This incident is produced somewhat 
in detail because it is probably the first de- 
cision on this much vexed question made 
by a legislative body, and it represents one 
of the many different phases which it has 
assumed, when it had been resorted to, not 
only to obstruct, but at times, to defeat the 
passage of a bill by the obnoxious conduct 
of an otherwise impotent minoritv. It also 
shows how nearly earlier decisions had pre- 
ceded, trenched upon, and opened the way 
for the decision of speaker Reed in the na- 
tional congress, to count non-voting mem- 
bers, known to be present, so as to record a 
quorum voting. It seems, however, to be 
the later and better practice for the speaker 
to designate the member, and order the 
clerk to enter the name, so that it may ap- 
pear by the record, who constitute in fact 
the quorum, rather than to determine by 
the arbitrary dictum of the speaker, that 
the voting and non-voting members pres- 
ent, constitute a quorum. 

Judge Longaker had a great fondness for 
agricultural fairs, and during his secretary- 
ship, he organized, with the aid and advice 
of his estimable wife, the Household De- 
partment, which provided a first and second 
premium for almost even - article produced 
by the handicraft of the industrious and 
progressive housewife, and had the com- 
mittees so enlarged, that ladies, with a 
gentleman as chairman, were appointed 
judges to pass upon the entries made in 
these classes. There was also a Ladies' 
managing committee, which had charge of 
this department. This system largely in- 
terested the women in the localitv in which 



Biographical Sketches. 



455 



the fairs were held annually, resulting in 
increased attendance, and producing one of 
the pleasing and useful features of the ex- 
hibition. Some of the largest and best fairs 
occurred during his official term, and in 
1869, when he declined a re-election, the 
society, which was in debt, and insolvent 
when he assumed control, had in its treas- 
ury a substantial surplus and was in a very 
prosperous condition. The six weeks to 
two mouths' time annually devoted to the 
affairs of each exhibition afforded a very 
opportune and agreeable outing from pro- 
fessional engagements and gave further op- 
portunity to make many agreeable acquain- 
tances in the different localities in which 
the fair was held, as well as to refresh those 
which had been formed during his legis- 
lative term. 

His duties as president of the bank were 
to preside at the meetings of the board of 
directors, keep its minutes, sign the notes 
issued, etc., but, he was far from devoting 
his entire time to the bank during banking 
hours. 

On the bench, Judge L,ougaker was 
keenly analytical, a good example of whose 
method is found in Kemmerer vs. Tool, 
78 Pennsylvania, 149 : The question try- 
ing was that of an alleged insolvency under 
the bankrupt act. He said : " Insolvency 
under this act is not a total inability of one 
to pay his liabilities for want of assets, but 
it is that condition financially when he be- 
comes unable to pay his promissory notes and 
other liabilities generally as they fall due. 
A failure to meet a note or two, or other in- 
debtedness when due and demanded, is not 
enough if payment be made within a rea- 
sonable time thereafter, but if there be a 
general failure to pay then the condition of 
the law is satisfied, and insolvency has 
occurred, or the debtor mav be said to be 



; acting in contemplation of insolvency. A 
man being a trader may have property suf- 
ficient to pay all his debts, and yet if there 
should be a general failure to pay when due 
he will by the provisions of the bankrupt 
act, be insolvent, or acting in contemplation 
ot insolvency. Insolvency is a question of 
fact, and is not founded upon actual knowl- 
edge of the debtor and creditor — a reasonable 
cause to induce belief is all that is required. 
* * Reasonable cause to be- 
lieve, is that condition of mind produced 
from facts and circumstances which would 
put a prudent and careful man upon inquiry 
as to solvency or insolvency ; it is a well 
founded suspicion based upon facts from 
which such suspicion will naturally flow ; 
it is a state of mind produced from facts less 
than actual knowledge, or less than a full 
conviction of the actual fact." 

The cases of Mover et al. vs. the Penn- 
sylvania Slate company, 71 Pa., 294, afford 
a very forcible type of the analytical com- 
parative and explanatory charge and opin- 
ion. The question pending was the alleged 
individual liability of the stockholders of 
the defendant corporation, and arose under 
the clause, " for debts due mechanics, work- 
men and laborers employed by the com- 
pany, and for materials furnished.'''' One 
claimant presented a demand for payment 
of a bill for hauling slate to the railroad 
station with his own team ; another for re- 
pairs of the wagon of the corporation done 
at his shops and used in transporting the 
slate; another for lumber furnished to erect 
a derrick and also claims for oats, hay and 
straw for the horses and mules of the cor- 
poration ; for powder, fuse, horse shoes, 
nails, grease, files, shovels and other quarry- 
ing tools, etc. 

Commenting upon the words " material 
furnished," he said : " Material in its ordi- 



456 



Biographical Sketches. 



nary acceptation is the substance out of 
which anything is made, and this is the 
only definition given to the noun by Web- 
ster. 'Material,' as an adjective, has a much 
larger signification, but it is of its use as a 
noun that we seek its import. The ingre- 
dients which form a chemical compound are 
called chemical materials ; the substances 
which enter into the erection of a building 
are called building materials ; cotton and 
wool used by the manufacturer are materials 
of which cloth is made. And thus the com- 
parison might be pursued throughout every 
description of manufactures. * * 
The stockholders of a cotton or woolen 
manufactory would be liable for cotton or 
wool, but certainly not for pig-iron, or pow- 
der, nor for provender, furnished the mules 
used in and about the business. 
Hay in its ordinary acceptation is not a ma- 
terial, but provender, farm produce ; if the 
legislative intent were to protect the farmer 
for food furnished the horses or mules, the 
term used would be 'provender' or 'farm pro- 
duce' and not 'material.' If it were to pro- 
tect the merchant for wares, goods and com- 
modities (nails, grease, files, shovels and 
orher tools) in the concrete, the term used 
would be 'merchandise.' The general manu- 
facturing law of 1854, creating individual 
liability, uses the phrase ' for machinery, 
merchandise, country produce, provisions 
and materials furnished.' * * * * It 
is sufficient to know that nothing can be 
manufactured without material, and there- 
fore the legal signification of the phrase 
'material furnished' is to be applied to 
those substances which are used in the 
manufacture of articles produced, and is 
not to be enlarged so as to include 
everything that may fall within the gen- 
eral definition of matter." The Su- 
preme Court directed the opinion to be re- 



ported and affirmed the cases on that opin- 
ion. 

In City of Allentown vs. Henry, 73 Pa., 
404, he held that while the act of 1868 
might be unconstitutional in that provis- 
ion, wherein it was permitted to lay assess- 
ments in nature of water rents upon owners 
of dwelling houses situated on streets along 
which the water pipes were laid, yet the 
subsequent act of 1870 allowing the city to 
purchase the works and to exercise all the 
rights, privileges, powers, and franchises of 
the former corporation, was equivalent to a 
re-enactment in the new bill, and was, 
therefore, not unconstitutional when these 
powers were transferred to a municipal cor- 
poration. The vice of this provision in the 
former enactment was that it is unconstitu- 
tional to attempt to confer on a private cor- 
poration the right to lay taxes or assess- 
ments in the nature of taxes ; while munici- 
pal corporations may be so empowered, 
where the local tax is substantially for a 
local benefit. The act, however, authorized 
the levy to be made upon every dwelling 
house located on streets along which pipes 
had been laid ; the ordinance imposed it 
upon such dwelling houses only as are not 
supplied with hydrants; it did not follow 
the statute, and, therefore, it was declared 
invalid. 

The case of Weber vs. Reinhard, 73 Pa., 
370, raised the constitutionality of the act 
of April 14, 1868, which allowed the town- 
ship of Upper Saucon to collect an addi- 
tional road tax on ore beds of one and one- 
half cent from the owners of ore beds for 
every ton mined and carried away by teams 
over the roads of said township. It was 
contended that taxes could not be 
collected by actions for debt with previous 
assessment, etc., and that the act was un- 
constitutional because it was levied upon a 



Biographical Sketches. 



457 



few as a local tax for the benefit of the 
many. It was ruled by the lower court that 
the tax could be legally collected and that 
the act was constitutional ; this ruling was 
affirmed by the Supreme Court. (The late 
Chief Justice Woodward, counsel for the 
appellant, argued against its constitution- 
ality and denied the power of the courts to 
collect taxes by actions for debt). 

A few years later in the Lehigh Iron 
Company vs. Lower Macungie Iron Com- 
pany, Si Pa., 482, the act of 1868, having 
been extended to Macungie township, by 
the act of February 25, 1870, it came before 
the court upon the allegation that the con- 
stitution of 1873 abrogated and annulled 
these acts. The specific contention was that 
the new constitution, by implication, re- 
pealed per se all local and special laws, be- 
cause of the expression in article 9, section 
1, that "all taxes shall be levied and collec- 
ted under general laws." To parry this 
implication the judge interposed article 3, 
section 7, which says : "But laws repeal- 
ing special or local acts may be passed." 
He further said, "to hold that, there had re- 
sulted a repeal of all local and special laws 
would introduce confusion into the sys- 
tem of tax laws, and many counties and 
other municipalities, whose laws are special, 
would find no statute by which taxes could 
be levied and collected." This ruling was 
affirmed by the Supreme Court, which 
further extended the ruling, by declaring 
it was the duty of the legislature to repeal 
local and special laws, and to supply them 
by general laws adequate to meet the exi- 
gencies occurring by their repeal. 

/// re, Lehigh street, Borough of Easton's 
appeal, 81 Pa., 89, the question arose, 
whether or not the grantees of lots described 
as abutting on a street not opened at the 
time of the grant, but opened thereafter, had 



the right of damages occasioned by the 
opening, or did the right remain in the 
grantor. The opinion proceeded in part : 
" If (as contended), the Union Burial 
('.round vs. Robinson be taken to be au- 
thority still in force, its only value is to cre- 
ate a possibility of reversion in the grantor, 
which became extinguished the very instant 
Lehigh street was dedicated to public use. 
Prior to this dedication no cause of action 
for damages had arisen ; and eo ins tan te 
with the cause of action happened the con- 
tingency which vested the fee in the gran- 
tees. The incontrovertible fact is that the 
opening of the street for public use, the 
right of action for damages, and the vesting 
of a fee in the grantees to the centre of the 
street, are simultaneous acts." The peti- 
tioners, therefore, are entitled to damages. 
In affirming this case, Thompson, Chief 
Justice, says : " This case is fully and 
properly decided, and for the reasons so well 
assigned, the decree of the court of quarter 
sessions is affirmed and the appeal is dis- 
missed." 

Boucher's case, in the common pleas of 
Lehigh county, ruled that the United States 
revenue act which rendered void and inad- 
missible in evidence in the State courts in- 
struments of writing not specifically 
stamped, was inoperative and contrary to 
public policy as well as unconstitutional, 
because, if the right to tax the legal writs, 
in legal procedure and to nullify unstamped 
written instruments as evidence, be admit- 
ted, then the State courts might be de- 
stroyed by the National Congress. When 
this case was before the supreme court it 
was reversed because of insufficiency of tes- 
timony on part of the plaintiff, but no 
ruling was made as to the admission of the 
unstamped check in testimony. 

In Ueberroth vs. Riegel, 71 Pa., 282, tried 



458 



Biographical Sketches. 



in the court of common pleas of Lehigh 
county, the plaintiffs claim arose on a writ- 
ing as follows : 

"Friedensville, Dec. 18, 1865. 
Sirs : — Please give the bearer, Henry 
Fink, the goods which he will select, not 
exceeding over five hundred and fifty dollars 
on my account. 

J. J. Ueberroth." 

The judge in the lower court admitted the 
writing, saying there was no specific tax in 
the schedule on such a written paper. 

The Supreme court said on appeal: " The 
order is not a complete contract in itself, 
and was not offered in evidence as such. 
It is only a link in the chain of evidence to 
establish a contract * * * and with- 
out oral testimony showing an acceptance 
of the order by the delivery of the goods, 
no obligation would be established between 
the parties. * * * The order in ques- 
tion is wanting in these essential elements, 
and does not require a stamp to make it 
admissible in evidence under the statute 
even if its provisions are obligatory, as a 
rule of evidence, on the State courts." 
This decision was rendered in October, 
1872, and soon thereafter the Stamp Act 
was repealed. So that the emphatic ruling 
in Boucher's case made about 1869 was 
never qualified or over-ruled by the Su- 
preme court, but the ruling in Ueberroth's 
case seems to imply that Congress is vested 
with no power to render inadmissible as 
evidence a contract in writing not stamped. 

In Lower Macungie vs. Merkhoffer, 71 
Pa., 276, Merkhoffer's team of four mules 
were hauling iron ore over a public road 
alongside of which there was dug an ore 
pit, and, being without guard, one of the 
mules on the lead shied towards the pit, 
scaring at some object, and went so far as 
to throw the wagon into it, drawing also 
some of the mules with it, causing dam- 



ages, etc. Among other thing in the charge 
it continued as follows : " The plaintiff had 
a right to drive a shying mule, but know- 
ing that vice he must exercise greater care 
than would be required if no such vice 
existed. It would be folly to declare the 
law to be that roads need not be kept in 
repair so as to avoid accident from the 
ordinary shying of horses. It is a matter 
of common information that horses will 
shy at different objects, and it therefore 
becomes the duty of the supervisors so to 
keep the roads that teams will not be over- 
set by this vice in horses, and if any dam- 
age be sustained from this source, the 
result of unavoidable accident upon the 
part of the plaintiff and caused by the 
negligence of the defendant, the defendant 
will be liable to respond in damages. If, 
therefore, you find negligence upon the 
part of the defendant, and no negligence 
upon the part of the plaintiff, or his team- 
ster, your verdict will be for the plaintiff; 
otherwise, for the defendant." The jury 
found for the plaintiff. The case was re- 
moved to the Supreme court and affirmed 
by a short per curiam opinion for the rea- 
sons given by the judge in the lower court. 
TheGlendon Iron Co. ^.Uhler&Fulmer, 
75 Pa., 467, in equity : The Glendon Iron 
company was a manufacturer of iron and 
branded it with the trademark, "Glendon." 
The place where the furnaces were located 
was afterwards incorporated as a borough 
under the name of Glendon, and Uhler & 
Fulmer located another furnace there and 
branded their iron " Glendon." It was 
conceded as a general rule of law, that the 
name of a city or town can not be so appro- 
priated as the exclusive property of any 
one, but it was contended that this case 
was taken out of the general rule because 
the Glendon Iron works were so named 



Biographical Sketches. 



459 



many years before this locality and adjoin- 
ing territory was incorporated as a borough. 
The court ruled that this fact presented no 
legaj reason for a distinction ; that as soon 
as the town was incorporated it became 
Glendon to the whole world, and the pre- 
vious appropriation of its name by a manu- 
facturer will not preclude all others in the 
same line of business from using Glendon 
also as a trade brand denoting their place 
of business as well as the product manu- 
factured. This ruling was affirmed in the 
higher court. 

The Fry Election case, 71 Pa., 302, pre- 
sented the question of the right of students 
at college to vote. It was decided in 1872, 
and has since that time been cited as a 
leading case, not only in this State, but 
in contested cases in Congress. It arose 
out of the municipal election of the city of 
Allentown, and involved the election of a 
member of common council. It was ad- 
mitted that eleven of the voters of the 
second ward are students of Muhlenberg 
college ; that they are citizens of the State 
of Pennsylvania, and they claimed that 
their residence was said college, where 
they have lived from one to three years ; 
that they were assessed and paid taxes ; 
that they came to college for no other pur- 
pose than to receive a collegiate education, 
but intended to leave after graduating. 
These students are admitted to be of two 
classes : those who support themselves, or 
are assisted pecuniarily by persons other 
than their parents, are emancipated from 
their father's families, have left the homes 
of their parents, and never intend to return 
and make it a permanent abode ; second, 
those who are supported by their parents, 
visit their parents' home during vacation, 
and may or may not return there after 
graduating. * * * All of said votes, 



which in the opinion of the court are ille- 
gal, are to be cast out, and then the court 
to decree in favor of the parties having the 
highest vote. In this issue Judge Longaker 
decided that they were not legal voters, 
and rejected in the count both classes. 
Among other things, saying : "The char- 
ter of the city of Allentown requires that 
electors who are otherwise qualified under 
the general laws of this commonwealth, 
be citizens ; all other requisites being 
admitted, we are brought at once to the 
first section of the third article of the State 
constitution, which provides : ' In elections 
by citizens, every white freeman of the age 
of twenty-one years, having resided in this 
State one year, and in the election district 
where he offers to vote ten days immediately 
preceding such election, shall enjoy the 
rights of an elector.' The important in- 
quiry is the import of the word 'resided,' 
which appears not to have had a definite 
judicial interpretation in this State. As the 
word ' inhabitant ' occurs in other parts of 
the constitution, prescribing that the gov- 
ernor and the representatives shall be in- 
habitants of the State, and that the judges 
of Supreme court shall reside within the 
commonwealth, and other judges while in 
office within the district or county for 
which they were elected, it is obvious that 
inhabitant or resident refers to a person 
who has a permanent abode. Inhabitant 
is, says Webster, 'a dweller, one wdio 
dwells or resides permanently in a place.' 
It therefore follows that ' resided, resident 
and inhabitant' as applied to the elector 
are of the same signification and import ; 
that the elector must vote at home, the 
place of his domicil. * * The domi- 

cil of origin is not abandoned until a new 
one has been intentionally and actually 
acquired. * * * Those of the first 



460 



Biographical Sketches. 



class came for no other purposes than to 
receive a collegiate education, and, intend- 
ing to leave after graduating, cannot have 
lost the domicil of origin because they did 
not enter college to make the place of its 
location their permanent home, and with- 
out such specific intention no new home 
can be gained ; and until a new home be 
gained, the old cannot be lost. The phrase, 
' intending to leave after graduating,' forci- 
blv and clearly overthrows any intent to 
obtain a permanent abode, and introduces 
so clearly the fact that their purpose was 
indefinite and temporary, that its only 
value as an admitted fact is to show the 
fugitive character of the college abode, and 
wholly inconsistent with a fixed purpose to 
gain a new permanent home, or residence, 
within the meaning of the constitution. 
Those of the second class have no tenable 
grounds to support a purpose to gain a new 
and permanent home. Holding 

these views, both classes must be excluded 
from the count of legal voters." On appeal 
taken, Justice Agnew in an elaborate opin- 
ion affirmed the decree of the lower court. 
In Mclntyre vs. The Lehigh Valley rail- 
road in the common pleas of Lehigh 
county, the plaintiff purchased a ticket at 
the Hazleton Junction when visibly under 
the influence of liquor, and entered the 
cars, and while going to his destination 
he became unruly, noisy, and even indecent. 
The conductor warned him that, if he per- 
sisted in this conduct, he would put him 
off the train at Mauch Chunk. He was 
permitted to remain when the train arrived 
there, and some six miles below it he again 
became very noisy and offensive, and the 
conductor stopped the train and ejected 
him from the cars at a point where there 
was no station nor a road leading from or 
along the railroad, but the track on both 



sides had embankments of a few feet high. 
The night was dark and no lights to be 
seen indicating any one living near by. 
In his confused state of intoxication he 
wandered about the track, keeping out of 
the way of passing trains. Tired out and 
bewildered, he lay down beside the track 
on a heap of stones, fell asleep, and while 
thus sleeping he got his leg upon the 
track, and a passing train crushed it so 
that amputation became necessarv. In a 
suit for damages, the judge charged, " that 
a railroad company had the right to refuse 
to sell a ticket to a man visibly drunk, or 
if getting drunk after the purchase, to pre- 
vent him from entering the car ; but, if in 
that condition he is accepted as a passen- 
ger, and while proceeding on his journey 
his conduct becomes indecent, abusive, 
etc., so as to molest the other passengers 
unreasonably, he may be ejected at a sta- 
tion ; but that he can not be ejected at a 
place where he is not able to protect him- 
self from danger arising from his state of 
intoxication, or find his way off the track ; 
and knowing that it was dangerous by 
reason of passing trains, and having ac- 
cepted him, they are bound to treat him as 
a prudent man under like circumstances 
would treat a drunken man." The case 
referred to the jury under this instruction 
resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff, and 
on removal to the Supreme court it was 
affirmed. 



JEREMIAH B. LARZELERE, farmer 
<J and school teacher, bank director 
and stock dealer, has for many years been 
one of the central figures of Moreland 
township, and especially Jeukintown, Mont- 
gomery county, and is one of the most 
highly esteemed residents of that section. 



Biographical Sketches. 



461 



He is a descendant from the Huguenots, 
who, forced by the revocation of the edict 
of Nantes by Louis XV, October 22, 1685, 
were obliged to seek happiness in religious 
liberty in Germany, Scotland, England and 
Ireland, and later founded the colony that 
made South Carolina famous for men of in- 
telligence and great statesmanship. Nicho- 
las and John Larzelere were among the 
Huguenots who fled from France in the 
latter days of the seventeenth century, and 
they came almost directly to Long Island, 
this country. Nicholas afterwards settled 
on Staten Island. He married and had four 
children, two sons and two daughters. The 
sons were named Nicholas and John, and 
the former of these two settled in Lower 
Makefield township, in Bucks county, in 
1741. He is the great-great-grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch. He died at the 
advanced age of eighty-four years, and was 
the father of eight children, the oldest of 
whom was also christened Nicholas and 
was born on Staten Island in 1724. He 
was a veteran of the war of the Revolution, 
and, like his father, lived to reach the age 
of eighty-four years. He was a farmer in 
Bensalem township, Bucks county, and was 
married to Hannah Britton, of Bristol. 
They had ten children, the eldest of whom 
was Benjamin, the grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. Benjamin married 
Sarah Brown, of Bristol, and they lived at 
that place on a large farm. Eight children 
were born to them. The father lived to be 
eighty-four years of age. Nicholas was the 
second son of Benjamin and the father of 
our subject. He married Esther, daughter 
of Colonel Jeremiah Berrell, of Abington, 
Montgomery county. He moved to this 
township in 1825, and here Jeremiah Berrell 
Larzelere, our subject and the third son, was 
born on August 22, 1829. ^ ne family in all 



consisted of twelve children, and the father 
died at the age of sixty-seven years in 185S, 
at his home in Moreland township. 

Jeremiah Berrell Larzelere was educated 
in the common schools of his day and 
finished his education in an academy at 
Newark, Delaware. At the age of eighteen 
years he began to teach school, and fol- 
lowed this occupation for two years in Hor- 
sham township. He then combined farm- 
ing with teaching with great success and 
was also very successful as an extensive 
dealer in horses and cattle, shipping princi- 
pally from the West. 

In 1870 the Northeast Pennsylvania Rail- 
road was opened. Mr. Larzelere was one 
of the projectors and original directors of 
the company and held his position until the 
railroad passed under the control of the 
Philadelphia and Reading railroad corn- 
pan y by lease. He has also for many years 
been a director of the Jenkintown National 
bank. It will be seen that Mr. Larzelere 
has passed a life full of energy and activity 
in the business world, but notwithstanding 
this fact he has been able to find time to 
take an active and honorable part in poli- 
tics. He is a Democrat of the Jefferson 
school, and his course has always been 
marked by the strictest honesty and pro- 
bity. In 1872 he was elected sheriff of the 
county and filled a full term of three years. 
He has also served as a school director for 
nine years, and is one of the foremost edu- 
cational champions in his district. Frater- 
nal lv he is a member of the Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, Jenkintown Lodge, No. 
400, of Jenkintown. In religious belief and 
practice Mr. Larzelere is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and most of the fam- 
ily are communicants of the same faith. 

Mr. Larzelere has been married twice. 
Tlie first wife was Elmina, daughter of 



462 



Biographical Sketches. 



James Lovett, of Doylestown, Bucks county, 
by whom he was father of seven chil- 
dren. These children were : Frank E., 
Henry, deceased ; Jeremiah B., jr., Bert- 
man, Samuel, Esther E. and Flor- 
ence E. After the death of his first 
wife Mr. Larzelere married Caroline E. 
Wentz, daughter of Dilworth Wentz, of 
Philadelphia. No children have been born 
to this union. With the exception of a 
short time, during which he lived in Ohio, 
Mr. Larzelere has spent his whole life in 
Montgomery county. He was not only 
a successful business man, but he has been 
a good citizen, progressive in his ideas and 
ready to support and help along all worthy 
enterprises calculated to aid the welfare of 
his community, and being of a benevolent 
and kindly disposition is surrounded by 
neighbors who esteem and love him. 



LEWIS R. HARLEY, M. A., Ph. D., 
was born in Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 16, 1866. His ancestors 
came to America from Germany, early in 
the eighteenth century, to escape religious 
persecution. Mr. Harley is a son of Har- 
rison Harley, a prosperous farmer residing 
in North Coventry, Chester county. He 
was educated at the West Chester, Pa., 
Normal school, the Hill Collegiate institute, 
Pottstown, Pa., and finished the normal 
school course at the Lock Haven, Pa., Nor- 
mal school. Mr. Harley finished the course 
for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, 
with the Illinois Wesleyan university, in 
1891, and after two years of post-graduate 
study, with this university, in philosophy, 
psychology and political science, he took 
the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor 
of Philosophy. In 1892 Mr. Harley became 



a post-graduate student in the University 01 
Pennsylvania, taking work in history and 
politics under the eminent specialists, Dr. 
John Bach McMaster, Dr. Edmund J. James, 
Dr. Simon N. Patton, and Dr. Francis N. 
Thorpe. He was made an honorary fellow 
in history by the university in 1894, and in 
1895, graduated with the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy. Mr. Harley is at present, 
principal of the public schools of North 
Wales, Pa. He has also done considerable 
work in journalism, contributing historical 
and scientific articles to the Philadelphia 
Press, Times and Inquirer, and to the 
Popular Science Monthly, American Maga- 
zine of Civics, American Historical Reg- 
ister and Education. For work in journal- 
ism, Dickinson college has conferred on 
Mr. Harley the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts, and the Western University of 
Pennsylvania has granted him the honorary 
degree of Master of Philosophy. Mr. Har- 
ley married Miss Ravilla Yarnall, of Dela- 
ware county, and they have three children: 
Lola, Martha and Francis Lieber. 



NEWTON MARSHALL, ticket and 
>J • freight agent of the Pennsylvania 
railroad at Bryn Mawr, was born on his 
father's farm in Lancaster county on Aug- 
ust 3, 1843, and is a son of James P. and 
Mary (Clark) Marshall. The Marshall 
family is of English descent and of Quaker 
stock. Abraham Marshall, the original 
ancestor in this country, was a companion 
of William Penn and was a native of Grat- 
tan, Derbyshire, England, having been born 
in 1669. In 1697 he came to this country 
with Penn and settled near Darby. He 
married Mary Hunt, also a native of Eng- 
land. In 1707 he moved to the forks of 



Biographical Sketches. 



463 



the Brandywine and lived there on land 
purchased from the Indians until his death, 
which occurred in 1767, at the advanced 
age of ninety-eight years. His wife sur- 
vived him until 1769. when she died at the 
age of eighty-seven. They had nine chil- 
dren, the youngest of whom was Hum- 
phrey Marshall, a great-granduncle of our 
subject. 

Humphrey Marshall was born October 
10, 1722, in West Bradford township, in 
Chester count}'. He learned the trade of 
stone mason and followed it a few years. 
With his own hands he built his resi- 
dence at Marshal Iton. He married 
Sarah Pennock on September 16, 1748, and 
then took charge of his father's farm. He 
was zealous for knowledge and paid special 
attention to astronomy and natural history, 
and was the first botanist of America and 
the ablest of his day. From 1762 he served 
four years as county treasurer, having re- 
ceived the position by appointment. In 
1764 he enlarged his father's residence, 
manufacturing the brick and making the 
whole improvement himself. He fell heir 
to his father's estate and immediately begaii 
to improve it by the erection of a large 
grist and merchant mill, He was a distin- 
guished farmer of his day and was an hon- 
orary member of the Philadelphia Society 
for Promoting Agriculture. His brother 
James was our subject's great-grandfather 
and was a farmer by occupation. Moses 
Marshall, grandfather, had a family of sev- 
eral children, of whom James P. was the 
father of J. Newton Marshall. He was 
born in Chester county and attended the 
Quaker schools. After finishing his educa- 
tion he went to farming, and later kept a 
store at West Grove. He conducted this 
business for ten years and then sold out 
and located on a farm near Lancaster city, 



where he had a large store. Again he made 
a change and took a farm in Lancaster 
county, but finally settled down on a farm 
in Chester county, near Rochville, where 
he died. In politics Mr. Marshall was a 
Republican and served as school director. 
He married Sarah Pennock, of Chester 
county, and they had four children : Harry, 
Louise, Philena and Lizzie. His first wife 
died and he subsequently married Man- 
Clark, by whom he had thirteen children : 
Juliet, J. Newton and Frankin, twins, the 
latter bein^ dead ; Lineas, Alice M., Mag- 
gie, Annie, Junius, Willis, Walter, dead ; 
Roberta, Chester and Emma. He died in 
1872, aged sixty-three years. 

J. Newton Marshall was educated in the 
schools of Lancaster county and Lancaster 
city and then went to work on his father's 
farm. In 1859 he studied telegraphy at 
Elizabethtown and was appointed extra 
operator on the Philadelphia division of the 
Pennsylvania railroad. He remained at 
this post a year and then became telegraph 
operator for the P. R. R. Co., president's 
office, in Philadelphia. He resigned this 
position to go back to help work on his 
father's farm, but was later appointed tele- 
graph operator and clerk on the Junction 
railway at West Philadelphia. He left 
there to become night operator at Eliza- 
bethtown. In 1S65 he was appointed 
ticket and freight agent at White Hall, 
Delaware county, which is just across the 
line from Bryn Mawr. When the main 
line of the Pennsylvania road was moved 
over to the present track and the Bryn 
Mawr station established, he became ticket 
and freight agent and has held that post 
ever since. 

In politics Mr. Marshall is a Republican 
and has been very active in party work. 
He has been postmaster of Bryn Mawr 



462 



Biographical Sketches. 



James Lovett, of Doylestown, Bucks county, 
by whom he was father of seven chil- 
dren. These children were: Frank K., 
Henry, deceased ; Jeremiah B., jr., Bert- 
man, Samuel, Esther E. and Flor- 
ence E. After the death of his first 
wife Mr. Larzelere married Caroline E. 
Wentz, daughter of Dilworth Wentz, of 
Philadelphia. No children have been born 
to this union. With the exception of a 
short time, during which he lived in Ohio, 
Mr. Larzelere has spent his whole life in 
Montgomery county. He was not only 
a successful business man, but he has been 
a good citizen, progressive in his ideas and 
ready to support and help along all worthy 
enterprises calculated to aid the welfare of 
his community, and being of a benevolent 
and kindly disposition is surrounded by 
neighbors who esteem and love him. 



LEWIS R. HARLEV, M. A., Ph. D., 
was born in Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 16, 1866. His ancestors 
came to America from Germany, early in 
the eighteenth century, to escape religious 
persecution. Mr. Harley is a son of Har- 
rison Harley, a prosperous farmer residing 
in North Coventry, Chester county. He 
was educated at the West Chester, Pa., 
Normal school, the Hill Collegiate institute-, 
Pottstown, Pa., and finished the normal 
school course at the Lock Haven, Pa., Nor- 
mal school. Mr. Harley finished the course 
for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, 
with the Illinois Wesleyan university, in 
1 89 1, and after two years of post-graduate 
study, with this university, in philosophy, 
psychology and political science, he took 
the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor 
of Philosophy. In 1892 Mr. Harley became 



a post-graduate student in the University 01 
Pennsylvania, taking work in history and 
politics under the eminent specialists, Dr. 
John Bach McMaster, Dr. Edmund J. James, 
Dr. Simon N. Patton, and Dr. Francis N. 
Thorpe. He was made an honorary fellow 
in history by the university in 1894, and in 
1895, graduated with the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy. Mr. Harley is at present, 
principal of the public schools of North 
Wales, Pa. He has also done considerable 
work in journalism, contributing historical 
and scientific articles to the Philadelphia 
Press, Times and Inquirer, and to the 
Popular Science Monthly, American Maga- 
zine of Civics, American Historical Reg- 
ister and Education. For work in journal- 
ism, Dickinson college has conferred on 
Mr. Harley the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts, and the Western University of 
Pennsylvania has granted him the honorary 
degree of Master of Philosophy. Mr. Har- 
ley married Miss Ravilla Yarnall, of Dela- 
ware county, and they have three children: 
Lola, Martha and Francis Lieber. 



T NEWTON MARSHALL, ticket and 
<J • freight agent of the Pennsylvania 
railroad at Bryn Mawr. was born on his 
father's farm in Lancaster county on Aug- 
ust 3, 1*43, and is a son of James P. and 
Mary 1 Clark i Marshall. The Marshall 
family is of English descent and of Quaker 
stock. Abraham Marshall, the original 
ancestor in this country, was a companion 
of William Penn and was a native of Grat- 
tan, Derbyshire, England, having been born 
in 1669. In 1697 he came to this country 
with Penn and settled near Darby. He 
married Mary Hunt, also a native of Eng- 
land. In 1707 he moved to the forks of 



Biographical Sketches. 



463 



the Brandywine and lived there on land 

purchased from the Indians until his death, 
which occurred in 1767, at the advanced 
age of ninety-eight years. His wife sur- 
vived him until 1769. when she died at the 
age of eighty-seven. The}- had nine chil- 
dren, the youngest of whom was Hum- 
phrey Marshall, a great-granduncle of our 
subject. 

Humphrey Marshall was born October 
10, 1722, in West Bradford township, in 
Chester county. He learned the trade of 
stone mason and followed it a few years. 
With his own hands he built his resi- 
dence at Marshallton. He married 
Sarah Pennock on September 16, 174S, and 
then took charge of his father's farm. He 
was zealous for knowledge and paid special 
attention to astronomy and natural history, 
and was the first botanist of America and 
the ablest of his day. From 1762 he served 
four years as county treasurer, having re- 
ceived the position by appointment. In 
1764 he enlarged his father's residence, 
manufacturing the brick and making the 
whole improvement himself. He fell heir 
to his father's estate and immediately began 
to improve it by the erection of a large 
grist and merchant mill, He was a distin- 
guished farmer of his day and was an hon- 
orary member of the Philadelphia Society 
for Promoting Agriculture. His brother 
James was our subject's great-grandfather 
and was a farmer by occupation. Moses 
Marshall, grandfather, had a family of sev- 
eral children, of whom James I', was the 
father of J. Newton Marshall. He was 
born in Chester county and attended the 
Quaker schools. After finishing his educa- 
tion he went to farming, and later kept a 
store at West Grove. He conducted this 
business for ten years and then sold out 
and located on a farm near Lancaster city, 



where he had a large stoic Again he made 
a change and took a farm in Lancaster 
county, but finally settled down on a farm 
in Chester county, near Rochville, where 
lie died. In politics Mr. Marshall was a 
Republican and served as school director. 
He married Sarah Pennock, of Chester 
county, and they had four children : Harry, 
Louise, Philena and Lizzie. His first wife 
died and he subsequently married Man- 
Clark, by whom he had thirteen children : 
Juliet, J. Newton and Krankin, twins, the 
latter being dead ; Lineas, Alice M., Mag- 
gie, Annie, Junius, Willis, Walter, dead ; 
Roberta, Chester and Emma. He died in 
1872, aged sixty-three years. 

J. Newton Marshall was educated in the 
schools of Lancaster county and Lancaster 
city and then went to work on his father's 
farm. In 1859 he studied telegraphy at 
Klizabethtown and was appointed extra 
operator on the Philadelphia division of the 
Pennsylvania railroad. He remained at 
this post a year and then became telegraph 
operator for the P. R. R. Co., president's 
office, in Philadelphia. He resigned this 
position to go back to help work on his 
father's farm, but was later appointed tele- 
graph operator and clerk on the Junction 
railway at West Philadelphia. He left 
there to become night operator at Eliza- 
bethtown. In 1S65 he was appointed 
ticket and freight agent at White Hall, 
Delaware county, which is just across the 
line from Bryn Mawr. When the main 
line of the Pennsylvania road was moved 
over to the present track and the Bryn 
Mawr station established, he became ticket 
and freight agent and has held that post 
ever since. 

In politics Mr. Marshall is a Republican 
and has been very active in party work. 
He has been postmaster of Bryn Mawr 



4 66 



Biographical Sketches. 



honor. He held the office of school direc- 
tor and also served in other local positions. 
He built a large grist mill in Washington 
township, Berks county, and operated it in 
connection with his farm up to the time of 
his retirement from active life ten years 
prior to his death. Amos Schultz was a 
man of intelligence and great business 
ability. He was a very prominent worker 
in the Schweukfelder church and was presi- 
dent and treasurer of the Charity fund for 
thirty years. He was an original stock- 
holder of the National bank of Boyertown 
and was elected to the office of director but 
declined to serve. He was a very success- 
ful man in all of his undertakings and was 
highly respected in this community. He 
married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel 
Kriebel, of Worcester, April 16, 1833, and 
their union resulted in a family of eight 
children : Sarah Schultz ; Susanna John- 
son ; Joseph K., who is a miller by occupa- 
tion in Washington township, Berks county; 
Anna, who died November 4, 1862 ; Eueina 
K.; Edwin K.; Owen K., and Elizabeth K. 
Gerhard. 

Edwin K. Schultz was the sixth child of 
Amos and Elizabeth Schultz, and was born 
in Douglass township, Montgomery county, 
August 1, 1848. Up to the age of fifteen 
years, Edwin attended the public schools of 
his district and then went to work on a 
farm. Eater he learned the trade of miller 
under his father and followed that business 
for ten years in his native township. In the 
meantime he married Amanda, daughter of 
Andrew K. Schultz, of Clayton, Berks 
county, October 19, 1872, and engaged in 
farming on a large tract of land of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five acres, which he still 
continues to cultivate. He gives his atten- 
tention to general farming, the dairy and 
produce of all kinds, and has been success- 



ful. He is a man of enterprise and progress 
and always ready to invest in and aid any- 
thing that will be of profit or importance to 
his district. He is a prominent member of 
tlie Xiantic Dairyman's association, and is 
the president and manager of the Xiantic 
creamery which was organized in April, 
1888. He is also a trustee of the Perkio- 
men seminary, and has been the treasurer of 
that institution since the new organization 
went into effect in 1892. He is also inter- 
ested in the Boyertown National bank and 
other financial institutions. He is a Re- 
publican in politics, and like his fore-fathers, 
is a member of the Schwenkfelder church, in 
which he has held various offices of honor 
and trust. 

A family of six children blessed his union 
with Amanda Schultz These are : Alice 
Ida, Minnie, Stella, Mattie and Andrew, S., 
all livine at home. 



[ON AS S. MOYER, editor of the Hatfield 
J Invincible, and grammar school teacher, 
is one of the brightest and most popular 
young men of his section of Montgomery 
county. He comes from Pennsylvania-Ger- 
man ancestry and his forefathers for many 
generations back were prominent residents 
of Franconia township, Montgomery coun- 
ty. His paternal grandfather was Jacob 
Mover and he was born in Franconia town- 
ship, on May 17, 1781. He learned the 
trade of tailor and followed this in connec- 
tion with farming all his life. In political 
matters he sided with the Whig and later 
the Republican party. In religious belief 
he was a strict adherent to the doctrines of 
the Mennonite church and was a very active 
church worker. He was married to Mag- 
dalena Eandis, and their union was blessed 



Biographical Sketches. 



467 



with six children : William L. , Jonas L., 
Molly, who intermarried with Jacob Moyer; 
Esther, Elizabeth and Hannah. Jonas L. 
Mover, father of the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Franconia, February 20, 1828. 
He was a farmer all of his life and owned 
a splendid property of seventy-five acres. 
He was a member of the Mennonite church 
of Franconia, and was a Republican. He 
married Fanny Swartley, of Franconia, 
in September 1853, and their union was 
productive of a family of eleven children, 
nine of whom are still living. The chil- 
dren are : Philip, deceased ; Magdalena, 
wife of Enos Detwiler ; Lizzie ; Anna, mar- 
ried to Edward Moyer ; Fanny, who is the 
wife of Isaiah H. Keller ; Jacob, William, 
Jonas S., Nathaniel, Katie and John. 

Jonas S. Mover's birth place is Franconia, 
and he was born on the 25th of May, 1865. 
He was sent to the public schools and after- 
wards attended Sumueytown academy. He 
taught school for a year near Tylersport, 
Salford township. He then went to West 
Chester and entered the West Chester State 
normal school for one term. Thereafter he 
taught three terms and again went to West 
Chester and finished the junior course. He 
taught school for twelve terms, one term 
in Salford township; fourterms in Franconia 
township ; one in Lower Salford township 
and six terms at Hatfield. In the mean- 
time he took up the trade of printing at 
home and bought a printing office at Hat- 
field, on July 7, 1894. During the first year 
he taught the grammar school and conduc- 
ted the printing business and is the pub- 
lisher of the Hatfield Invincible, a prosper- 
ous and influential newspaper with a large 
and wide circulation. Mr. Moyer is a man 
of fine literary tastes and his paper is noted 
for its sound editorial utterances. 

pn September 3, 1892, Mr. Moyer was 



married to Miss Mattie, youngest daughter 
of Godshall Dalp, of Mainland, Montgom- 
ery county, and they occupy their own fine 
residence in Hatfield. He is a member of 
the Brethern church, of Philadelphia, and 
is superintendent of the Union Sunday 
school at Hatfield. He is a strict temper- 
ance man and is always actively identified 
with Republican politics. 



JOHN MILLER, who with his brother, 
Francis Miller, operates one of the 
largest brick manufactories in Montgomery 
count} - , is a business man of wide acquaint- 
ance and commands the general esteem of 
the business community. He is a son of 
Andrew and Mary (Crocker) Miller, and was 
born on the 12th day of November, 1847, 
at Bridgeport. He is from good Montgom- 
ery county ancestry. He was the father of 
four children : Sarah, who was married to 
James Wilcox ; Mary, Elizabeth, wife of 
John Wilson, and Andrew. He died July, 

1873- 

Andrew Miller was born at Philadelphia 

in 1800. He attended the public schools 
and then engaged to earn his livelihood as 
a laborer. He always voted the Democratic 
ticket. His union with Mary Crocker re- 
sulted in a family of ten children : Charles, 
Mary, Henry, Joseph, Richard, Pasco, 
Sarah, James, John and Francis. He died 
at seventy-three years of age. 

John Miller was sent to the common 
schools and secured all the education that 
could be given to a boy of those times, and 
left at the age of thirteen years to work in 
the brickyard of Joel Anders, at Bridgeport, 
where he remained three years. He then 
worked five years for John Smith, at Nor- 
ristown. Leaving here he went to Phila- 



468 



Biographical Sketches. 



delphia and worked for the Melker brick 
works. His next position was with Sehaf- 
fer Brothers, at Norristown, where he re- 
mained eight years. 

In 1879 Mr. Miller and his brother Fran- 
cis decided to engage in business on their 
own account, and the}- accordingly started 
a brickyard at Delphi P. O., near Zieglers- 
ville, which they have conducted for seven- 
teen years. The)- started on a small scale, but 
at the present time, such has been their uni- 
ted work, that they do a very large business 
and ship great cargoes of brick to all parts 
of the State. Their business grew steadily 
and rapidly and was long ago on a very 
firm basis, and their name is greatly es- 
teemed in the business world. 

Politically, Mr. Miller takes to Demo- 
cratic principles, and always gives close at- 
tention to the party's working in his county 
and vicinity. He was married to Mary 
Renard on November 31, 1870, and they 
have been blessed with a family of five 
children: Andrew, aged twenty-three years, 
Anna, aged twenty-one years ; Lulu, aged 
eighteen years ; Lee and Ella, died in in- 
fancy. 



I SAIAH R. HALDEMAN is a job printer 
1 and publisher of the Harleysville News, 
and conducts a large and profitable busi- 
ness. He is a native of Montgomery 
county, having been born in Hatfield town- 
ship, February 4, 1868. He is primarily of 
German ancestors, though his family has 
long resided in this county. His grand- 
father, on his paternal side, was Elias 
Haldemau, who was born in Perkiomen 
township in 1792. He was a farmer and a 
Democrat. Grandfather Haldeman reared 
a family of five children. These were : 
Elias, now deceased ; Samuel, Enos, de- 



ceased ; Caroline, Charles, and Henry, also 
dead. 

Charles Haldeman, the father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born 1832, and like 
his father devoted his life to farming and 
owned a large and fertile farm. He was 
married to Miss Leah Rosenberger, and they 
had two children : Harvey, born October 
5, 1857, and Isaiah, born February 4, 1868. 
He and his estimable wife are still living 
and are active members of the Towamencin 
Mennonite church. 

Isaiah R. Haldeman attended the public 
schools of his district until he was fourteen 
years old and was then entered in the print- 
ing office of the Lansdale Reporter. Later 
he secured employment on the Philadelphia 
Press, where he remained two years. He 
then went to Harleysville and purchased 
the plant of the News printing office of the 
A. E. Dambly estate He has continued in 
this business ever since and has been emi- 
nently successful and prosperous. He has 
a fine office and turns out a great variety of 
excellent work. Mr. Haldeman is a self- 
made man in every sense that term implies. 
He started in life with nothing but good 
health and plenty of ambition and he 
worked himself up by careful attention to 
every detail of business both as an employee 
and an employer. He saved his money 
until he possessed three hundred dollars, 
which he invested in a building and loan 
association. This formed the nucleus of 
his capital which he has constantly added 
to since he has been in business. 

Mr. Haldeman, like his father, is a Re- 
publican and has always taken a prominent 
part in local politics. The Harleysville 
Nezcs, of which he is the editor, was the 
only paper in the county with one exception 
that came out for Quay in his memorable 
fight for control of the State Republican 



Biographical Sketches. 



469 



organization at a time when the Senator's 
fight was a seemingly hopeless one. 

On October 5, 1887, he married Kate, 
daughter of Rev. John Rosenberger, of 
Hatfield, a well known preacher of the 
Mennonite denomination. This union has 
been made happy by the birth of two chil- 
dren : Ella, born August 8, 1892, and Eve, 
born July 26, 1895. His wife died Septem- 
ber 23, 1895. 



WILLIAM H. CLEVENGER, is a 
retired business man of Ardmore, a 
son of Enoch W. and Margaret (Fisher) 
Clevenger, and was born in Lower Merion 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 24, 1858. Enoch W. Clev- 
enger was of German descent and his father 
was a resident of New Jersey. He removed 
in early life to a farm on the Haverford 
road in Lower Merion township, where he 
carried on an extensive dairy and supplied 
a large quantity of milk daily to one part 
of Philadelphia. He was a prominent far- 
mer, owned a good farm and served as a 
director of an insurance company. He was 
a Republican in politics and died in 1871, 
aged sixty-three years. He married Marga- 
ret Fisher in 1853, and their children were : 
Emma L. (deceased), Kate and William H., 
whose name appears at the head of this 
sketch. 

William H. Clevenger was reared on his 
father's Lower Merion farm until he at- 
tained his thirteenth year, and then was 
sent to Philadelphia, where he received his 
education in Ritteuhouse academy. Leav- 
ing school he turned his attention to com- 
mercial pursuits and engaged in the gro- 
cery business at Ardmore as a member of 
the firm of Lesher & Clevenger. This 



firm continued very successfully for sixteen 
years, and then Mr. Clevenger withdrew as 
a partner. Having disposed of his interest 
in the grocery business he concluded to see 
something of Florida, in which he had be- 
come somewhat interested from favorable 
reports which he had received concerning 
that country, and accordingly made a tour 
through the " Peninsular State " and parts 
of Alabama and Mississippi. Not finding 
that country such as he expected he re- 
turned home, again embarked in the gro- 
cery business, and opened an establishment 
on the Lancaster road, where the present 
post office is now located. His second in- 
vestment was such as the section of the 
country demanded, but in two months he 
disposed of his place of business and stock 
of goods to P. Lukens, who has continued 
there ever since. Mr. Clevenger was vari- 
ously engaged for a short time after leaving 
the grocery business, and since 1892 has 
chiefly given his attention to his own per- 
sonal affairs. He is a member of the Jeffer- 
son club, of Ardmore. In politics Mr. 
Clevenger is a strong Democrat, and has 
been a delegate frequently to county and 
district conventions of his party. 



DANIEL KINZIE, a civil engineer of 
high reputation and for the past 
twenty years justice of the peace at Gulf 
Mills, Upper Merion township, Montgom- 
ery county, is one of the most prominent 
men of that section of the county. He is 
of Scotch-American ancestry. His grand- 
father, Daniel Kinzie, emigrated from 
Scotland and lived at Radnor, on the estate 
now owned by Mrs. George W. Childs. He 
was born in Shire of Inverness, Scotland, 
on May 28, 1763, and came to America in 



4;o 



Biographical Sketches. 



1772, when only nine years old. The 
family located at Kingsess, near Phila- 
delphia. He served in the War of the 
Revolution on a privateer and was wounded 
bv having one thumb shot off in an engage- 
ment. After the war he established him- 
self as a farmer and became wealthy. He 
was prominent in local affairs and was 
highly respected in his section. He was 
married twice. His first wife was Miss 
McVail, and they had two children : John 
and Ann. May Hansel was his second 
wife, and four children were born to them. 
He died in 1S43 at the age of eighty-five 
years. 

John Kinzie, father of our subject, lived 
in boyhood on his father's farm near Bryn 
Mawr and attended the schools of his dis- 
trict. He then became a teacher and 
taught school in Brvn Mawr and through- 
out Montgomery and Chester counties. He 
then bought a flour mill near Yellow 
Springs, Chester county, and worked it all 
his life. When the War of 1812 broke out 
he enlisted in the Montgomery Rifles under 
Colonel Scott, later under General Scott, 
as a private and served throughout the war. 
He was pensioned later and his name was 
mentioned for meritorious conduct. 

In politics he was a Democrat and in 
religious belief adhered to the doctrines of 
the Baptist church. In 181 1 he married 
Marv Sheaff, and their union was blessed 
by ten children : Emily and Sabina, de- 
ceased ; our subject ; William ; Susan ; 
Rebecca, deceased; John; Isabella; Charles; 
and Horatio Gates. He died in 1857, aged 
seventy years. 

Daniel Kinzie was born at Bryn Mawr, 
April 7, 1818, and spent his boyhood days 
in Lower Merion township, where he at- 
tended school. He then clerked for two 
years in a store at Manayunk. In 1841 he 



came to Upper Merion township where he 
kept a store. In 1865 he took up the pro- 
fession of surveyor and has ever since fol- 
lowed it with success. He has always been 
a very active Democrat. In 1875 he was 
elected justice of the peace and has been 
re-elected four terms of five years each 
Though this is a strong Republican dis- 
trict he has held every local office in the 
township except that of constable. During 
the war he was postmaster at Gulf Mills 
and was therefore exempt from service in 
the arm v. Mr. Kinzie is unmarried. 



R 



ALPH M. WARNER, Jr., who is 
engaged successfully in the insurance 
and real estate business at Ardmore, is a 
son of Ralph M. and Keziah (Jones) Warner, 
and was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, August 2, 1853. His grand- 
father, William Warner, was born in the 
initial year of the present centurv, and lived 
to be eighty-one years of age. He was 
wealthy, and a large manufacturer in Phila- 
delphia, and made his home during the lat- 
ter part of his life in Jenkintown. Mr. 
Warner was a Democrat and an Episco- 
palian, and was twice married. His first 
wife was Alice, by whom he had six chil- 
dren, and his second wife, Isabella, bore him 
two children. His son, Ralph M. Warner, 
was born at Jenkintown, where he was 
reared and educated. He learned the trade 
of engraver with his brother, and worked 
steadily until 1850, when he became a mes- 
senger in the office of the recorder of deeds 
in Philadelphia. He was dulv promoted 
until he is now chief search clerk in the 
office. He is a staunch Republican, has 
served frequently as a committeeman from 
the fourteenth ward, and has been a dele- 



Biographical Sketches. 



17' 



gate to both Slate and national conventions 
of his party. Mr. Warren is an active < >dd 
Fellow, and in 1852, married Keziah Jones, 
a daughter of David Jones, a prominent 
citizen of Lower Merion township. Their 
children were : Ralph M., jr., Elizabeth, 
David, C. Pierce, Elwood, Edwin and Ella, 
Of these children but two are living, Ralph 
M., jr., and C. Pierce. 

Ralph M. Warner received his education 
in the public schools of Philadelphia, and 
then became a traveling salesman for H. P. 
Mauley, of Potsdam, New York, in whose 
employ he remained for ten years. At the 
end of that time he came to White Hall, 
now P.ryn Mawr, where he was engaged for 
the next six years in the general mercantile 
business under the firm name of Arthur & 
Warner. 

Withdrawing from the above partner- 
ship, he was with the Union News com- 
pany for five years at Haverford, and then 
in 1890, was appointed by President Har- 
rison, post-master of that place. He served 
as post-master for four years, and then was 
appointed by Governor Hastings, justice of 
the peace at Ardmore, to fill the unexpired 
term of Frank P. Ashbrook. Since be- 
coming a resident of Ardmore, Mr. Warner 
has engaged in the real estate and insurance 
business, and is successful in both lines. 
He represents the Mutual North American 
Fire Insurance company, of Philadelphia. 
He is a staunch and working Republican, 
and an active member of the Presbyterian 
church. He is also a member of Star Coun- 
cil No. 3, Senior Order of United American 
Mechanics, of Bryn Mawr. 

On October 24, 1876, Mr. Warner mar- 
ried Mary M. Dreeby, of Philadelphia, and to 
their union have been born four children : 
George, David, deceased ; Pierre, and 
Frank. 



WILLIAM I'. FENTON, a general 
merchant of Collegeville, the only 

surviving child of Captain Herbert M. and 
Hannah (Homan) Fenton, was horn atBris- 
tol, Lucks county, Pennsylvania, January 
2 9i I 853- Captain Herbert M. Fenton was 
born in Bucks county, in ICS25. In early 
life he became a sailor and was soon placed 
in command of a vessel. He served as a sea 
captain from 1S45 to 1881. In the latter 
vear he retired from the sea and enffaered in 
his present general mercantile business at 
Wissahickon, this .State. Captain Fenton 
married Hannah Homan, a daughter of 
Alfred Homan, of Camden, N. J. To Cap- 
tain and Mrs. Fenton were born four chil- 
dren, three sons and one daughter: Cur- 
tis, Edwin, Jennie and William P., all of 
whom are deceased except William P. the 
subject of this sketch. 

William P. Fenton attended the common 
schools of Bucks county, and took the full 
commercial course at Bryant and Stratton's 
business college, of Philadelphia, from 
which he was graduated in 1873. Leaving 
the business college he became book-keeper 
for Heston & Sous, a large manufacturing 
firm of Frankford, Philadelphia, and with 
whom he remained for a period of nearly 
ten years. In 1S81, Mr. Fenton came to 
Collegeville, this county, and purchased 
Frank M. Hobson's store and large stock of 
general merchandise. He held the exten- 
sive patronage that Mr. Hobson had built 
up during a epiarter of a century, and has 
kept up in his line of business with the de- 
velopment of Collegeville during the last 
two decades. 

His business ability and experience has 
been fully equal to the requirements of the 
situation, and in consequence he has a first 
class patronage that extends over a consid- 
erable area of territory. Mr. Fenton keeps 



4J2 



Biographical Sketches. 



a large and well assorted stock of merchan- 
dise carefully purchased for the general 
wants and particular needs of his patrons. 
Mr. Fenton is a Republican politically, and 
has served for some time as a member of the 
school board of Collegeville. He is a mem- 
ber and vestryman of St. James Protestant 
Episcopal church, of Evansburg, and a 
member and the junior warden of Warren 
Lodge, No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons. 

On December 11, 1884. William P. Fen- 
ton was united in marriage with Ida L. 
Bowman, a daughter of Jonas Bowman, of 
Collegeville. Their union has been blessed 
with one child, a son, named Willie B., who 
was born October 12, 1885. 

The Fenton's are of English descent, and 
have been re?idents of Pennsylvania for 
three generations, while the Homans are of 
Swedish extraction and have been in the 
State for several vears. 



ERNEST M. VAUGHAN, M. D., a 
practicing physician of Royer's Ford, 
is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Hamilton) 
Vaughan, and was born in Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1863. 
His father was also a native of this countv, 
and his mother was born in the city of 
Baltimore Maryland. 

The elder Yaughan was a farmer by occu- 
pation, and the boyhood of Dr. Vaughan 
pent on the farm. He attended the 
public schools, where he acquired a super- 
ior English education, and at an early age 
began to evince a fondness for the medical 
profession. While still on the farm he be- 
gan the study of medicine, devoting to this 
subject all his leisure time. He subse- 
quently matriculated at the Hahnemann 
Medical college, of Philadelphia, from 



which institution he was graduateed with 
the degree of M. D. in June, 1893. Dr. 
Vaughan remained in Philadelphia one 
year after his graduation, practicing in the 
Hahnemann homeopathic hospital of that 
city, and making a special study of diseases 
of the nose and throat. In 1894 he located 
at Rover's Ford and began a successful 
practice, which has become extensive and 
lucrative. He soon became known as a 
skillful physician and a cultured gentle- 
man. He continues to give special atten- 
tion to diseases of the nose and throat, and 
for a young physician has won an excep- 
tional reputation in that line. 

In July, 1892, Dr. Vaughan was united 
in marriage to Anna McClintock, a daugh- 
ter of Robert and Penella McClintock, of 
the city of Philadelphia. To the Doctor 
and Mrs. Yaughan have been born two 
children, both sons : Jacob N. and Richard 
H. Dr. Yaughan is a member of the 
Hahnemann college Alumni society, of 
Philadelphia, and an earnest student of the 
literature of his profession. Professionally 
he has already won success, and his career 
promises to be one of usefulness. 



DH. STREEPER, a self-made business 
• man of Norristown, is a son of 
Leonard and Hannah (Ball) Streeper, and 
was born in Lower Providence township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, August 
2 5> x ^55- The Streepers are of Russian 
descent, and one of its members emigrated 
from Russia to America as early as 17 14 
and located in Philadelphia near what is now 
Logan Station, but soon afterward returned 
to his native country. The paternal grand- 
father of D. H. Streeper was a resident of 
Whitemarsh township, this county, where 



Biographical Sketches. 



473 



he was engaged in tanning. He was a 
regular attendant of the Lutheran church, 
in which he took an active part, and mar- 
ried Sarah Kant/., by whom he had six 
children: Charles, Henry, David, Peter, all 
of whom are deceased; and Catharine Freas. 
Mr. Streeper died at an advanced age, and 
was survived by Mrs. Streeper, who had 
she lived four more years, would have be- 
come a centenarian. Leonard Streeper was 
a native of Springfield township, Mont- 
gomery county, and received his education 
in the common schools, after which he re- 
moved to Lower Providence township, 
where he was engaged in farming until his 
death. He was a supporter of the Demo- 
cratic party and filled several local offices. 
He adhered to the Lutheran church, mar- 
ried Hannah Ball, and reared a family of 
seven children: Joshua; James; Daniel ; 
Seth, deceased; Caroline; Sarah Reigle. 

D. H. Streeper received his early educa- 
tion in the common schools of Lower Prov- 
idence township. Leaving school, he re- 
mained with his father on the farm until 
1873, when he learned the trade of plumber. 
At the end of four years he became en- 
gaged in joinery work under the firm 
of Streeper & Hutchinson. In 1880 he 
went into the business for himself, and in 
1881 purchased property at No. 150 West 
Main street, Norristown, where he now 
resides. He does a large business in steam, 
gas and electrical work, and has a number 
of men in his employ. 

On January 20, 1880, he was united in 
marriage with a daughter of Peter Thomas, 
a saddler of Montgomery county. In relig- 
ious matters he is a member of the Re- 
formed church, of which he has served as 
deacon and is now serving as elder. Polit- 
ically he is a Republican and has served 
for one term as member of the town coun- 



cil. He is a member of the Independent 
! Order of Odd Fellows, Montgomery Lodge 
No. 57. He is also a member of Beaver 
Tribe No. 62, Improved Order of Red Men, 
the Knights <>f Friendship, and Washing- 
ton Camp No, 114, Patriotic Order .Sons of 
America. 



AV. FINLKY, the senior member of the 
• business firm of A. V. Finley & Co., 
of Norristown, is a son of John Simms and 
Phoebe (Rhoades) Finley, and was born at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 8, i860. The original 
American ancestry of the Finley family is 
traced to Salem, county, New Jersey, where 
David Finley's paternal grandfather was 
born and educated. Later he removed to 
Christiana Creek, New Castle county, Dela- 
ware, where he resided until 1826, when he 
came to Norristown. He died just one 
year after the close of the Civil war, at the 
ripe old age of eighty-five years. He mar- 
ried Ruth Mills and reared a family of eight 
children : John Simms, Richard, David, 
Job, Mackenzie, Mary A., Sarah A. Ander- 
son and Susan Knox. John Simms Finley 
(father), remained at home until he arrived 
at the age of eighteen years. He then came 
to Norristown of which place he was a resi- 
dent until his death in 1891, being seventy- 
eight years of age. He was a machinist 
and iron worker by trade, and by thrift and 
industry became well and favorably known 
in his immediate neighborhood. He mar- 
ried Phoebe Rhoades, who died in 1875, at 
the advanced age of sixty years. Their 
union was blessed with seven children : 
Charles, A. V., Samuel, James, William D. 
MacKenzie and Rebecca. 

At twelve years of age A. V. Finley left 
the common schools and spent seven years 



474 



Biographical Sketches. 



with his father upon a farm Dear Norris- 
town. At this time he became engaged 

in the market business at No. (i( Bast 
Main street, Norristown, and subsequently 
removed to No. 366 on the same street 
where he soon succeeded in establishing a 
good trade. In [890 he entered into part- 
nership with his nephew under the firm 
name of A. Y. Finlev & Co., ami located at 
tlie corner of Mill and Main streets. They 
doa jobbing and retail produce and market 
business in which they employ six men. 
The building occupied is a three storj 
brick structure 24 by 78 feet. '1 "hey carr) 
a tine stoek of well seleeted goods; and are 
likewise interested in the Farmers' Market oi 
their borough, in whicn thej own and con- 
duet stalls. Politically Mi. Finley is a Re- 
publican who believes in a full support oi 
the principles oi his party. He is a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, Curtis Lodge, No. 236; the Ancient 
Order oi Forresters, and the Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, Montgomery Castle. 

On March, 1886, Mr. Finley married 
Margaret Scanlan, who is now dee, 
They had one child, Maggie, who is also 
de.nl. On June, 1891, Mr. Finley married 
for bis second wife I.ydia Reany, a daughter 
of William Reany, oi Birmingham, Eng- 
land. To this second union have been born 
two sons : William and George. 

Mr. Finley residesat No. 505 Green street, 
where he is surrounded with everything 
itial to a pleasant home. 



HERMAN R. STADELMAN the 
proprietor of the largest drug- house 
at Ardmore, is the oldest sou oi Samuel F. 
and Ida E. (Merritt) Stadelman, and was 
born in Ardmore, Montgomery county, 



Pennsylvania, March 21, 1871. His grand- 
father, Jacob 1.. Stadelman, kept the Black 
Horse hotel, at Overbrook, for quite a num- 
ber of years. He was prominent, active 
and useful in his community. He com- 
manded a Pennsylvania militia regiment. 
He was a Democrat, a Lutheran and a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, and died 
in 1881, aged seventy-three years. Colonel 
Stadelman married Hannah Latch, and 
their children were: Lizzie, Mary, Jean- 
nette, Jacob, William and Samuel F. The 
latter, father of the subject of this sketch, 
was born and reared at the Black Horse 
hotel and attended the Pennsylvania col- 
lege at Gettysburg, which he left during 
the war to assume his brother Jacob's coal 
and lumber business at Ardmore, then 
Athensville, while the latter entered the 
the Union army. After the war he 
took the regular course at the Phila- 
delphia College of Pharmacy, from which 
he was graduated in 1S70. He then opened 
a drtig store in Ardmore, which he con- 
ducted up to the time of his death, which 
occurred April 24, 1892, aged forty-nine 
years. He was active and prominent in 
everything effecting his community. He 
is .a Democrat and served two terms as 
justice of the peace. He was a very active 
member of St. Paul's Lutheran church, 
whose edifice he was largely instrumental 
in building. He was a director of the 
Merion Title and Trust company and the 
Bryn Mawr Building and Loan association. 
He was prominent and useful as a citizen 
as well as a business man, and being a 
clear and interesting talker was frequently 
called upon for public addresses. In 1S-. ■ 
he married Ida E. Merritt, and they had 
seven children : Herman R., Alice (de- 
ceased), Edith, Mabel, Leigh, Grace and 
Zoa. now dead. 



Biographical Sketches. 



475 



Herman R. Stadelinan was reared at 
Ardmore and received his education in 
Pennsylvania college, at Gettysburg, from 

which he was graduated in 1S92, and then 
entered the Philadelphia College of Phar- 
macy, where he took special courses and 
was graduated with the degree of Ph. G. 
At the death of his father he succeeded 
to the large drug business of the latter, 
which he has conducted most successfully 
ever since. He lias the largest drug house 
at Ardmore and does an extensive and 
profitable business. Mr. Stadelman has 
served for three years as manager of the 
Ardmore district of the Delaware and At- 
lantic Telephone and Telegraph company, 
and in various ways is active in the best in- 
terests of his town and community. 



SOLOMON SNYDER, ex-register of 
wills of Montgomery county, ex-justice 
of the peace of Mainland and a retired 
school teacher of reputation, is one of the 
oldest residents of the county and is still re- 
membered as one of the most active politi- 
cians of former years in this section of the 
State. He is a man of superior education, 
and long years of experience made him a 
man who is looked up to for advice and 
wise council in public affairs. He is 
now in his seventy-ninth year and at this 
ripe age is still hale and hearty and capa- 
ble of taking an interest in those 
things that are of advantage to the 
community in which he lives. His an- 
cestors are of German origin and have been 
residents of Montgomery county for many 
generations following divers vocations, but 
generally combining farming with other 
business enterprises. It was a thrifty fam- 
ily and all prospered and became more or 



less influential in the neighborhood in which 
they lived. His paternal grandfather, Jacob 
Snyder, was a tanner by trade and he fol- 
lowed this business in conjunction with 
farming. In politics he was a working 
Democrat and served as justice of the peace. 
He was a consistent Christian and a mem- 
ber of the Reformed church He married 
and had three children. 

The subject of thissketch is a son of [saa< 
and Elizabeth Snyder, and was born in 
New Hanover township, on July 19, 1N17. 
His father was also born in New Hanover 
township. The tormer secured a common 
school education and learned the trade of 
tanner under his father. He followed this 
business all his life and also worked a fine 
farm. He was an active Democrat and was 
elected register of wills of Montgomery 
county and served a full term. In religious 
belief he was a member of the Reformed 
church and served as a deacon, elder and 
trustee of the church at New Hanover. His 
wife's name was Elizabeth and they were 
the parents of ten children as follows : Solo- 
mon, Louis; Sophia, wife of Jacob Hen- 
dricks ; Jacob and John, deceased ; Susanna, 
wife of Jacob Swartz ; Mary, wife of 
Henry Cassel, both of whom are dead ; 
Harmina; Augustus and Isaac, who died 
young. 

Solomon Snyder was given the best edu- 
cation his parents could afford. After pass- 
ing through the common schools he attend- 
ed Washington Hall for three sessions and 
then spent two sessions at Lexington acad- 
emy, leaving here at the age of twenty-one 
years. He learned the profession of civil 
engineer, but followed the, to him, a more 
congenial calling of school teacher for over 
twenty years. He also owned a small farm 
which he operated with considerable profit. 
He early felt an inclination for politics and 



476 



Biographical Sketches. 



soon became an active leader in the Demo- 
cratic ranks of his district. In fact he be- 
came so well known that he was taken up 
as a candidate for register of wills and was 
elected, receiving a large majority over his 
opponent. He also served as justice of the 
peace for fifteen years and was a notary 
public. Being a man of the strictest pro- 
bitv of character and of good ability he 
served in all these offices with credit to him- 
self and the people who supported him. 
Mr. Snyder's public career was one of which 
he and his offspring may well be proud. 
He was not only a public official, but was 
always ready to take active part in anything 
that would be of benefit to the community 
in which he lived. 

Mr. Snyder married Dorothea, daughter 
of Emanuel Swartz, on December 26, 1841, 
and two children have been born to them. 
They are : Franklin, born October 29, 
1842, and Isaiah, born May 16, 1846. The 
family all attend the Reformed church in 
which Mr. Snyder has been deacon, elder 
and trustee. For a number of years he was 
secretary 7 of the congregation. 



JOHN KEYSER, a retired business man 
of Norristown, is a son of John and 
Catharine (Spare) Keyser, and was born in 
Skippack township, Montgomery count)', 
Pennsylvania, September 16, 1824 He i s 
of German extraction, and his paternal 
great-grandfather emigrated from Germany 
to America. His son, Peter Keyser (grand- 
father), one of the early pioneers of this 
county, was the only survivor of a large 
family of children, the remainder of 
whom were killed by the Indians during 
the early settlement of the State. Peter 
Kevser was a wheelwright and worked at 



his trade during the active years of his 
life near Hustletown, now Evansburg. He 
owned a small farm, which he kept in a 
good state of cultivation, and was a sup- 
porter of the old line Whig party. He 
married Esther Stern, by whom he had six 
children : John, sr., Jacob, George, Christ- 
ian, Samuel and Elizabeth Poley. Mrs. 
Keyser died at the age of sixty years. Mr. 
Keyser died at the advanced age of seventy- 
six years. John Keyser, sr. (father) was 
also a native of Skippack township, where 
he was engaged in the same trade as his 
father ; later he removed to the old home- 
stead farm and devoted the remainder of 
his life to agricultural pursuits. He was 
also a member of the Whig party and mar- 
ried Catharine Spare, who died in the 
eighty-fifth year of her age. This union 
was blessed with five children : John, 
Henry, Peter, Catharine Tyson and Han- 
nah Bergey. 

John Keyser was born and reared in 
Skippack township, and at the proper age 
he learned the trade of wheelwright, at 
which he worked for about twenty years. 
He then quit the trade of wheelwright and 
purchased a flouring mill on Perkiomen 
creek, in Lower Merion township, whither 
he removed in 1864. Remaining there for 
five years, he then employed his son, Wil- 
liam, to operate the mill until 1890. In 
that year he came to Norristown, where he 
has ever since lived a retired life. Mr. 
Keyser votes the Republican ticket, and 
has been a faithful member of the Lower 
Providence Presbyterian church for forty- 
one years. For fourteen years he served as 
trustee of his church, and since that time 
has acted as an elder. Being ever earnest 
and faithful in the performance of all his 
duties in life, he has won many friends. 
In 1855 Mr. Keyser married Rebecca Plush, 



Biographical Sketches. 



477 



who is an aunt of Dr. S. M. Plush. They have 
reared a family of five children : William, 
who is a miller ; Grant Irwin, Ida (de- 
ceased), and Belle, who wedded Adolph 
Meyer, a lawyer of the Philadelphia bar. 



CHRISTIAN G. BAIR, a justice of the 
peace at Pottstown, is a native of 
Berks county, this State, where he was 
born, March 4, 1842. He is descended 
from one of the old German families that 
settled in Pennsylvania during early times, 
his grandfather, Henry Bair, having emi- 
grated from the fatherland and found a 
new home in Berks comity in the last quar- 
ter of the eighteenth century. In that 
county his son, Henry L. Bair (father), 
was born and reared, and there he resided 
nearly all his life. He was a stonemason 
by trade, and died in 1884 at the age of 
seventy-three. He married Sarah Geiger, 
also of German descent, and a native of 
Montgomery county. To them was born 
a family of twelve children, of whom only 
six now survive : Thomas S., Ruth, Eliza- 
beth, wife of Frederick Liveugood, a car- 
penter, of Pottstown ; Christiana, wife of 
Henry R. Wentzel, also a carpenter, of the 
same city ; Christian G., the subject of this 
sketch, and Samuel G , a resident of Potts- 
town. Mrs. Sarah Bair died in 1883, aged 
seventy-four years. She and her husband 
had been married and kept house for fifty- 
six years, and their remains sleep side by 
side in the Pottstown cemetery. 

Christian G. Bair was reared principally 
in Berks county, this State, and obtained 
his education in the public schools. In 
1863, when twenty-one years of age, he en- 
tered the Union army as a private in Com- 
pany F, Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania In- 



fantry, and served one year. Upon receiv- 
ing his discharge in 1864 he returned home 
and became head blacksmith in the Potts- 
town car factory, having learned the trade 
before joining the army. For ten years he 
was foreman in the iron department of the 
car works, and then engaged in business 
for himself. For four years he did general 
jobbing in the line of his trade at Potts- 
town, and during 1883 and 1884 was in 
business at Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

In February, 1885, Mr. Bair was elected 
receiver of taxes for Pottstown on the Dem- 
ocratic ticket by a majority of 142. 
He was four times re-elected by ever in- 
creasing majorities, until at the last elec- 
tion it reached eight hundred and eighty- 
seven. In February, 1891, he was elected 
to the office of justice of the peace, and has 
ever since occupied that important and re- 
sponsible position. He served on the Potts- 
town school board for six years, and re- 
ceived the unanimous vote of the conven- 
tion for another term, but declined the 
nomination and refused to be a candidate. 
He has always taken an active part in 
local politics and public affairs. 

On August 6, 1865, Mr. Bair was mar- 
ried to Elizabeth Hartenstine, a daughter 
of Aaron Hartenstine, of Pottstown, and 
they had five children : Emma, married 
Howard Trout, of Philadelphia ; Minnie, 
deceased; Harry R, Anna B., deceased; 
and Lulu Irene. Mrs. Elizabeth Bair died 
very suddenly of heart disease on July 4, 
1890. On October 9, 1893, Mr. Bair was 
again married, wedding for his second wife 
Phoebe Sheets, a daughter of George Sheets, 
of Montgomery county. 

At the present time, 'Squire Bair is en- 
gaged extensively in the real estate busi- 
ness at Pottstown, and also represents a 
number of leading fire and life insurance 



47 8 



Biographical Sketches. 



companies. He is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and has 
served as treasurer of his lodge for nearly a 
quarter of a century. He is also a member 
of the Royal Arcanum, the Improved Order 
of Red Men and the Grand Army of the 
Republic. In religious faith and church 
membership he is a Lutheran, and is highly 
regarded as an intelligent and public spirited 
citizen. 



DR. J. NEWTON HUNSBERGER, 
of Skippack, is one of the most promi- 
nent young physicians in and a native of 
the county of Montgomery, where his an- 
cestors have long lived. He was born 
March S, 1867, and is the son of M. B. and 
Anna (Johnston) Hunsberger. His grand- 
father on his paternal side was born in 1790, 
was a farmer by occupation and spent his 
life in that work. He was a strong: Whis 
in politics and was highly respected in the 
community. Dr. Hunsberger's father at- 
tended the common schools of his day until 
he was twelve years of age. He then went 
on the farm. Later in life he engaged in 
the live-stock business at Skippack and 
continued in that until 1882, when he went 
back to farming. He was very successful, 
and has a farm of eighty-five acres. Mr. 
M. B. Hunsburger has been a Republican 
since 1858, is a member of the Reformed 
church and has been for many years a 
deacon and trustee and is at present treas- 
urer of the Sunday school. He has only 
two children : Josephine, who is married 
and living in New Jersey ; and the subject 
of this sketch. 

Dr. Hunsberger attended the public 
schools and then graduated from the West 
Chester State normal school. Leaving 
this school he began to read medicine, and 



in 1889, graduated from the University of 
Pennsylvania, at the age of twenty-two 
years. He first began the practice of his 
profession at Atlantic City. From that 
place he removed to Skippack, where he 
has remained ever since, and enjoys a very 
large practice. Dr. Hunsberger is a mem- 
ber of the Reformed church, a Republican 
in politics and a member of but one secret 
organization, Lodge No. 310, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons. He has been secretary of 
the Montgomery branch of the Pennsyl- 
vania Forestry association for many vears 
and has always taken an active interest in 
the work of Forestry. While in college 
Dr. Hunsburger was prominent in athletics 
and one of the most skillful in the school 
at the oar, having been a member of the 
crew in eight races. He has contributed a 
number of articles to medical journals on 
professional subjects, and although young 
in practice, is a thorough student and an 
industrious and conscientious practitioner. 
Dr. Hunsberger married Susan Fry 
Daily, a daughter of Joshua G. Daily, of 
Norristown. This union has been blessed 
with two children, the elder of whom died 
in infancy ; Anna, who is still living, was 
born in June, 1894. 



CHARLES II. MURRAY, a good 
tradesman and careful farmer, of 
Upper Merion township, is a son of George 
and Elizabeth (Supplee) Murray, and was 
born in Tredyffrin township, Chester county, 
Pennsylvania, June 19, 1848. He was 
reared and educated in his native township 
and learned the trade of carpenter, which 
he followed at different places in Chester 
county for fifteen years. At the end of that 
time he came to Upper Merion township, 



Biographical Sketches. 



479 



this county, where he was engaged in work- 
ing at li is trade and in contracting and 
building for several years. He then pur- 
chased his present farm, and lias been en- 
gaged ever since in farming and stock- 
raising. He has always been an active 
supporter of the Democratic party, and is a 
member of the Baptist church. Turning 
his entire attention to farming and stock- 
raising some years ago, he has been very 
active and progressive in the interests of 
agriculture. He is a member of Meriou 
Grange No. 112, Patrons of Husbandry. 

The Murray family is of Scotch descent 
and came originally from Scotland, in the 
history of which country the name is con- 
spicuous among the titled nobility and for 
bravery in numerous wars. George Murray, 
the paternal grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch lived in Delaware county, and 
was one of the number, who in days when 
" it tried men's souls," fought in the great 
Revolutionary struggle that won our na- 
tional independence. 

George Murray, father, was reared in 
Delaware county, and learned the trade of 
carpenter, which he followed in his own 
and Chester counties. He was a Democrat 
and Baptist, and died in 1886, at the age of 
sixty-eight years. He was a member of a 
Philadelphia Masonic lodge, and married 
Elizabeth Supplee, a daughter of John 
Supplee. To their union were born five 
children : John S., Mary J., Charles II., 
William A., and Annie, who is now de- 
ceased. 



H 



ON. ALAN WOOD, jr., ex-meinbei 
of Congress and a retired member of 

the famous iron manufacturing firm of the 
Alan Wood company, is one of the most 
prominent residents of Montgomery count)-, 



and when active in business and politics, 
was inie of the foremost men of the State. 
He is at present living quietly on a large 
estate and in a handsome mansion in Lower 
Merion township, near Conshohocken. Mr. 
Wood is the second son of Alan and Ann 
Hunter (Dewees) Wood, and comes from 
that good old line of Friends and French 
emigrants who took such a prominent part 
in the settlement of the county and the 
War of the Revolution. He is also one of the 
descendants of the original iron masters of 
that name who founded the gigantic in- 
dustries that have brought so much wealth 
to the family and such prosperity to the 
town in which they are established. A 
full detailed account of his ancestry will be 
found in the sketches of his brother, How- 
ard, and his uncle, Hon. John Wood. 

Alan Wood, jr., was born in Philadel- 
phia, on the 6th of July, 1834. He attended 
the Friends' schools and other high class 
educational institutions. Like all of his 
brothers he entered the business of his 
father and mastered all of its details and 
later became one of the most active mem- 
bers of the firm. He amassed a large for- 
tune and when he reached the meridian of 
life retired from active business. He has 
since been enjoying the fruits of his labor 
and the pleasure of making those around 
him happy. On the 10th of October, 1861, 
Mr. Wood married Miss Mary H. Yerkes, 
daughter of Joseph and Mary (Harry) 
Yerkes, of Conshohocken ; they have had 
no children. 

Mr. Wood was always a strong Republi- 
can and took a great interest in politics. 
In 1876 he was nominated for Congress by 
the Republican convention to represent the 
district composed of Montgomery and 
Bucks counties. This was a very strong 
Democratic stronghold, but such was Mr. 



480 



Biographical Sketches. 



Wood's popularity and so well was his 
ability appreciated that he defeated his 
opponent by a large majority. He served 
this term in Congress with credit and was 
tendered a second term, but emphatically 
refused to consider such a proposition. He 
is a man of literary taste and marked refine- 
ment, and is highly respected in the county 
where he is well known. 



HERBERT ALONZO ARNOLD, M. D. 
a physician of prominence and ability 
now resident at Ardmore, is a son of Thom- 
as Griffith and Sophia Fitzwater Lutz 
Arnold, and was born at Norristown, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, August 4, 
1857. His paternal grandfather, Thomas 
Arnold, was a resident of Norristown, where 
he was connected with the old Philadelphia 
and Norristown railroad, when steam was 
being introduced on it to supercede horses 
as motive power. He was an Episcopalian 
and married Elizabeth Tippen, by whom he 
had nine children : John, a prominent poli- 
tician who held several township and county 
offices ; George, one of the superintendents 
of the Cambria Iron company, whose death 
resulted from exposure in the Johnstown 
flood ; Samuel, of Philadelphia ; Henry, 
formerly a member of the firm of McVaugh 
& Arnold, of Norristown ; William, de- 
ceased ; Thomas Griffith ; Mary, widow of 
William White, of Norristown ; Elizabeth, 
widow of Jacob Albright, of Philadelphia, 
and Martha. 

Thomas Griffith Arnold, in his early boy- 
hood days was intimately associated with 
General Hancock, whose father was a near 
neighbor. He was born in Whitpain town- 
ship, and moved to Norristown, with his 
father, when eight years of age. He had 



charge successively of James Hooven's Nail 
work and rolling mills, and J. B. Moore- 
head's rolling mills. He afterwards built 
the Bristol Iron works and James Rowland's 
large nail mill in Philadelphia, which he 
managed many years. He then returned 
to Norristown where he is still active in 
political and municipal affairs, having 
served in the borough council several suc- 
cessive terms, and still represents his ward 
in that body. He is a staunch Republican 
and one of the oldest lodge and encamp- 
ment Odd Fellows in the county. Mr. Ar- 
nold married Sophia F. Lutz, who is still 
living. They have two children : John 
Howard and Dr. Herbert A. 

Dr. Herbert Alonzo Arnold received his 
education in the public and private schools 
of Norristown, and graduated from the Nor- 
ristown high school, June 16, 1873, and 
took a post-graduate course of one year 
in the same institution. He began 
the study of medicine in 1875, at 
Norristown, under Joseph K. Weaver, 
M. D., surgeon major, first brigade, 
National Guard of Pennsylvania, at Nor- 
ristown. Subsequent to his studentship 
under Dr. Weaver, he attended three courses 
of lectures at Jefferson Medical college, 
Philadelphia, and was graduated from that 
institution March 12, 1878. He then re- 
ceived the appointment of resident physi- 
cian at the Philadelphia Hospital, but close 
application to study having broken his 
health, he was obliged to relinquish the 
appointment and seek a location in the 
country for practice. Dr. Arnold practised 
medicine at Evansburg from April 1878 to 
November 1879; at Academy from 1879 to 
May 1882 ; at Merion Square, from May 
1882 to April 1890, and since the latter date, 
at Ardmore, these last three places are in 
the same township, and the changes were 



Biographical Sketches. 



481 



made by liim simply as a matter of conven- 
ience. 

Dr. Arnold is a member of the Alumni 
Association of Jefferson Medical college, of 
the Philadelphia Chapter of the same asso- 
ciation, and of the Montgomery County 
Medical association, having served the later 
as president in 1887. He is also a member 
of the Medical society of the State of Penn- 
sylvania ; the American Medical associa- 
tion, and Association of Military Surgeons 
of the United States. He is a member of 
the board of Censors of the Medico-Chirur- 
gical college of Philadelphia ; surgeon of 
battery A, National Guard of Pennsylvania. 
Fraternally, Dr. Arnold is past master of 
Cassia Masonic Lodge ; past high priest of 
Montgomery Chapter, Royal Arch Mrsons, 
and past grand of Merion Lodge Indi- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is 
medical examiner for several life insurance 
companies ; a member of the board of direc- 
tors of the Merion Title and Trust company 
of Ardmore ; a director of Lower Merion 
Building and Loan association ; a trustee of 
Lower Merion Hall association ; a trustee 
of the First Baptist church of Ardmore ; and 
superintendent of Ardmore Baptist Sunday 
school. 

In 1890 Dr. Arnold instituted an investi- 
gation of cotton and woolen factories and of 
school slate works, to secure data for an 
address on " Sanitary defects in Manufac- 
turing Establishments" which he delivered 
at the Sanitary convention held at Norris- 
town. May 9, 1890, and which was pub- 
lished in the reports of the State board of 
health of that year. He has also written 
upon " Fever nursing and the nursing of 
contagious diseases," published in full in the 
daily papers in 1890; '" Dangers of the In- 
ter Regnum," an address delivered at Wil- 
liamsport, before the Pennsylvania State 

3 1 



funeral directors association, in 1891 ; 
" Cholera, how shall we (physicians, nurses 
and undertakers) escape it ? " delivered at 
Scranton, Pa , in 1893. By resolution of 
the association two thousand copies of this 
last address were published and distributed 
in Pennsylvania. He has also contributed 
to the valuable publications of the Pennsyl- 
vania State Medical society. 

Dr. Arnold married April 22, 1880, Miss 
A. Louise Harley, only daughter of Henry 
C. Harley, Esq., of Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, and their children are: So- 
phia Elizabeth, Thomas, Herbert, Henry 
Harley, Clifford Hood, Joseph Price and 
Weaver Arnold. 

Dr. Arnold is a descendant of John Ar- 
nold who emigrated from England into 
France in the company of a regiment of 
soldiers, where he settled for a time. He sub- 
sequently went to Holland where he mar- 
ried a Holland lady and died. One of his 
sons, Peter Arnold, by name, and the origi- 
nal progenitor of this branch of the Arnold 
family, in this country, emigrated to 
America about 1774 or 1775, locating at 
Germantown, where he married Mary Gil- 
bert. He later bought a tract of several 
acres of land in Plymouth township, Mont- 
gomery county, where he resided the re- 
mainder of his life. His children were : 
John, Daniel, Henry, George, Thomas, 
Mary, Margaret R. and Ann. 



ABRAHAM S. ROSEN BERGER, who 
is one of the most prosperous farmers 
of Hatfield township, is also one of the 
prominent, enterprising and progressive 
citizens of his district. He is a native of 
this county, a lineal decendent of John 
Rosenberger one of the original settlers of 



482 



Biographical Sketches. 



Hatfield township. He comes from one of 
those sturdy Pennsylvania German families 
that have almost exclusively given their 
attention to farming and helped to insure 
the prosperity and stability of their county. 
He is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Swart- 
lev) Rosenberger and was born on his 
father's farm in Franconia township near 
Souderton on the 19th of August 1843. 

Daniel Rosenberger, his grandfather, was 
also a native of Montgomery county, and 
was born at Hatfield about the year 1865. 
He was a fanner all his life and owned his 
own estate. In politics he was a stern, 
earnest, uncompromising Whig and in re- 
ligion a member of the Mennonite church. 
He was married to Sophia Wireman, be- 
came the father of seven children : Henry, 
John, Benjamin, Catharine married Abra- 
ham Allebach ; Daniel, Martin and Abra- 
ham. He died in 1S65, aged sixty-five years. 

Jacob Rosenberger was born December, 
1809, and received a common school educa- 
tion. He followed the avocation of his 
father most of his years and tilled the soil 
of a large farm. Besides this he was en- 
gaged in the manufacturing of various arti- 
cles of utility and ornament, such as sieves, 
brooms, brackets and general bric-a-brac. 
Mr. Rosenberger was full of energy and 
enterprise, and his business undertakings 
flourished. Politically he was a Republican 
and like his father was a believer and a con- 
scientious follower of the Mennonite faith. 
He was married to Elizabeth Swartley, and 
they had nine children : Anna ; Emma, 
died young; Mary became the wife Michael 
Swartley ; Abraham S., the subject of this 
sketch ; Daniel, Jacob ; Elizabeth, wife of 
Jonas Hunsberger ; Catharine, wife of Aaron 
L. Gehman ; and Sarah Ann, deceased. He 
He died January 6th, 1894, aged eighty-four 
vears. 



Abraham S. Rosenberger was given a 
good education. On leaving the township 
schools at the age of fifteen years, he took 
a course at Kulpsville seminary for tw 7 o 
winters. He then took one term at the 
Carversville normal institute, and a short 
teacher's preparatory course at Pottstown 
under Robert Cruikshank. He then went 
out into the world to make his own way and 
for ten successive terms taught school in 
different districts. In 1869 he settled in 
Hatfield township, and since 1872 has been 
conducting a large farm. Mr. Rosenber- 
ger has always been a very active Republi- 
can and has held office of a local nature for 
many years. He was a school director for 
one term, and in 1890 was a delegate to the 
Republican State convention at Harrisburg. 
A few years after settling in Hatfield town- 
ship he was elected assessor and filled that 
post for eighteen consecutive years. In 
1889, after serving twelve years as assessor, 
he was re-elected to this office for three 
years and received every vote that was 
polled at that election. His long term of 
service as assessor, has made Mr. Rosenber- 
ger acquainted with every man, woman and 
child in the district and familiar with every 
lot of ground, its dimensions and owner- 
ship. 

Mr. Rosenberger was married to Cath- 
arine Allebach, in October 3, 1868, and 
their union was made happy by the advent of 
eight children. They are : David, deceased; 
Mary Ellen, wife of Frederick Hunsberger ; 
Harvey ; Jacob, deceased ; Allen ; Edwin, 
deceased ; Erwin and Lizzie Martha. The 
family, like their ancestors, are strict mem- 
bers of the Mennonite church. 

Mr. Rosenberger has been a very consid- 
erable collector of books on a wide range of 
subjects, and possesses a good working 
library. He is a constant reader and one of 



Biographical Sketches. 



483 



the intelligent and well informed men of 
his community. He is a close student of 
public questions, as well, and familiar with 
county, State and national issues. 
Although he never served an apprentice- 
ship in the mechanical arts, yet he evinces 
marked inventive genius as an artisan. 
He has invented, draughted and construc- 
ted many devices and machines of merit 
which have not been patented. 



THOMAS D. ABRAHAM, a paper 
manufacturer of Abrams, is a son of 
Joseph and Ann (Davis) Abraham, and was 
born January 12, 1839, on the old honestead 
in Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. He was reared on 
the farm, attended the township common 
schools until fourteen, then completed his 
studies at Rev Samuel Aaron's seminary, 
Norristown, Pennsylvania 

In 1850 he became the owner of the saw 
and grist mill, which he operated in con- 
nection with his farm until 1878. In 1880 
he enlarged and remodeled his mill and 
changed it into a paper mill, with a capa- 
city of 4,000 pounds of binders and box 
board paper per day. He manufactured a 
good article in his special line of paper, 
which he ships to market over the Phila- 
delphia and Reading railroad. His farm, 
consisting of -thirty-three acres, at Abrams, 
this county, is two miles above Bridgeport, 
at Merion station, on the Reading rail- 
road. 

He secured the establishment of the post- 
office there by the name of Merion, but it 
was changed to its present name of Abrams 
a few years later. He has served continu- 
pusly as postmaster ever since. Mr. Abra- 



ham is a staunch Republican and an active 
member of the First Baptist church, of 
Norristown since [851. 

On November 24, 1859, Mr. Abraham was 
united in marriage with Emily R. Scott, a 
daughter of George Scott, of Norristown, 
Pennsylvania, who died April 19, 1880, in 
her forty-seventh year. Pour years after 
her death, on January 18, 1884, he married 
Mary M. Rambo Pechin, a daughter of 
Daniel and Hannah Kastburu Rambo, of 
Upper Merion township. By his first mar- 
riage Mr. Abraham had seven children, five 
sons and two daughters : Elizabeth (de- 
ceased), aged seven years; George S., Wil- 
liam L , Elwood P , Walter S., Howard and 
Ethel, who died in infancy, like her elder 
sister. 

The Abraham family is among the old- 
est families in the State. Isaac and Sarah 
Abraham came from Wales in 16S2 and 
settled in Bucks county, from which their 
son, James Abraham, sr., came to the site 
of Merion about the year 1700. Near there 
he purchased the old homestead that 
has always been in the possession of his 
descendants, and is now owned by James 
Abraham. 

His son Isaac Abraham wedded Dinah 
Harvard, and their son, James Abra- 
ham, jr., married Hannah George, and was 
the father of Joseph Abraham, who was 
born on and inherited the old homestead. 
Joseph Abraham was born December 31, 
1788, and died March 25, 1850. He was a 
farmer by occupation, a Democrat in poli- 
tics and a Baptist in religious faith and 
church membership. He was industrious 
and respected and married Ann Davis, who 
was a daughter of Benjamin Davis, and 
died March 30, 1873, aged seventy-four 
years. Their children were Mrs. Hannah 
Shannon, Mrs. Sarah Phillips, James, Ben- 



4»4 



Biographical Sketches. 



jamin D., Isaac G., Thomas D. (subject), 
Mrs. Eliza Supplee, Mrs. Anna Evans, 
Emma Matilda and Joseph, who died in 
infancy. 



JOSEPH E. GILUNGHAM, a leading 
J business man of Pennsylvania, whose 
country seat, " Clairemont," in Lower 
Merion township, Montgomery county, is 
one of the handsomest in the southeastern 
part of the State, is a son of Samuel H. and 
Lucy (Eddy) Gillingham, and was born in 
Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 
1830. The original progenitor of the Gil- 
lingfhams in America was YeamansGilling- 
ham, who came over about the time of 
Penn's first voyage to his province. Yea- 
mans Gillingham settled first at Frankford, 
near Philadelphia, and afterwards removed 
to Bucks county, where he died. A lineal 
descendant of his was Joseph Gillingham, 
the paternal grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch, Joseph Gillingham was a resi- 
dent of Philadelphia, where he was en- 
gaged in the wholesale mercantile business. 
He also managed a large farm " Belle- 
vue," which he owned, near Holmesburg, 
this city. He was the first president of the 
Lehigh Navigation company, and with two 
others formed the company which brought 
the first coal by water to Philadelphia. He 
was prominent and active as a Whig and 
Friend, and died May 3, 1867, aged eighty- 
seven years. He married Rebecca Harrold, 
a native of Bucks county, and of the ten 
children born to them in their Philadelphia 
home, one was Samuel H. Gillingham, who 
became one of the early extensive lumber 
dealers of Pennsylvania. He resided in 
Philadelphia, was a man of good education 
and organized the lumber firm of Wain- 
Wright & Gillingham, of which he was the 



active and managing member. He was 
active in other lines of business besides 
lumber dealing, and served as president of 
the Kensington Gas company. He was a 
Whig and Republican and served as a mem- 
ber and as president of the Philadelphia 
school board. His life was one of activity 
in various useful fields, and he passed away 
February 15, 1854, when he had but 
reached the half century mark. In 1827 
he married Lucy Lewis Eddy, who was a 
daughter of George Eddy, of Philadelphia, 
and died September 1, 1836, aged thirty- 
three years. Her earliest American an- 
cestor was Ellis Lewis, a Welsh Quaker, 
who came over in the neighborhood of 1685 
to 1690. Of the eight children born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Gillingham, five died in infancy. 
The three who grew to maturity and are 
still living are: Joseph E-, Louis H. and 
Fanny, wife of Dr. Jarrett Kibbey, of 
Michigan, and by his second marriage, 
Frank C. Gillingham. 

Joseph E. Gillingham was reared in his 
native city and received his education in 
the Friends' grammar and high schools 
of Philadelphia. Leaving school he spent 
five years at Carrollton, Carrollton county, 
Ohio, where he had charge of a large gen- 
eral mercantile establishment. The death 
of his father then caused him to return to 
Philadelphia, where he has been in the 
lumber and other lines of business ever 
since. He was one of the founders and is 
now president of the veterinary department 
of the University of Pennsylvania. He is 
a member and the president of the Gilling- 
ham & Garrison lumber company, which 
has its plant, consisting of mills and yards, 
in Kensington, and at Brockport, Elk 
county, Penna. This company does a very 
large and extensive business. About 1875 
Mr. Gillingham purchased his present hand- 



BioCxRaphicat. Sketches. 



485 



some country seat of " Claireniunt," in 
Lower Mcrioii township, where lie resides 
during a portion of each year. 

August 23, 1S64, Joseph K. Gillingham 
married Clara Donaldson, a daughter of 
Jacob and Maria Donaldson of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Gillingham is an Independent Re- 
publican in politics, and while a Friend or 
Quaker by birth and education, yet is an at- 
tendant of the services of the Episcopal 
church. His life has been one of constant, 
earnest business effort, and his labors in one 
of the important business enterprises of his 
city have been both marked and successful, 
while his clear perception and good judg- 
ment have made him serviceable in various 
commercial undertakings of large scope 
and general importance. He is president 
of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal 
company, vice-president of the Philadel- 
phia Investment company, chairman of the 
finance committee of the Mortgage Trust 
company, of Pennsylvania, and a director 
of the American Fire Insurance company, 
of Philadelphia. He is also a manager of 
the Pennsylvania hospital, and was a com- 
missioner to the Vienna Exposition from 
Philadelphia. 



HOWARD BOYD, of Norristown, is a 
son of Col. James and Sarah (Jamison) 
Boyd, and was born at Norristown, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 
1855. James Boyd, a lawyer of ability and 
standing, married Sarah Jamison, whose 
father, Samuel Jamison, was an extensive 
manufacturer of Norristown. They had 
three children : Robert, Hon. Wallace J., 
and Howard, the subject of this sketch. 

Howard Boyd was reared at Norristown, 
and upon the completion of his education 



entered his father's law office and assisted 
him until he retired from active practice. 
He then continued with his father in num- 
erous business interests of the latter, who 
was president of three railways and several 
industrial and business companies. His 
careful attention, diligence, and business 
ability recommended him at an early age 
to the leading men of various railwa\ and 
industrial companies and he was offered 
several responsible positions. In June, 
1876, he was elected secretary and treasu- 
rer of the Swede's Ford Bridge company, 
and on May 14, r.879, treasurer and secre- 
tary of the Norristown Junction railroad 
company. Mr. Boyd is also chief clerk to 
his father, and has been for some years a 
director in the Norristown Insurance com- 
pany, Norristown Water company, Gas com- 
pany, and other local enterprises. He is a 
Republican in politics, but no politician, 
and devotes his time chiefly to his business 
duties and his personal affairs. 

On September 20, 1882, Howard Boyd 
was united in marriage with Mary Sling- 
luff', a daughter of John Slingluff, president 
of the Montgomery National Bank of Nor- 
ristown. To Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have 
been born two children : James S. and 
John H. 

Mr. Boyd is secretary and treasurer of 
the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York, 
the Perkiomen, and the Stony Creek rail- 
way companies. 



HENRY C. BIDDLE, one of the active 
business men of Ambler, is a son of 
Joseph C. and Elizabeth (Cook) Biddle, and 
was born in Gwyuedd township, Montgom- 
ery county, Pennsylvania, October 7, 1841. 
The Biddies are of Welsh nationality, and 



486 



Biographical Sketches. 



William Biddle, the paternal grandfather 
of the subject of this sketch, was a native 
and resident of Bucks county, where he 
married and reared a family. His son, 
Joseph C. Biddle, the father of Henry C, 
was born in February, 1802, and became 
one of the foremost farmers in his section 
of the State, taking prizes at several county 
and State fairs as a plowman. He resided 
successively in Horsham, Whitpain and 
Gwynedd townships, and then purchased a 
farm in Whitemarsh which he left fourteen 
years later to become a resident of Ambler. 
He purchased a residence there, and died 
at that place in December, 1884, aged 
eighty-two years. He was a prominent Re- 
publican and active member of the Re- 
formed church, and held numerous respon- 
sible township offices, and was an official 
in his church, as well, for many years. He 
wedded Elizabeth Cook, who is still living, 
and whose father, Henry Cook, was a resi- 
dent of Whitemarsh township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. To their union 
were born ten children : Mary, wife of 
Charles L. Hoove, and Amanda, wife of 
Edward B. Renear, both deceased ; Henry 
C. ; Ross, deceased ; William ; Charles ; 
Davis, deceased ; Sanders L. ; George; and 
Frank. 

Henry C. Biddle was reared in Gwynedd, 
Whitpain and Whitemarsh townships, and 
after attending the public schools, took a 
course at Prof. John W. Loch's academy at 
Norristown. Leaving the academy he was 
engaged in teaching for two years near 
Lansdale, now Upper Gwynedd township, 
and then married and leased in Whitpain 
township, two farms aggregating two hun- 
dred and twenty-five acres, belongrnsr to 
Saunders Lewis, of Philadelphia, which he 
cultivated continuously and successfully 
for twentv-seven vears. At the end of that 



time, in 1893, ne purchased property at 
Ambler and became a member of the pres- 
ent real estate firm of Buchanan <S: Biddle. 
This firm does a large and profitable busi- 
ness in their borough and the surrounding 
count)'. Mr. Biddle has been interested for 
quite a number of years in the material 
progress of Ambler. He was one of the 
founders of the First National bank of 
Ambler, of which he served as a director 
for eight years. He was one of the incor- 
porators of the Ambler Building and Loan 
Association, in which he has served con- 
tinuously as a director since its organiza- 
tion in 1873. His interest in agriculture 
did not cease with his embarking in differ- 
ent lines of work, and at the present time 
he is a member of Cold Point Grange No. 
606, and the Pennsylvania State Grange of 
the Patrons of Husbandry. He is a Repub- 
lican in politics, has been an ardent worker 
for the party since the period he attained 
his majority, and frequently served as a 
delegate to county and State conventions. 

On October 16, 1867, Henry C. Biddle 
married Amanda K. Brownholtz, a daugh- 
ter of Henry Brownholtz, of Upper Dublin 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania. To their union have been born five 
children : Lewis, Clark, Laura D., Warren 
G., and Minnie G. All are living except 
Minnie and Laura. 

Henry C. Biddle is an active member of 
the Reformed church at Blue Bell and has 
officiated as a deacon in that church for a 
number of years. He has been a success- 
ful farmer as well as a good financier, and 
was the third subscriber, in order of suc- 
cession, to countenance the project of or- 
ganizing the First National bank of Am- 
bler, Pennsylvania, of which he is now one 
of the largest stockholders. In 1894, Air. 
Biddle purchased a farm in Whitemarsh 



Biographical Sketches. 



4X7 



township known as the Brownholtz home- 
stead (one of the oldest in that section), 
which he lias since let by lease. He was 
also one of the organizers of tlie Cold Point 
Grange in Plymouth township, Montgom- 
ery county, in 1875, and has been an in- 
cumbent of nearly all its offices. 



DANIEL S. SCHULTZ, Esq., who has 
been a justice of the peace at Lans- 
dale since 1893, and who is one of the most 
successful insurance men of that section of 
Montgomery county, is a native of this 
county and is descended from German- 
American ancestry. He is the youngest 
son of Michael and Rachel (Snyder) Schultz, 
and was born on his father's farm in Tow- 
amencin township on the 6th of September, 
1856. George Schultz, his grandfather, 
was born in Upper Hanover township, De- 
cember 20, 1 781, and was a prosperous 
farmer all his life. In politics he favored 
the Whig party and afterwards the Repub- 
licans, and in religious belief he clung 
closely to the Schwenkfelder church, the 
faith that is followed by the family to this 
clay. He married Hannah, daughter of 
Melchior Schubert, and this marriage was 
made happy by the birth of seven children : 
Michael, Anthony, Rebecca, Solomon, Na- 
than, Mary, wife of Samuel Kriebel, and 
William. Grandfather Schultz died Octo- 
ber 29, 1851, at the age of seventy years. 

Michael Schultz, father of Daniel, was born 
on July 13, 1814. He attended the public 
schools of his vicinity and worked on his 
father's farm. He learned the trade of 
shoemaker, and followed this in connection 
with farming. In politics he was a Repub- 
lican. He married Rachel, daughter of 



Abraham Snyder, April 20, [841, and they 
had seven children : Mary, born February 
5, 1842; Hiram, born October 3, 1843 ; 
Abram, born October 27, [845; Hannah, 
born September 21, 1847 ; Franklin, born 
November 9, 1890; Addison, born Febru- 
ary 5, 1S53, and Daniel S, our subject. 

'Squire Schultz went to the schools of 
the neighborhood and then had the advant- 
age of two terms in the North Wales 
academy. After leaving school he followed 
teaching for one term, and for five years fol- 
lowing was employed in the creamery in 
Upper Gwynedd township. He has always 
been an active politician of the Republican 
party, and has held the office of justice of 
the peace since 1893. He was elected as- 
sessor three times in Upper Gwynedd town- 
ship and has been auditor of the borough 
of Lansdale six years. Besides being justice 
of the peace Mr. Schultz represents the 
Royal Insurance company, of Liverpool, 
England ; the Home, of New York, and 
the Spring Garden, of Philadelphia, and 
does a very large business in this line. 

Fraternally Mr. .Schultz is a member of 
Council No. 934, Junior Order United 
American Mechanics, and also of the Order 
of the Mystic Chain. He is also a member 
and the secretary of the Lansdale fire com- 
pany and is secretary of the North Penn 
Building and Loan Association and clerk of 
the borough council. 

( )n the 23d of April, 1881, Mr. Schultz 
was married to Matilda, daughter of Joseph 
Halhneyer, of Towamencin township. Mrs. 
Schultz was born in Alleutowu, Penusyl- 
vaniania, on May 4, 1862. Four children 
have come to bless this union : Irvin, born 
August 19, 1883; Minnie, born September 
27, 1887 ; Mary, born December 23, 1890, 
and Harry, born February 19, 1894. The 
family are members of the .Schwenkfelder 



488 



Biographical Sketches. 



church, and 'Squire Schultz commands the 
respect and esteem of the people of the com- 
munity in which lie lives. 



JOHN J. HUGHES, farmer and live 
stock dealer, is one of the best known 
men in Montgomery county, popular as a 
companion and respected and esteemed in 
the business world. Mr. Hughes was born 
at Gulf Mills, Upper Merion township, on 
January 12, 1830, and has resided at that 
place all his life. He is a son of Benjamin 
B. and Mary ( Rambo) Hughes. 

John Hughes, grandfather, a son of Colo- 
nel Isaac Hughes, was born at Walnut 
Grove farm, Upper Merion township, March 
28, 1772. Here he grew to manhood amid 
the customary surroundings of a farm lad, 
and when he reached his majority, suc- 
ceeded to his father's estate. He success- 
fully pursued farming and lime-burning for 
many years. Walnut Grove forms a part 
of the original tract of nine hundred acres 
taken up through a land patent by one of 
the original progenitors of the Hughes 
family. When toward the meridian of 
life, John Hughes acquired an interest in 
certain coal lands located in Schuvlkill 
county, this State, and removed his family 
to that county, retaining a residence for 
several years. Subsequently he gravitated 
to Philadelphia, where he lived in retire- 
ment up to the time of his death, December 
31, 1837. At the time of his demise he 
was sixty-six years old. 

Mr. Hughes was a man of manv sterling 
qualities, pleasing in manner, affable and 
congenial as a companion. He was a man 
of business sagacity, good judgment, and 
always a substantial friend and promoter of 
the cause of popular education. He served 



as a member of the Pennsylvania house of 
representatives from his district in 181.1, and 
gave the fullest consideration to the will of 
his constituency. His religious predilec- 
tions were in favor of the Episcopal church, 
of which body he was a member. He mar- 
ried Hannah, a daughter of Captain Ben- 
jamin Bartholomew, of Chester county. 
Pennsylvania, by whom he had the follow- 
ing named children: Rachel B., Isaac 
Wayne, and Benjamin B. 

The father of our subject Benjamin B. 
Hughes, was born at Walnut Grove, and 
resided in Upper Merion township until he 
was forty years of age. He received an or- 
dinary common school education and then 
learned the tanning trade, which however, 
he never followed. He, instead, engaged 
in quarrying stone for a year, and then 
went to farming and lime-burning on a por- 
tion of his father's estate at Walnut Grove, 
having purchased his brother's interest. 
He was very successful and for some years 
attended the markets. It was well known 
that the farm covered a rich bed of iron ore 
and Mr. Hughes leased the property to 
James Hooven, who mined the ore. Mr. 
Hughes retired from active business and 
went to Bridgeport, which he made his 
place of residence. He had amassed con- 
siderable wealth and invested it in num- 
erous enterprises, among which were valu- 
able coal mines near Pottsville. He was 
also a director of the Montgomery bank for 
a number of years, and was a director of the 
First National bank until his death. He 
was a man of prominence in his community 
and being a true philanthropist, was loved 
and respected by all. In politics he was 
first a Whig and then a Republican. He 
was active in politics and was one of the 
county auditors during Governor Hartranft's 
term of office. He also served as school 



Biographical Sketches. 



489 



director for a number of years and took a 
great interest in educational matters An 
Episcopalian in religious belief, Mr. Hughes 

was an earnest church worker. For a 
period of fifty-two years he was senior war- 
den of Christ's (Swede's) Church, in Upper 

Merion township. In 1S29 he married 
Mary Rambo and they were the parents of 
ten children : John J., our subject ; Dr. 
Isaac W., of West Philadelphia; Nathan 
Rambo, deceased ; Mary A., wife of Hubert 
O. Blackford ; C. Collin, deceased ; Henry 
C, a veteran of the late war, who served as 
first lieutenant of company P>, 4th Penn- 
sylvania volunteer infantry ; Hannah 15., 
deceased ; Katheriue D., wife of E. W. 
Evans ; William Corson, and Francis Wade, 
who is dead. Mrs. Hughes died August 
20, 1856, aged forty-seven years. On Au- 
gust 17, 1858, he again married, his second 
wife being Miss Mary J. Brooke. There 
was no issue to this marriage. Mr. Hughes 
died March n, 1892, aged eighty-four 
years. 

Joh.i J. Hughes was given a common 
school education in Upper Merion town- 
ship, and then attended Rev. Samuel 
Aaron's private school. On leaving school 
he assisted his father for one year in burn- 
ing lime. He then took up farming and 
began to deal in cattle, a business he has 
followed with great profit ever since. He 
is interested in several other business en- 
terprises and has been vice-president and 
director of the People's National bank of 
Norristown, ever since its organization. 
Though an earnest Republican, Mr. Hughes 
has never held office. He is a consistent 
member of Christ's (Swede's) church, of 
which he is vestryman. Socially Mr. 
Hughes is very popular. He has been 
a noted fox hunter and his large estate has 
been the scene of some exciting " meets." 



He was considered the leader in this sport 
in the county, and always kept a large and 
well trained pack of hounds. Some of the 
"meets" held at his home have been at- 
tended by over one hundred and fifty 
riders. 

In [857 Mr Hughes and Miss Hannah 
Brooke were joined in wedlock, and the 
following children came to bless this union: 
J. Hunter, Mary, wife of Winfield L. 
Stacker; Nathan B, Benjamin B., Frances 
H., wife of J. Cloud Smith, of Norristown ; 
and Charles C. 



GEORGE W. SMITH who owns and 
operates a large marble cutting estab- 
lishment at Norristown, is a son of Peter 
and Hannah (Wanderlick) Smith, and was 
born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
December 6, 1837. Five generations back 
the immigrant ancestor of the family came 
from Germany to Perkiomen township, 
where his son, John, was born and died. 
John Smith was a farmer and a man of con- 
siderable means for his day. He was a 
zealous Lutheran and a strong Democrat, 
and was twice married. By his first wife 
he had six children : Peter (father), Mary 
Rankin, Barbara Miller, Elizabeth Miller, 
Daniel and John. By his second marriage 
with Margaret Hillegas he had four sons 
and four daughters: Henry, Uriah, Samuel, 
Philip, Susanna, Sarah, Catharine and 
Louisa. 

Peter Smith (father) followed farming for 
many years in Perkiomen township, while 
he also did a considerable amount of team- 
ing before the advent of the railroad. Near 
the close of his life he removed to Philadel- 
phia, where he died at forty-three years of 
age. Like his father before him, he was a 



49° 



Biographical Sketches. 



Democrat and a Lutheran. He wedded 
Hannah Wanderlick. Their children were : 
John, George W. (subject), Amelia Wander- 
lick, Kate Erdtnan, Maggie Knipe, and 
Henry, deceased. 

George W. Smith was principally reared 
in Philadelphia, where he attended the city 
public schools and several subscription 
schools, but at an early age was taken from 
school. After leaving school and working 
at various places in the city, he became an 
apprentice to a marble cutter with whom he 
served five years and three months. Com- 
pleting his trade he worked as a journey- 
man until 1859, was then in the marble 
business for himself for a short time, and 
afterwards resumed journey work which he 
followed up to 1867. In that year he be- 
came foreman in James Mover's marble 
shop, which position he held for several 
years. He then purchased Mr. Mover's 
shop and engaged in business for himself, 
enlarging the shop and yards with his in- 
creasing patronage until he has now a large 
and well equipped marble cutting plant. 
His yards are on DeKalb street, and he fre- 
quently employs as high as twenty-five cut- 
ters and hands in order to fill his orders for 
work. He does all kinds of monumental 
and ornamental stone work which is to be 
seen in numerous cemeteries and on many 
well appointed and tasteful lawns. He is a 
skillful workman, and has a large trade. 

In July, 1859, Mr. Smith married Anna 
Shipman, whose father is Jacob Shipman. 
To their union have been born four chil- 
dren, one son and three daughters: Amy 
W., Annie E., Matilda, deceased, and 
George S. 

Mr. Smith is a member of Aurora Lodge, 
No. 465, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; 
and a charter member of Buena Vista 
Lodge, No. 16, Ancient Order of Good Fel- 



lows, in which he has served as treasurer 
for nineteen years. Mr. Smith is a stock- 
holder and director in the Norristown Elec- 
tric Light company, and has been interes- 
ted in other home enterprises. 



CHRISTIAN SPEAKER, foreman of 
the carpenter department of a leading 
rolling mill of Conshohocken, is a son of 
Yerkes and Catharine Speaker, and was 
born August 30, 1837, in that section of 
Denmark that is now part of the present 
territory of Prussia. His paternal grand- 
father was a sea-faring man, and his father. 
Yerkes Speaker, lived and died in his 
native country of Denmark, where he wis 
a bricklayer by trade. He was a member 
of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and 
died ao-ed seventv-nine years. He married 
and reared a family of six children, four 
sons and two daughters : Yerkes, Fans, 
Christian (subject), Nelson, Wilhelmina and 
Ann Maria. 

Christian Speaker was reared in iiis na- 
tive country and learned with his father the 
trade of bricklayer, which he soon aban- 
doned to take up ship building. A: twenty- 
one years of age he came as ship carpenter 
on a vessel that stopped at Philadelphia, 
with which city he was so favorably im- 
pressed that he made it his residence. Soon 
after making Philadelphia his home he be- 
came ship carpenter on the emigrant packet 
ship Tonazcanda, which plied between the 
"Quaker City" and Liverpool, England, 
and was on board wdien that vessel was 
captured by the celebrated Confederate 
cruiser, Alabama. After being released by 
the Confederate commander of the Ala- 
bama he returned to Phdadelphia and 
abandoned a seafaring life Turning his 



Biographical Sketches. 



491 



attention to carpentering lie was employed 
at various places until 1869, when he re- 
moved to Coushohoeken, where he has re- 
sided ever since. His first employment at 
the last named place was at day carpenter- 
ing with J. W. Wood ec Brother, who were 
contractors. He was soon promoted, and 
held various positions up to 1883, when he 
was appointed to his present position. Mr. 
Speaker is a Republican in political affairs, 
and lias been serving for some time as a 
member of the borough council from the 
Fifth ward. He is a stockholder and a di- 
rector of the Guarantee Building and Loan 
Association, of Conshohockeu, in which he 
has been interested for several years. 

In 1S64 Christian Speaker was united in 
marriage with Maggie Hovelow. Their 
union has been blessed with eight children, 
five sons and three daughters : Kate Krei- 
der, Harry, Anna Bates, William, Ida, 
George, Horace and Theodore. 



EDMUND B. NUSS, a leading con- 
tractor and builder of Coushohoeken, 
is a son of Captain Frederick and Sarah 
(Slater) Nuss, and was born near Broad 
Axe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
December 8, 1827. His paternal grand- 
father was a resident at the site of Lafay- 
ette Station, on the Schuylkill river, where 
he was engaged as a shoemaker. He was 
a member of the Lutheran church, of which 
he was a regular attendant. He married, 
and reared a family of two sons: Captain 
Frederick and Michael. Captain Frederick 
Nuss was born in 1790, in Whitemarsh 
township, and learned the trade of shoe- 
maker with his father, Afterwards he 
became a carpenter and wheelwright and 
erected many large mills and dwellings. 



He was a staunch Republican and a regu- 
lar attendant of the Lutheran church in 
which he served as leader of the choir. 
He was a member of the Township Benevo- 
lent association at Broad Axe and served in 
a militia regiment in the second war with 
Great Britain, for which services he after- 
wards received a pension. He also served 
as captain of a military company for seve- 
ral years. In 18 18 he married Sarah Slater, 
a daughter of John Slater, who owned a fine 
farm of one hundred and thirty acres near 
Broad Axe Captain Nuss died after reaching 
the ripe old age of eighty-four years. He 
reared a family of eight children: George, 
John, Henry, Edmund B., William, Sam- 
uel, Elizabeth and Ann. Mrs. Nuss passed 
away February 7, 1867. 

Edmund B. Nuss, after receiving a good 
common school education, engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits until he became eighteen 
years of age, when he learned the trade of 
carpenter, which he followed at Consho- 
hocken, where one of his contracts was the 
repairing of a large rolling mill. He was 
a large contractor and at times had as high 
as eighty men in his employ. The many 
mills that he has erected are well con- 
structed and display good mechanical skill. 
Mr. Nuss is a supporter of the Republican 
party, in the success of which he has always 
been deeply interested. In 1888 he was 
elected burgess of Conshohockeu, in which 
capacity he served one year, and for thir- 
teen years he was successively elected as 
judge of the election. He is a member of 
Lodge No. 120, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and Lodge No. 216, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. He is also a charter mem- 
ber of Iron Castle No. 62, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, and at one time was a mem- 
ber of the Improved ( )rder of Red Men. 
He is a member of the Lutheran church. 



492 



Biographical Sketches. 



On January 24, 1S53, Mr. Nuss married 
Anna M. Ulrick. To their union have 
been born six children : Willard, deceased ; 
Milton, an engineer; Edmund B., a tinner ; 
George, an engineer ; William ; and Laura 
Stemple. All the sons except William are 
married and he resides in New Jersey, 
where he pursues the trade of joiner. 



WILLIAM H. HUNSBURGER, M. D., 
a rising young physician of Penns- 
burg, Montgomery county, is a son of Win. 
E. and Amelia (Guldin) Hnnsburger, and 
was born June 16, 1869, in Berks counts-, 
Pennsylvania. The paternal grandfather of 
Dr. Hnnsburger, was Samuel Hnnsburger, 
a member of the Society of Friends and a 
native and life long resident of Chester 
county, Pennsylvania. He married a lady 
whose maiden name was Eckert, and five 
children were born to their union : Jesse, 
John, Sarah, Samuel and Mary. 

William E. Hunsburger, father, was born 
in Chester county, and was educated in the 
schools of Pottstown, this county, of which 
schools he afterward became principal. 
Having determined to enter upon the study 
of medicine he registered as a student in 
the office of Dr. Buskirk, of Pottstown, and 
after a thorough preliminary drill and study, 
entered the Jefferson Medical college, Phila- 
delphia, from which he graduated in 1867. 
He located at Maiden's Creek, in Bucks 
county, where he has remained ever since, 
actively and successfully pursuing the work 
of his profession, and has built up a large 
and appreciative practice. He is a thorough 
student of medicine and keeps well abreast 
the medical progress of the age. He is a 
member of the Berks county medical society 
and takes an active and intelligent part in 



all its deliberations and is a valuable mem- 
ber of the fraternity. Politically a Repub- 
lican and religiously a member of the Re- 
formed church, he takes a normal interest 
in the body politic and the work of evan- 



gelization and has been the 



organist of 



the church to which he belongs ever since 
becoming a member. His marriage witli 
Amelia Guldin has resulted in the birth of 
several children. 

Dr. Hunsburger received his primary 
education in the schools of his native town- 
ship and still further broadened his mental 
training by study in the Kutztown State 
normal school at Kutztown, this State. 
He then took up the study of medicine 
under the preceptorship of his father and 
graduated from the Jefferson Medical col- 
lege in 1893. He then practiced for three 
months with his father and at the end of 
that time came to Pennsburg where he has 
since remained and built up a large and 
constantly increasing practice. He is care- 
ful and painstaking in his diagnosis, is a 
hard student and well versed in the modern 
methods of treating diseases, qualities that 
have combined to make him one of the ris- 
ing young physicians of Montgomery 
county. 

On April 25, 1895, he married Katie 
O'Mull, a daughter of Dr. John G. Hillegas 
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. 



JOHN H. GRIFFITH, of Conshohocken, 
who endured the terrible privations and 
sufferings of Andersonville for six months, 
is a sou of James and Elizabeth (Davis) 
Griffith, and was born in Upper Merion 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, April 8, 1844. His paternal grand- 



Biographical Sketches. 



493 



father, John Griffith, was of Welsh origin 
and a native of Radnor township, in Dela- 
ware county. He married Phoebe Pugh, 
whose grandfather, Peter Dusey, had feet so 
frozen at Valley Forge, under Washington, 
that they had to be amputated. John 
Griffith, after his marriage, came to near 
Gulf Mills, in Upper Merion township, 
where he afterwards died. He was a Whig, 
followed various employments, and reared 
a family of fifteen children, among whom 
were : Evan, Jonathan, James, John, Wil- 
liam, Jacob, Joseph, Henry, Anna Austin, 
Eliza Thompson, Hannah Lacy, Sarah 
Hand, and Mary McNeil. Of these chil- 
dren, but four are living : James, and three 
of the daughters. James Griffith was born 
in Tredyffrin township, Chester county. 
He received no advantages of the subscrip- 
tion or common schools of his day, being 
compelled at twelve years of age to com- 
mence to do for himself. He went on a 
farm to work and after attaining his ma- 
jority, came to Gulf Mills, where he has 
been engaged in various industrial pursuits 
ever since. He was formerly a Whig, and 
now a Republican in politics. He wedded 
Elizabeth Davis, and to their union have 
been born seven children, two sons and five 
daughters: Margaret Beggey, John H., 
Alice Berry, Maria Richter, Phoebe De- 
Haven, Frank, deceased; and Clara Fickler. 
John H. Griffith received his education 
in the public schools of Upper Merion town- 
ship, and at twelve years of age commenced 
working on a farm, which employment he 
followed for four years. He then learned 
t'ne trade of butcher, at which he worked 
from i860 to 1862. In 1862 he entered the 
Union service, and after returning from the 
army in 1865, he became an employee in 
Wood <\: Company's rolling mill, where he 
remained five years. After leaving the 



rolling mill he was successively engaged in 
butchering, running a meat and provision 
store, and in the natural ice business. In 
1892 he became a member of the Gulf Brew- 
ing company. In politics Mr. Griffith is a 
Republican. He has served as burgess, and 
as president of the town council of Con- 
shohocken. He is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and Washita 
Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. Mr. 
Griffith is a self-made man, whose success 
in life has all been of his own winning. 

On May 21, 1866, Mr. Griffith wedded 
Miss VanDyke. They have seven children: 
James H., a clerk in the recorder's office; 
Robert, who holds a position in a railroad 
office, at Roanoke, Virginia ; Roxanna, 
wife of Robert Elliot ; Thomas, Elizabeth, 
Clara, and Frank. 

John H. Griffiths' war record is one of 
which he may lie justly proud. He enlisted 
in Company B, 8th Pennsylvania reserves, 
011 August 15, 1862, and participated in the 
engagements at Williamsport, Brandy Sta- 
tion and Locust Grove, and in the battle of 
the Wilderness. He was captured in 1864, 
and was successively confined at Orange 
Court House, Gordonville, Danville, Ander- 
sonville, Florence, Wilmington and Golds- 
boro, at which latter place he was paroled 
on March 27, 1865. Returning home after 
eleven months of prison life, he so far re- 
cruited his health as to join his regiment in 
a few weeks, and was honorably discharged 
from the Federal service at Harrisburg, this 
State, in June, 1865. His terrible prison 
experience was at Andersonville, where, 
unprotected under the burning southern 
sun and with hardly anything to eat. he en- 
dured untold suffering for six months. < >f 
the thirty thousand prisoners at Anderson- 
ville during his stay, fourteen thousand 
seven hundred died of privation and star- 



494 



Biographical Sketches. 



vation, and he was one of the fortunate num- 
ber that survived the horrors of that death- 
pen, whose history is one of the darkest 
chapters of the late Civil war. 



HORACE G. J. HALLOWELL, a 
druggist of Conshohoeken, and a 
scion of an old and highly respected 
family of Montgomery county, is a son 
of William and Matilda (Preston) Hallo- 
well, and was born January 20, 1851, in 
Conshohoeken, this county. He is of 
English Quaker origin and his paternal 
grandfather, Nathan Hallowell, lived for 
many years at Swedesburg, this county, 
where he died. He was a man of enter- 
prise and for many years was an officer in 
the Schuylkill Navigation company. His 
children were : Charles, deceased ; Nathan, 
a son that died young ; Martha ; Ann, de- 
ceased ; and Elizabeth. 

William Hallowell, father, was born in 
Conshohoeken, spent his boyhood days in 
the town of his nativity, where he obtained 
a fair common school education. He 
learned the trade of a carpenter and devel- 
oped more than ordinary constructive skill 
as a contractor and builder, following this 
line of work in connection with undertak- 
ing in Conshohoeken until 1893, when he- 
retired from active business pursuits. He 
is a Republican politically, and for six 
terms served as burgess of his native bor- 
ough, and in addition to this held other 
local offices in the municipality. In his 
earlier life he was a member of the Societv 
of Friends, but after marriage became a 
Baptist, the church with which his wife 
affiiliated. He has been twice married. 
His first union was with Miss Thomas, and 
resulted in the birth of one child, Charles 



T., who is a clergyman of the Baptist de- 
nomination He wedded as his second 
wife Matilda Preston, and five children, 
two sons and three daughters, blessed this 
marriage union. The oldest died in in- 
fancy, and the others are : Horace G., sub- 
ject ; Hannah ; Ella ; and Matilda. 

Horace G. J. Hallowell attended the 
common schools of Conshohoeken and 
Treemount seminary at Norristown, and 
then, having in view a business career, 
entered Bryant and Stratton's business col- 
lege of Philadelphia, from which he grad- 
uated in 1868, and five years later graduated 
from the Philadelphia College of Phar- 
macy, and the following year took a clerk- 
ship in the store of James T. Shinier, a 
druggist of Philadelphia, where he re- 
mained four years. In 1874, having thor- 
oughly mastered the prescription feature of 
the drug business, and gained a good prac- 
tical education in this line, he established 
a drug business in Conshohoeken on the 
corner of Fayette street and Fourth avenue, 
where he has remained ever since, and 
through close application and courteous 
attention to his customers, has built up an 
enviable trade. 

He has been twice married ; on October 
2, 1873, to Ella Miller, and after her death 
to Anna O'Brien, daughter of Michael 
O'Brien. The latter union has been blessed 
in the birth of four children : Maurice B. ; 
Madeline ; Helen, deceased ; and Walter. 



LEWIS AUCHY is a son of John and 
Catharine (Groff ) Auchy, and was born 
in 1837 in Upper Salford township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. There he 
grew to manhood, receiving a good com- 
mon school education. He worked on the 



Biographical Sketches. 



495 



farm until seventeen years of age, after 
which he learned the trade of shoemaker. 
Removing to Norristown about 1858, he 
followed his trade for a time, and later en- 
gaged in the mercantile business In the 
latter pursuit he was successful and con- 
tinued it for some fourteen years, after 
which he went into the poultry business, 
and has continued the latter down to the 
present time. 

In 1861 Mr. Auchy was united by mar- 
riage to Susanna Van Winkle, and to them 
was born a family of three children, two sons 
and a daughter : Mary K., Harry, de- 
ceased in infancy, Harry 2d. Politically 
Lewis Auchy is a Republican, and in re- 
ligion a member of the Baptist church. He 
served two weeks in the emergency corps 
in 1863, when Lee invaded Pennsylvania, 
but never participated in a battle. For 
years he has been connected with a number 
of secret societies, including the Senior 
Order of American Mechanics, in which he 
has passed all the chairs, and is now a 
member of the State council and a trustee; 
and Montgomery Lodge, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. 

The family from which Mr. Auchy is 
descended have resided in this county 
for several generations. His paternal grand- 
father, John Auchy, was a well known 
farmer of Upper Salford township, a Demo- 
crat in politics and a member of the Ger- 
man Reformed church. His son, John 
Auchy (father), was born on the old home- 
stead in that township, and in early life 
learned the trade of tailor. He worked at 
his trade until his marriage, and then 
abandoned it to devote himself to agricul- 
tural pursuits in his native township. Ad- 
hering to the religious and political tradi- 
ditions of his ancestors, he was a Democrat 
and a member of the German Reformed 



church. By his marriage to Catharine 
GrofT he had a family of four children, 
three of whom were sons: Abram, Sophia, 
who married Abram Rice ; Lewis and 
Joseph. John Auchy died in 1846, and his 
wife survived him some years. 



EPHRIAM K. LEIDY, merchant, miller 
and fanner, of Zieglersville, is a native 
of Montgomery county, and comes from 
Revolutionary stock. He was born on a 
farm in Frederick township, on November 
19, 1841, and is a son of Philip and Eliza- 
beth (Krause) Leidy. His great-great 
grandfather emigrated from Germany and 
located near Frederick post office. He was 
one of the first settlers of Frederick town- 
ship, and was the first Reformed preacher 
in this country. One of his sons, Philip 
Leidy was a farmer and lived on the old 
homestead. He was one of the first patri- 
ots to take up arms for the new country 
and served with distinction through the 
dire and bitter war of the Revolution. 
His father combined farming with preach- 
ing and was a man of superior intellec- 
tual ability and attainments. He estab- 
lished the Reformed church at Swamp and 
filled that pulpit for many years. 

Ephraiin's grandfather was Samuel 
Leidy. He was a farmer and lived at Fred- 
erick post office all his life. He was a 
member of the Reformed church of that 
place. In politics he was a Democrat. His 
marriage to Marrius Hannah Schwenck was 
blessed with nine children : Sophia, the 
wife of Peter Harburger, is deceased, and 
her daughter is wife of Major I). B. Hart- 
ranft; Captain Henry Leidy, resides at 
Boyertown, Berks county, at eighty years of 
age. He was a merchant and huckster and 



496 



Biographical Sketches. 



was the captain of a company of cavalay 
prior to the war. His son-in-law is Dr. 
Rhoades, president of the Boyertown bank, 
whose son, Dr Thomas, is a practicing 
phvsician at that place ; Philip, the third 
child is the father of Ephraim ; Daniel 
is dead ; Hannah ; Peter, is a retired 
farmer and resides at " The Swamp ;" 
Jesse, is in the marble business at Hatboro, 
Pennsylvania ; Sarah, now deceased, was 
the wife of Mr. Reifsnyder, who resides in 
the West ; Samuel was killed while serving 
his country in the late war of the rebellion. 

Philip Leidy, father of Ephraim Leidy, 
was born on the old homestead farm and at 
the proper age was sent to gain a common 
school education. After spending some 
time on the farm he engaged in the huck- 
ster business, but afterward became the pro- 
prietor of a hotel at Cross Keys, and later at 
Roxboro. Subsequently he operated the 
farm of Philip Krause, his father-in-law. 
He exchanged his farm for the Zieglersville 
flour mills, and at the time of his death re- 
sided with his son, the subject of this sketch. 
He was a Democrat and a deacon and elder 
in the Reformed church. Fraternally he 
was a member of the I. O. O. F., and O. U. 
A. M., and remained very active to the 
time of his death. He was the father of six 
children as follows: Philip; Valeria, who 
died young; Lavinia, wife of Emanuel 
Brendlinger, a hotel keeper at Roxboro. He 
died July 15, 1895, aged seventy-nine years 
and eighteen days, his wife had preceded 
him to the grave in 1891, at the age of 
seventy-five years. 

Ephraim Leidy received a thorough edu- 
cation in the common schools of the day at 
Roxboro, and then spent some time at 
several academies. He then learned the 
trade of miller and was employed as a jour- 
neyman at Zieglersville until 1871, when he 



commenced the operation of the Grubb's 
mills on Swamp Creek. Later he removed 
to Chester county, thence to Royersford. 
In 1879 he returned to Zieglersville mill, 
which he successfully operated until 1886, 
when it was destroyed by fire. The follow- 
ing year he rebuilt the mill and has con- 
tinued its operation ever since. In connec- 
tion with the mill, Mr. Leidy continues the 
business of flour and feed merchant and 
baling hay for the trade. He also works a 
farm of thirty acres near Zieglersville. In 
politics he is a Democrat, but is not active 
in the work of the party at present. 

Mr. Leidy was married November 19, 
1869, to Anna, daughter of Lewis Beaver, 
and their union was blessed with four chil- 
dren, only one of whom is living : Alvin, 
who married Ellen Swissford, and who 
assists his father in the milling business; 
Willard, Anna, and Lillian are all dead. 

Mr. Leidy is a widower, having lost his 
wife on October 29, 1886, in her 35th year. 
The family were all members of the Re- 
formed church. 



ELLIS C. CRIPPS, proprietor of one of 
the largest grocery houses in Consho- 
hocken, this county, is a son of William B. 
and Amelia (Murray) Cripps, and was born 
at Cherry Hill, Cecil county, Maryland, 
March 19, 1856. The Cripps family is .of 
German origin, and its immigrant ancestor 
in America became a resident of the State 
of Delaware, in whose early history some of 
his immediate ancestors figured conspicu- 
ously. Benjamin Cripps, the paternal grand- 
father of Ellis C. Cripps, was born at Shell- 
pot, New Castle county, Delaware. He was 
a miller by trade, and removed to a farm in 
Cecil county, Maryland, which he after- 




( ?^~^.t&£>fC~^0 t ^. 



Biographical Sketches. 



W7 



wards left to become a resident of Wilming- 
ton, Delaware, where he died. He married 
and they reared a family of children, one 
of whom, William B. Cripps, was the father 
of the subject of this sketch. William B. 
Cripps was born at Shellpot, Delaware, 
and died at Conshohocken, aged seventy- 
five years, He was a carpenter by trade, 
but after his marriage purchased a farm in 
Cecil county, Maryland, and built a paper 
mill. He afterwards resided at Wilming- 
ton, Delaware, and later came to Consho- 
hocken, where he lost his sight two weeks 
before his death. He was an energetic and 
active business man, a Democrat in politics 
and a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Mr. Cripps was twice married. His first 
wife's name was Amelia Murray. By his 
first marriage Mr. Cripps had eleven chil- 
dren, four sons and seven daughters. 

Ellis C Cripps received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Wilmington, 
Delaware, and at twelve years of age en- 
tered a grocery store in that city, which he 
soon left. He was variously employed for 
a short time, and then became an appren- 
tice in the printing office of the Every 
Evening, where he remained for four years. 
Completing his apprenticeship he worked 
for a short time on the Evening Herald, 
and then in November, 1880, came from 
Wilmington to Conshohocken. His first' 
employment there was as a clerk in Samuel 
Yerkes' grocery, where he remained for 
eighteen months. In 1882 he started in 
the grocery business for himself on West 
Hector street, and soon purchased the gro- 
cery store of Thomas Robinson, on Second 
street, where he did business until 1883. 
On June 6, of that year, Mr. Cripps pur- 
chased his present place of business. His 
grocery house is a three story structure, 

32 



26x30 feet in dimensions, and he carries 
one of the heaviest and best selected stocks 
of groceries in the county. He employs 
five salesmen and runs two delivery wagons 
in order to meet the wants of his patrons. 
Mr. Cripps eleven years ago commenced 
the manufacture of " Cripps' Home-made 
Mince Meat," an article so popular and in 
such demand that the factory for its manu- 
facture has been enlarged and is now oper- 
ated by a steam engine. 

Ellis C. Cripps is a Prohibitionist in poli- 
tics and a supporter of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. He is a member of Wash- 
ington camp, No. 121, Patriotic Order Sous 
of America, and the Brotherhood of the 
Union. He takes an interest in whatever 
pertains to the growth of his borough. He 
is a member of the Progress Building and 
Loan association and a director of the Fidel- 
itv Building and Loan association. 



ALBERT A. HOOPMAN, M. 1)., is a 
young physician of Hatfield, this 
county, who in a very few years has built up 
a large practice in that vicinity and who has 
deservedly gained an enviable reputation in 
his profession by reason of the fact that he 
has been a hard student and very thorough 
in securing that knowledge and experience 
which is likely to place him in the front 
rank of practitioners in this county. 

Dr. Hoopman is descended from old 
Revolutionary ancestry and was born in 
Maryland, on November 4, 1864, being the 
son of Jacob W. and Susan E. (Gordon) 
Hoopman. His grandfather, Jacob Hoop- 
man, was a farmer by occupation. He 
owned and successfully operated a farm of 
one thousand acres, and was one of the most 
prominent planters of his time. He was a 



49 8 



Biographical Sketches. 



Whig in politics and changed to the Repub- 
lican party when his favorite ceased to ex- 
ist. He was a Methodist in religious belief 
and was a zealous worker in the cause. He 
was married twice and the father of six 
children : G. C; Wesley ; Rachel ; Lizzie ; 
Kate and Jacob W. He died in May 1856. 

Jacob W. Hoopman, father of Dr. Hoop- 
man was given a common school education. 
He then learned farming and followed this 
business all his life. He is a Democrat in 
politics and a hard worker in his party. A 
member of the Methodist church, he is an 
active and zealous supporter of its institu- 
tions and especially takes great interest in 
the Sunday school. He belongs to but one 
secret organization, being a member of 
Aberdeen Lodge, I. O. O. F. 

He was married and is the father of only 
two children: S. V., who is a physi- 
cian; and the subject of this sketch. He is 
still living and is sixty-five years old. 

Dr. Arthur Hoopman was given the op- 
portunity of securing a first class educa- 
tion and he did not neglect to take advant- 
age of it. After leaving the public schools 
he took a course at the Baltimore Business 
college. He then entered the Baltimore 
Medical college and graduated in medicine 
at the age of twenty-three years. He after- 
wards had his diploma endorsed at the 
Philadelphia Medical college. For a period 
covering four years Dr. Hoopman was em- 
ployed in the Baltimore hospital and then 
on June 18, 1889, located in Chester, where 
he began the active general practive of his 
profession. He was successful there, but 
four years later found a wide and more 
congenial field at Hatfield, Montgomery 
county. Dr. Hoopman is extremely thor- 
ough in every branch of his profession, and 
he has successfully passed examinations be- 
fore the boards of medical examiners of four 



States, and also studied pharmacy during 
the time he was active in his practice. 

Dr. Hoopman has become very popular 
in his locality and has an extensive and 
lucrative practice. He is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church and also a 
member of the I. O. O. F. He is unmar- 
ried. 



R. ALLEBACH, merchant of Green 
>J • Lane, this county, was born in Lower 
Salford township, this county, October 27, 
1846, and is a son of Christian G. and Sarah 
(Reiff) Allebach. 

Of German ancestry, grandfather David 
Allebach was one of the substantial and 
thrifty farmers of Skippack township, 
Montgomery county. David Allebach was 
an early supporter of Whigism and an ar- 
dent believer in the dogmas of the Menon- 
ite church. He wedded Helena Gottshalk, 
and four children were born to their union : 
Jacob, David, Christian and Henry. 

Christian Allebach, father, was born in 
Skippack township, March 20, 1806, was 
reared upon the paternal acres, where he 
remained engaged in agricultural pursuits 
until 1832, when he removed to Lower 
Salford township, in the same county, 
where he spent the remainder of his days, 
dying in September, 1887, at Kulpsville. 
Politically he was a Whig, but upon the 
disruption of that party became a Republi- 
can. He was a man who believed it the 
duty of every citizen to exercise the duties 
of the elective franchise, but aside from 
holding local offices was in no sense a poli- 
tician or an officeholder. From 1827 to 
1867 he missed but one election. He was 
a good citizen, one who gave the weight of 
his influence to every move which had for 
its object the promotion of the public weal, 



Biographical Sketches. 



499 



was active in building a private school in 
his neighborhood and was a trustee and 
elder in the German Reformed church or- 
ganization at Kulpsville. 

He married Sarah ReifF, and they became 
the parents of three sons and three daugh- 
ters : Anna, David, died in infancy; So- 
phia, deceased ; Helen, Benjamin, J. R., 
subject. 

J. R. Allebach attended the common 
schools and received a rudimentary educa- 
tion. He was schooled in the arts of hus- 
bandry, but when a young man learned the 
trade of a miller at Swenksville, and for 
four years operated on his own account the 
Hunsburger mill at that place. On Febru- 
ary i, 1874, he removed to Green Lane and 
purchased the mercantile establishment of 
J. H. Steltz, and has since enlarged and ex- 
panded it to meet the demands of a con- 
stantly increasing trade, until he now has 
one of the largest and most complete gen- 
eral stores in this section of the county. 
Mr. Allebach is a Republican politically, 
and is at present serving as a member and 
as treasurer of the school board of the bor- 
ough of Green Lane, is treasurer of the bor- 
ough, and from 1874 to 1893, a period of 
nineteen years, served as postmaster of his 
town. He has been actively and promi- 
nently identified in a number of financial 
institutions of the county. In 1S73 he 
helped to organize the Green Lane National 
bank, of which institution he became a di- 
rector, remaining in that capacity until it 
was removed to East Greenville. He is 
still a heavy stockholder in the same. He 
was one of the organizers and one of the 
first directors of the Rover's Ford National 
band, but resigned. He is also interested 
as a stockholder in the Tradesmen's Na- 
tional bank at Conshohocken, People's Na- 
tional bank at Norristown, Spring City 



National bank, Perkiomen National bank 
at East Greenville, Norristown Title and 
Trust company, and owns much valuable- 
real estate in Green Lane and vicinity. 

( )n February 1, 1868, Mr. Allebach mar- 
ried Lizzie Gosholp, of Schwenksville, and 
two children, Harvey and Ezra, blessed this 
marriage. Mrs. Lizzie (Gosholp 1 Allebach 
died on December 30, 1871, at the age of 
twenty-seven years, and Mr. Allebach took 
as his second wife Mrs. Sarah Gable, and to 
this marital union were born four children : 
Anna, Laura, wife of Dr. H. H. Scholl ; 
Markley, deceased, and Curwen. By his 
third marriage one child was born. 

The maternal grandfather of Mr. Alle- 
bach was Benjamin Reiff, who was born in 
Lower Salford township, this county, in 
1777. He was a thrifty farmer of the 
township of his nativity, farming four hun- 
dred acres of land, and was prominent in 
the political, religious and industrial his- 
tory of the community. Politically he was 
a Democrat and served as a member of the 
Pennsylvania legislature in 1833 and as a 
justice of the peace a number of years. He 
was a member of the German Reformed 
church, to the support of which he gave 
liberally of his time and money. He was 
a man of recognized judgment and strict 
integrity, qualities of head and heart that 
caused him to be frequently sought after as 
guardian, administrator and executor, and 
many other positions of honor and trust, and 
in every case showed himself worthy of the 
confidence reposed in him. He married in 
1796 Anna Crall, of Upper Salford town- 
ship, and the following were among the 
children born to their union : John, Mich- 
ael, William, Jacob, Sophia, Sarah and 
Elizabeth. This family is noted for its 
longevity, most of its members living to be 
eighty years of age. 



5oo 



Biographical Sketches. 



JONAS U. CASSEL the proprietor of the 
Cassel livery stable of Norristown, is a 
son of Joseph H. and Lueetta (Undercuff- 
ler) Cassel, and was born in Worcester town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
January 16, 1846. He received his educa- 
tion in the common schools of his native 
township, and remained with his father on 
the farm until he was twenty-two years of 
age. He then went to Norristown, where 
he was engaged for four vears in the livery 
business with his father-in-law, Solomon 
Long, whose interest he purchased at the 
end of that time. Enlarging his stables 
and purchasing an adjoining lot, his livery, 
sales and boarding stables have now a front 
of eighty feet and a depth of one hundred 
and sixtv feet. He keeps eleven head of 
driving and riding horses, and has built up 
a good patronage. In addition to his livery 
business, Mr. Cassel has engaged in other 
enterprises very profitably, and holds stock 
in the People's bank, the Excelsior Building 
and Loan Association, and the Adam 
Scheidt Brewing company. He owns a 
good residence on Astor street, and a store 
property and four acres of land at Norriton- 
ville, besides two small farms one at West 
Point and the other in Lower Merion town- 
ship. Aside from business life in which he 
has been successful, he takes considerable 
interest in political affairs. He is a Demo- 
crat, and has served as a member of the 
town council from the Second ward for 
three years. He has frequently been a 
member of the election board at his ward 
voting polls. 

( >n New Year's day, 1867, Mr. Cassel 
wedded Maggie S. Long, a daughter of 
Solomon Long, then a resident of Culps- 
ville, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Cassel 
have one child. 
Jonas U. Cassel is of German descent. 



His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Cassel, 
was born and reared in Worcester township 
where he lived during the greater part of 
his life. He was a farmer by occupation, 
and the large tract of land which he owned 
is now divided into four farms. He was an 
old line Whig politically, and resided near 
Boyer's Corner, now Norritonville. He was 
twice married, and by his first wife he had 
eight children. Joseph H. Cassel was born 
in Worcester township, where he was reared 
on the home farm and attended the schools 
of his neighborhood. He followed farming 
for some years in his native township and 
removed to Whitpain township where he 
still pursued farming until late years. He 
then retired from all active pursuits of life, 
and has since resided on his farm. Mr. 
Cassel has been twice married. His first 
wife was Lucetta Undereuffler. By his 
first marriage Mr. Cassel had seven chil- 
dren, five sons and two daughters : Isaac, 
Jonas, U. (subject), David, Daniel, Anna 
Detwiler, Amanda Seifert, and Jeremiah, 
who died at three vears of age. 

The Cassel family is one of the early fami- 
lies of Montgomery county. In 1734 Yellis 
and Hupert Cassel were landholders in Per- 
kiomen township, and Abraham H. Cassel, 
the antiquarian, is a member of the family 
whose descendants are now to be found in 
several of the townships of the county, 
where their ancestors were prosperous far- 
mers and reliable citizens. 



EDWIN METCALF, the well known 
florist of Norristown, is a son of Ed- 
ward and Sarah (Chapman) Metcalf, and 
was born in 184S, at Howgate, Yorkshire, 
England. The authentic ancestral history 
of the Metcalf family runs back to 1026, 



Biographical Sketches. 



501 



and is traced in later generations through 
William Metcalf, great-great-grandfather of 

the subject of this sketch, Richard Metcalf, 
(great-grandfather), and Sir Edward Metcalf 
(grandfather), to Edward Metcalf (father), 
who was a florist and fancy frnit grower by 
occnpation, and resided on the old home- 
stead in England all his life. He was a 
conservative in politics, and married Sarah 
Chapman, by whom he had seven children: 
William, Elizabeth (died in childhood), 
Martha (also deceased at an early age), 
Richard, now a resident of Brooklyn, New 
York ; Ann, Edwin, and Alfred, a barrister 
in England. The father died in 1880, at 
the age of eighty-fonr, and the mother 
passed away during the same year, aged 
eighty-two. 

Edwin Metcalf remained in his native 
land until he had reached the age of twenty 
years, being graduated meanwhile from the 
college of Nasboro, Whitby and Eaton. He 
then entered the Academy of Fine Arts in 
London, where he was graduated in free- 
hand drawing, after which he took a two 
year's course in civil engineering at Oxford 
University. He then began the business of 
a civil engineer, and was employed for a 
time in that capacity on the Great North- 
western railway. Eater he took a trip 
through the Holy Land and penetrated 
Africa, after which he came to America, and 
in 1868, located at Norristown, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. Here he formed a 
partnership with his brother in the business 
of a florist, but two years later removed to 
Philadelphia, and entered the employ of the 
North Pennsylvania Railroad company, 
with which he remained for another two 
years. At the end of that time he became 
manager of the lithographing establishment 
of Potts, Damen & Co , of Philadelphia, and 
later entered the employ of the National 



Bureau of Engraving, as a steel plate en- 
graver for the government. He was thus 
employed for a period of fourteen years, 
when he was compelled to resign on account 
of failing eye-sight. In 1888 he returned 
to Norristown, and resumed the business of 
a florist, which he has ever since success- 
fully conducted. 

In 18S4 Mr. Metcalf was married to 
Mattie Davis. To them were born three 
children, all daughters: Elizabeth Y., Edna 
(t. (now deceased), and Elsie G. 

In politics Mr. Metcalf is an ardent Re- 
publican, taking an active interest in pub- 
lic affairs, and at the last election was a 
candidate for councilman from the Fourth 
ward, and was elected. He is a member of 
Curtis Lodge, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows ; of the Hephtasophs of Linwood, 
and of the First Presbyterian church, of Nor- 
ristown. The property owned by the 
Metcalf family in England was granted to 
them by the great Commoner, Oliver 
Cromwell, at the time he bore sway over 
the British Isles, and has ever since 
descended in an unbroken line of inheri- 
ance. 



MILTON R. KURTZ, ex-burgess and 
the present coroner of Montgomery 
county, is a son of Solomon and Louisa 
(Reed) Kurtz, and was born January 25, 
1854, in Norristown, this county. Like 
most of the earlier families to settle in 
Montgomery county, his ancestors were of 
German origin. His paternal grandfather, 
Michael Kurtz, lived near Boyertown, Berks 
county, and was a huckster by avocation. 
He possessed that thrift and frugality that 
are characteristic of the German race and 
was financially successful. He married a 
Miss Brendlinger and they became the par- 



502 



Biographical Sketches. 



ents of the following children : Solomon, 
John, Michael, Augustus, Isaac, and Char- 
lotta. Of these but three are living, Augus- 
tus and the two girls. Michael Kurtz died 
at the age of seventy-five years. 

Solomon Kurtz, father, was born, reared 
and educated in the northern part of this 
county. He learned the trade of cabinet 
maker which he followed during the earlier 
part of his life ; later he took up carpenter- 
ing and stair building. In 1873 he came to 
Xorristown, where he resided the remain- 
der of his life. He always voted with the 
Democratic party on all questions of national 
moment, but was inclined to be independ- 
ent on local political issues. In religious 
matters he subscribed to the doctrines of 
the Lutheran creed. He was twice married, 
his first union was with Sarah Shaner, and 
after her death he wedded Louisa Reed. 
Two children, Milton R., and Mary M., 
blessed this marriage. 

Mr. Kurtz first began the battle of life on 
his own account as a clerk in a tobacco 
store at Xorristown. He filled a clerical 
position three years and then embarked in 
a tobacco business on his own account on 
the corner of Marshall and Barbadoes street, 
remaining there until 1892, when he trans- 
ferred his place to Main street, but soon re- 
turned to his former stand where he is at 
present located. 

He is a staunch Democrat, is active and 
influential in the work of his party. Dur- 
ing the years 1890, 1891 and 1892 he served 
as burgess of the borough of Norristown, 
and was rightly estimated as a careful, 
judicious and efficient executive officer, 
carefully guarding every interest of the bor- 
ough and lending his efforts to every meas- 
ure which had for its object the progress 
and prosperity of the town. During the latter 
part of his second term he was nominated 



and elected to the office of county coroner 
of Montgomery county for a term of three 
years. In addition to the above offices he 
served seven years as assessor of the First 
ward of Xorristown. 

In fraternal circles he stands high. He 
is a member of Montgomery Lodge, I. O. O. 
P., Tecumseh Tribe I. O. R. M., Washing- 
ton Camp P. O. S. of A., and the Fair- 
mount Hook and Ladder company of the 
Xorristown fire department. 

His marriage on May 5, 1879, to Clarissa 
A., a daughter of Jesse and Susan Xestor, 
has resulted in the birth of the following 
children : Edwin G , Solomon, Mattie, 
Katie and Lulu. 



WILLIAM VAUGHAN, a retired 
business man of Xorristown, is the 
eldest child and only son of David and 
Margaret (Hallowell) Yaughan, and was 
born at Xorristown, October 27, 1833. 
David Yaughan, father, was born and reared 
in Wales, where he learned the coal mining 
business. When a young man he left his 
native country and emigrated to America, 
landing at Philadelphia about 1825. From 
Philadelphia he walked to Pottsville, but 
being unable to find work there, started to 
return to Philadelphia. When he reached 
Xorristown he stopped at the house of a 
farmer named Cowden, and after telling his 
story, was offered employment and went to 
work threshing for Mr. Cowden. From 
that he began digging weils, and soon found 
all the work he could do. He accordingly 
settled in Xorristown, where all the re- 
mainder of his life was passed, and where 
he died in 1876, at the advanced age of 
sixty-seven years. He followed the business 
of putting down wells nearly all his life, 



Biographical Sketches. 



503 



and most of the old wells in this section are 
bis work. He was a Whig and Republican 
in politics, and in religion a primitive 
Methodist. In connection with John Sup- 
plee, he built the old Methodist church, 
Main and Arch streets, which was the first 
erected in this section of the State. It is 
now used as a factory by the Norristown 
Woolen company. Mr. Vaughan was also 
a temperance worker. In 1832 he married 
Margaret Hallowell, and they reared a fam- 
ily of five children : William, Sarah, Inez, 
Martha and Elizabeth. Mrs. Margaret 
Vaughan died in 1870, aged sixty-seven 
years, the exact age attained by her husband. 
Their remains are interred at Norristown. 

William Vaughan grew to manhood in 
his native borough and has resided in Nor- 
ristown all his life. He was educated in 
the public schools, and has improved his 
acquirements by a course of general read- 
ing. When ten years of age, he began 
working on a farm at Eagleville, and later 
entered the woolen mill then owned by Mr. 
McCurdy, but now known as the Simpson 
mill. When nineteen years of age he 
then learned the trade of painter and paper 
hanger with Louis McAfee, and worked at 
that business until 1872. He then began 
contracting and building, and during the 
next three years erected some fifty build- 
ings in and around Norristown. In 1875 
he embarked in the ice trade, purchasing 
the business of the Enterprise Ice company, 
which had been organized in 1869, by 
George Zennel. This enterprise he con- 
ducted until 1887, when he retired in favor 
of his only son, David Vaughan, who has 
since operated the business under the old 
name, Enterprise Ice company. 

Politically William Vaughan is a Repub- 
lican and has been active in local politics. 
He represented the Tenth ward in the bor- 



ough council for two terms, serving as 
chairman of the committee on streets and 
roads tor three years, and as chairman of 
the committee on regulations for two years. 
He was also a member of the committee 
on ways and means, and of several other 
committes. He is a member of Linwood 
Lodge No. 154, Ancient Order United 
Workmen, and served for a time on the 
emergency corps during Lee's invasion of 
Pennsylvania in 1863. 

On January 6, 1856, Mr. Vaughan was 
married to Margaret Long. To this 
union was born two children : David, now 
proprietor of the Enterprise Ice company, 
of Norristown; and Clara, who died Au- 
gust 9, 1894. 



JS. NICE is one of the most successful 
. merchants of Harleyville. He is a 
brother of G. S. Nice, whose sketch appears 
elsewhere, and is the son of J. M. and Kate 
(Shoemaker) Nice. He is a native of 
Harleysville and was born there March 10, 
1866. He received a common school edu- 
cation and afterward attended the Sumney- 
tovvn academy for one session. He left 
school at the age of eighteen years and went 
to Philadelphia, where he became a clerk 
for John Jamison. Leaving here he re- 
turned to the country and worked at farm- 
ing for three years. At the end of this 
time Mr. Nice left the farm and engaged in 
the general store business at Harleysville, 
and was in partnership with his brother for 
five years. He then made another change, 
selling his interest in the general store and 
opened a bakery and ice cream parlor. He 
also manufactures ice cream for the whole- 
sale trade, and as a wholesale confectioner 
has been very prosperous, doing about 



5°4 



Biographical Sketches. 



$13,000 worth of business every year. This 
is certainly a splendid showing for so young 
a man, and his energy, probity of char- 
acter and enterprise have placed him in the 
front rank of the prominent business men 
of his county. 

Mr. Nice, like his father and other rela- 
tives, is a Republican and takes a leading 
part in the party work of that section. He 
is an active Christian and is a member of 
the Mennonite church. He is also very 
prominent in Sunday school work and is 
one of the most active members. Mr. Nice 
has been married twice. His first wife was 
Miss Mary Godshall, only child of Isaac 
Godshall. They had one sou Howard, who 
was born on December 6, 1889, and who 
died February 20, 1890. Mr. Nice's second 
wife is Miss SalHe Landis, daughter of 
Samuel R. Landis. One child has come to 
bless this union, a daughter named Katie, 
who was born March 3, 1893. 

The Nice family is one of the oldest in 
this section of the county and has always 
been prominent in local affairs. The pres- 
ent representatives of the family, including 
the subject of this sketch, are well calcu- 
lated to perpetuate the fair fame of the 
family. 



DR. CHARLES H. DETWILER, the 
proprietor of the Central hotel, Roy- 
ersford, Pennsylvania, is a native of Mont- 
gomery count}-, and was born May 2, 1865. 
His parents, Enos H. and Mary J. (Heyser) 
Detwiler, are also natives of this county, 
the father having been born on the old 
Detwiler homestead in 1835. He secured 
a good common school education and then 
engaged in farming, which he has success- 
fullv conducted all his life. He owns the 



old homestead, and is widely knows as 
among the most prominent agriculturists 
and business men of the county. His 
mother was born in 1802, and is still liv- 
ing, now lacking only seven years of being 
a centenarian. Enos H. Detwiler has 
served as school director for a number of 
years. He was one of the originators and 
a member of the building committee of 
Spring Garden market in the city of Phila- 
delphia, and has served as treasurer of the 
Market company ever since its organiza- 
tion. He is also a director of the National 
bank of Royersford, and has been a life- 
long member of the Lutheran church, of 
which he has served as treasurer and dea- 
con for nearly a quarter of a century. He 
married Mary J. Heyser. 

Dr. Charles H. Detwiler was reared on 
the farm and secured his elementary educa- 
tion in the public schools. He subsequently 
entered the State Normal school at West 
Chester, and afterwards took a course of 
training at Pierce's Business college in the 
city of Philadelphia. In 1887, he entered 
the Toronto Veterinary college at Toronto, 
Ontario, Canada, from which institution he 
was graduated in 1889 with the degree 
of V. S. 

For the space of five years Dr. Detwiler 
practiced his profession, principally in 
Montgomery and Chester counties, Penn- 
sylvania. In 1890 he purchased the Cen- 
tral hotel property at Royersford, this 
county, and embarked in the hotel busi- 
ness. This hotel is a large three-story struc- 
ture, containing twenty spacious rooms 
and it has been remodeled and many archi- 
tectural improvements have been added by 
Dr. Detwiler. It is now heated by steam, 
lighted by electricity, abundantly supplied 
with hot and cold water, and is in every re- 
spect a model hotel. 



Biographical Sketches. 



5« »S 



On February 17, iSgi, Dr. Detwiler was 
married to Alice Stan Her, a daughter of 
Frank Stauffer, of Berks county, Pennsyl- 
vania. To the Doctor and Mrs. Detwiler 
have been born two children, both sons : 
Marion S. and Russell S. 

Politically, Dr. Detwiler is not a parti- 
san and has never taken any active interest 
in public issues. He is a member of the 
Lutheran church, as is also Mrs. Detwiler, 
and has been an active and earnest Sunday 
school worker all his life, first as a scholar, 
and later as a successful teacher. 



RICHARD H. BATE, junior member 
of the firm of William T. Bate & 
Son, proprietors of the extensive Mont- 
gomery Boiler and Machine works at Con- 
shohocken, and one of the most prominent 
citizens of that place and Montgomery 
county, is a son of William T. and Eliza- 
beth George Bate, and was born Ma}- 23, 
1845, in England. 

In 1847 n ^ s parents emigrated to this 
country and settled at Liberty, Maryland, 
where he received his first nurturing in 
school. Subsequently his parents removed 
to Norristown and there furthered his edu- 
cation in the public schools of that place- 
up to 1859, when he gave up the employ- 
ments of school to pursue a more practical 
vocation, and accordingly indentured him- 
self to learn the blacksmith and boiler- 
making trades in the Norris Iron works at 
Norristown ; his father at that time being 
superintendent of the works. He remained 
employed at his trades in this establish- 
ment up to 1865, at which time having 
thoroughly mastered his trade and at the 
same time become familiar with every 
detail of the boiler and machine-making 



branch of mechanics, he then became 
associated in business with his father under 
the firm name of William T. Bate & Co. 
This firm first consisted of William T. and 
Richard H. Bate and John Wood, jr., and 
was established for the manufacture of 
boilers and general machinery and located at 
Conshohocken. In 1868 this partnership 
was dissolved, Mr. Wood retiring, and the 
firm was re-organized under the title of 
William T. Bate & Son, and the present 
extensive Montgomery Boiler and Machine 
works were built for the manufacture of 
boilers, gas apparatus, iron and brass cast- 
ings, gasometers, gore barrels, castings, and 
all kinds of blacksmithing and machine 
work. The firm had made a small begin- 
ning in 1865, but the business tact and 
energy of the several members, coupled 
with their practical knowledge, soon won 
for the firm prestige and a wide and 
well-deserved reputation, with a consequent 
increase of trade extending to all parts of 
the country, employing a large force of 
men. In the manufacture of boiler and 
steam generators, and the same may be 
said of most of their products of manufac- 
ture, they have been using their own 
patents. As their business has developed 
and extended, they have increased their 
facilities by the erection of new buildings 
as the rapid growth of their business re- 
quired, until now the establishment has a 
capacity, when running full, of 100 men. 
Some of their patents have been of a very 
important character and have received very 
creditable mention in the various scientific 
journals of the country, and have proved 
in their application and actual use to be 
of high merit and valuable contributions 
to mechanical inventions. 

Since the re-organization of the firm in 
1868, Richard H. Bate has taken a very 



5o6 



Biographical Sketches. 



active part in all matters pertaining to 
the business, assisting in the general man- 
agement of the manufacturing department 
as well as the trade. By strictly con- 
scientious and fair methods of dealing with 
the trade and all who come in contact with 
him, Mr. Bate has been a potent factor in 
the establishment of their extensive and 
permanent business and has won for him- 
self a prominent place in the manufactur- 
ing and commercial world. As a citizen, 
he has always been progressive and public- 
spirited, and has therefore been influential 
in the public enterprises of Conshohocken. 
Politically, Mr. Bate has always been a 
firm advocate of the principles of the Re- 
publican party, and has always taken an 
intelligent interest and active part in the 
advancement and success of that party. 
Though he has never aspired to public or 
remunerative office, he is at the present 
time ably representing the third ward of 
his borough in council. Mr. Bate has been 
chiefly active and useful in the direction of 
industrial enterprise, being prominently 
identified with most of the business enter- 
prises of the borough brought forward for 
its development and general prosperity. 
Besides his extensive manufacturing in- 
terests, he is a director of the First Na- 
tional bank of Conshohocken ; director in 
the Conshohocken Electric Light company; 
a director and managing superintendent of 
the Conshohocken Gas company, and a 
heavy stockholder in both of the above 
enterprises ; he is also a stockholder in the 
Conshohocken Water company, in addition 
to holding interests in various other busi- 
ness ventures of lesser importance. His 
aid and influence have been lent to every 
movement almost, which has for its end 
and object the promotion of the general wel- 
fare of the people of his town and county. 



On the 30th of August, 1867, Mr. Bate 
was united in marriage to Mary M. Murray, 
a daughter of Jacob Murray, a prominent 
citizen of Norristown. To this marital re- 
lation have been born seven children, 
four sons and three daughters : Tillie ; 
Alice, deceased; Howard M.; Richard; 
Anna ; Wilrner M. ; and John, deceased, 
who died April 12, 1887, at the age of six 
years. On October 24, 1889, Alice Bate 
was married to Mr. A. J. Pennington, a 
manufacturer of surgical supplies, located 
at Bridgeport, Pa. Within a year after her 
marriage she suddenly died. Mrs. Pen- 
nington had been the assistant librarian of 
the Methodist Sunday school of Consho- 
hocken, and was an ardent Sunday school 
worker and a zealous Christian woman. 
Her Sabbath school attended her funeral 
in a body and assisted in the last sad serv- 
ices of laying to rest one who had been 
beloved by all who knew her. 

Mrs. Bate is a descendant of one of 
Montgomery county's oldest and most re- 
spectable families. She is the grand- 
daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, 
who had the distinction of celebrating her 
one hundredth birth-day anniversray, No- 
vember 14, 1877. Mrs. Thompson was the 
mother of eleven children, and at the age 
of one hundred years was in the possession 
of all her faculties with the exception of a 
somewhat impaired hearing. She took 
great delight in relating to her descendants 
at this notable gathering her recollection 
of General Washington. On one occasion 
during his term as president, General 
Washington en route through Plymouth 
township stopped at the Black Horse 
hotel, on which occasion Mrs. Thompson, 
then a young girl, had the honor of hand- 
ing him a drink of water and shaking 
hands with the " Father of his Country." 



Biographical Sketches. 



507 



Of her eleven children only three were 
living at the time Mrs. Thompson cele- 
brate her one hundredth anniversary : Mrs. 
Earl, Mrs. Murray, mother of Mrs. Bate, 
and Mrs. Wightman, all of whom were 
widowed. 



JOHN BOOTH, a member of the cotton 
manufacturing firm of H. C. Jones & 
Co., of Conshohocken, was born near Ches- 
ter city, in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, 
February 4, 1856, and is a son of 
James and Agnes Booth. While the 
Booth family is of English origin, yet 
the American branch was founded by John 
Booth, who came from Scotland to New 
York city, where he resided continuously 
up to his death. He married and had two 
sons. One of these sons was James Booth, 
the father of the subject of this sketch. 
James Booth was born at Paisley, Scotland. 
He learned the trade of weaver in his native 
country, and at twelve years of age came 
with his parents to this country. They re- 
mained in New York city, but he soon re- 
moved to Delaware count}-, this State, 
where he entered the Bancroft cotton mills, 
in which he worked for several years. He 
afterwards resided at Manayunk, this State. 
He was a Republican in political senti- 
ment, and wedded Agnes Colquehourer. To 
them were born four sons and six daugh- 
ters : John (subject), Isabella, Jeannette 
(dead), James, Jasper, Maggie Scott, Mat- 
tie, Louisa and Emma (both deceased), 
and Robert. 

John Booth was reared in Delaware 
county and received his education in the 
schools of Darby and Chester city, and a 
night school at Manayunk, this State. At 
fourteen years of age he became an appren- 
tice in the weaving department of a cotton 



mill at West Manayunk, and after com- 
pleting his apprenticeship worked steadily 
at weaving until 1883. In that year he be- 
came a member of the firm of H. B. Hill & 
Co., of Philadelphia, and was engaged in 
the manufacture of Turkish towels in that 
city for six months. He then sold his in- 
terest in the business, and on April 1, 1885, 
became a partner in the firm of H. C. 
Jones & Co., of Conshohocken. Mr. Booth 
acts as general manager and superin- 
tendent of their mills. Their plant com- 
prises all the necessary buildings for suc- 
cessful manufacturing in their special lines 
of business. They employ a force of one 
hundred hands, have a yearly output of 
over one hundred thousand dollars worth 
of goods, and sell their products readily in 
the general markets of the country. Mr. 
Booth supports the cardinal principles of 
the Republican party, and of late years has 
been particularly active in political affairs. 
He is a member of the Union Republican 
league, and represents the Third ward in 
the town council. He is a member of 
Fritz lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. 
Active and diligent in his business affairs 
he has won success, and is now prominent 
in his special line of manufacture. 

On January 18, 1884, John Booth was 
united in marriage with Jane H. Taylor, 
whose parents, Thomas and Sarah Taylor, 
are residents of Frankford, Philadelphia. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Booth have been born 
three children : Mabel (deceased) Marion 
and Olive. 



EBER HESTON LOBB, a successful 
business man who is engaged with the 
Alan Wood company, of Conshohocken, is 
a son of Benjamin and Eliza (Hastings) 
Lobb, and was born in Brandywine Hun- 



5 o8 



Biographical Sketches. 



dred, near Wilmington, Delaware, March 
22, ICS55. He is of English extraction and 
obtained his education in the Tremonnt 
seminary. He afterwards attended Bryant 
and Statton's Business college, in Philadel- 
delphia. Leaving school he engaged with 
Alan Wood & Co., on September 2, 1872,3s 
a shipping clerk, in which capacity he has 
remained ever since. 

In politics Mr. Lobb is a staunch Repub- 
lican. He belongs to the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, being a member of Gratitude 
Lodge, No. 216. He is a member of Wash- 
ington Camp, No. 121, Patriotic Order Sons 
of America ; Montgomery Circle, No. 10, 
Brotherhood of the Union, and Welcome 
Home, at Norristown. 

On Christmas day, 1878, Mr. Lobb was 
united in marriage with Maggie Righter, a 
daughter of Michael Righter, of King-of- 
Prussia, Chester county. To their union 
have been born eight children : Benjamin, 
Frederick, Winfield T., William Cleaver, 
Howard, (dead), Marion, Eva and Emma. 

Mr. Lobb is also engaged in settling up 
estates of which he has quite a large number 
to settle at the present time. He stands well 
as a business man and is known to be an 
honest citizen in his community. 

Benjamin Lobb (father) was a native of 
Delaware, where early in life his property 
was burned. Afterward he was employed 
by Alan Wood & Co., of the same State, 
but in 1857 he came with this firm to Con- 
shohocken, where he remained until his 
death 1889. Here he became foreman in 
the mill and was one of the most skilled 
mechanics that were in the employ of the 
company. He was a Republican in politics 
and adphered to the Society of Friends. 
He was a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and for many years a mem- 
ber of the Red Men at Conshohocken. 



He married Eliza Jane Hastings, and 
their family consisted of five sons and one 
daughter: Eber H ; Benjamin F., (dead) ; 
John ; Alan Wood, (dead) ; Matthew, and 
Jennie. 

Benjamin Lobb commenced life as a stable 
boy and pushed forward with enthusiasm and 
perserverance — two sure characteristics of 
success — and at the time of his death he had 
acquired about forty thousand dollars worth 
of property. 



HOWARD Y. NEIMAN, M. D., a 
practicing physician of Pottstown, is a 
son of Frederick and Charlotte (Yargey) 
Neiman, and was born in Berks county, 
Pennsylvania, June 3, 1858. The Neimans 
are of German ancestry, the family being 
planted in America by the great-grand- 
father of Dr. Neiman, who was born and 
reared at Muhlenburg, Germany. In 1778 
he emigrated to America and settled in 
what is now Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania. When the Revolutionary war oc- 
curred, in 1776, he joined the American 
army and followed the standard of Wash- 
ington until independence had been se- 
cured. He then returned to Pennsylvania, 
and resumed farming, and continued to re- 
side on the old homestead until his death 
in 1820, at an advanced age. 

Frederick Neiman, father, was a miller 
by trade, and followed that occupation all 
his life, in Berks county, this State. For 
man}- years he was a member of the State 
militia. He married Charlotte Yargey, a 
native of Berks county, and they reared a 
family of children. He was an ardent 
Democrat in politics and a member of the 
Reformed church, which he served for 
many years as deacon and elder. His death 



Biographical Sketches. 



5°9 



occurred in Berks county, in 1883, at the 

age of seventv years, but his wife is still 
. . . . 

living, being now in the seventy-fifth year 

of her age. 

Howard Y. Xeiniau was principally 
reared in Berks count}-, where he attended ! 
the public schools. He then entered Mount 
Pleasant seminary at Boyertown, and later 
became a student in the State Normal 
school at Kutztown. In 1876 he began the 
study of medicine with Dr. L. K. Francis, 
of Boyertown, and subsequently studied 
under Dr. John V. Shoemaker, of Phila- 
delphia. Later he entered the Jefferson 
Medical college of Philadelphia, and after 
a three years' course, was duly graduated 
from that well known institution March 12, 
1879, with the degree of M. D. In the 
same year Dr. Neiman began practice at 
Norristown, but eighteen months later re- 
moved to the west end of Montgomery 
county, where he remained until 18S6. In 
the latter year he came to Pottstown and 
began the successful practice which he now 
enjoys. In addition to his large general 
practice, Dr. Neiman is one of the surgeons 
of the Pottstown hospital, and is highly re- 
garded by all who know him. Dr. Neiman 
is a member of the Montgomery County 
Medical society, and of the Pennsylvania 
State Medical society. He is an earnest 
student of his profession and a careful 
reader of its best literature. He is a mem- 
ber and medical examiner of the Ancient 
Order of Foresters, and is also medical ex- 
aminer for the Mutual Continental Life 
Insurance company, and physician by ap- 
pointment, to the poor of the city. In the 
fall of 1894 he was also appointed on the 
board of officers of the Medico-Chirurgical 
college of Philadelphia. Dr. Neiman is a 
member of the Patriotic Order Sons of 
America, and of Conclave No. 153, Junior 



( trder of Hibernians, of which latter he has 
been secretary for several years. 

< >n the 7th of September, 1878, Dr. 
Neiman was wedded to Mary Bickel, a 
daughter of Samuel B. and Sophia Bickel, 
of Norristown. To them has been born one 
child, a son named Frederick B. The 
Doctor and Mrs. Neiman are members of 
the Reformed church. 



RICHARD SOMIESKY, president of 
the Bramcote Manufacturing com- 
pany, of Pottstown, is a son of Austin and 
Amelia Somiesky, and was born March 31, 
1858, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania. The family is of Russian extrac- 
tion, but have lived in this State for sev- 
eral generations. Austin Somiesky, father, 
was a tailor by trade, and worked at that 
occupation many years in Philadelphia. 
He died in 1877. His wife, who was of 
German ancestry, had preceded him in 1875, 
and they are buried in the Glenwood ceme- 
tery, Philadelphia. 

Richard Somiesky received a good Eng- 
lish education in the public schools of his 
native city, and afterwards took a special 
course in German. Later he began study- 
ing the art of photography under compe- 
tent instruction, and devoted three years to 
a mastery of the principles of art as applied 
to the work of the camera After complet- 
ing his artistic studies and becoming 
familiar with the possibilities and limita- 
tions of photographic processes, Mr. So- 
miesky engaged in the business of photo- 
graphy in Philadelphia for one year, and 
subsequently carried on the same enterprise 
at various towns in this State. In 1883 he 
came to Pottstown and opened a gallery 
and studio, where he continued the busi- 



5io 



Biographical Sketches. 



ness until January 2, 1895, when he sold 
out. In January, 1894, he was appointed 
by Commissioner Erb to the position of 
transcribing clerk in the office of the county 
commissioners, and was reappointed in Janu- 
ary, 1895, without any solicitation on his 
part. His duties have been carefully and 
conscientiously performed. 

Mr. Somiesky has been president of the 
Bramcote Manufacturing company of Potts- 
town, for some time past. In May, 1888, 
he became a member of company A, sixth 
regiment, National Guard of Pennsyl- 
vania, and in 1890 was made first lieu- 
tenant of the company, which rank he 
still holds. He has been somewhat promi- 
nent in local politics, having held the posi- 
tion of Democratic committeeman from 
Pottstown district for more than three 
years. He is a member of the Mystic 
Chain, the Sons of America and Knights of 
the Golden Eagle, of Pottstown, of which 
latter organization he has been treasurer 
since 1885. He also served for two years 
as treasurer of the Sons of America, and 
was their district president for some time. 
In 1882 Mr. Somiesky was married to Mary 
E. Yocum, of Germantown, Pennsylvania. 
Their union has been blessed by the birth 
of two children : Albert C. and Florence 
C , both now attending the public schools 
of Pottstown. 



WARREN S. BURGESS, a respectable 
and well known citizen of Norris- 
town, is a son of G. W. and Sophia E. 
(Saurman) Burgess, and was born in Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1828. The 
Burgess family is of English extraction, 
and the paternal grandfather of Warren 
E. Burgess was a native of Boston, Massa- 



chusetts. He reared a family of children, 
among whom were: William; Joseph; 
Caleb, who resides in San Francisco ; 
George W.; Lucy; Sarah; and Catharine. 

George W. Burgess was a native of the 
same city as his father, and became en- 
gaged in manufacturing whips and canes. 
Later he removed to Philadelphia, where 
he followed his trade for some time, and 
afterwards came to Norristown, at which 
place he resided until his death. He was a 
staunch Republican, and served as a mem- 
ber of an emergency company in the late 
Civil war. He married Sophia E. Saur- 
man, and to this union was born one child, 
Warren S. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess both 
died at the advanced age of seventy-eight 
years. 

Warren S. Burgess learned the trade of 
machinist while residing in the Quaker 
city, and at twenty-eight years of age re- 
moved to Norristown, where he now re- 
sides. After coming to Norristown, he 
worked at joinery work until 1880, and 
since then he has been engaged as a general 
machinist and electrical worker. He is 
superintendent of the borough electric 
plant, which he has been largely instru- 
mental in building up. Mr. Burgess is a 
Republican in politics, and has always been 
interested in the affairs of his part}'. 

He was united in marriage with Emma 
Wallace, and their union has been blessed 
with three children, two sons and a daugh- 
ter : George, Sophia, and Lillian. 



WILLIAM S. ELLIS, a member and 
treasurer of the Ellis & Lessig Steel 
and Iron company, limited, of Pottstown, is 
a son of Robert and Mary (Dunn) Ellis, 
and was born near Lewistown, Mifflin 



Biographical Sketches. 



5" 



county, Pennsylvania, June 3, 1841. His 
paternal grandfather was of Scotch descent, 
while his wife was of Welsh extraction. 
Robert Ellis was born and reared in Ireland, 
and in 183S, came to Miffln county, where 
he followed fanning. He died October 24, 
1863. He was a Presbyterian and married 
Mary Dunn, who was a native of Ireland. 
Their children, nine in number, were : 
Thomas, Robert, James, John, William 
S., Jane, wife of James Neshood, ol 
Minnesota; George, a soldier, killed at 
Sailor's Creek during the late Civil war ; 
Catharine, married James Johnson, of Kan- 
sas City, Missouri, and now dead ; and one 
child that died in infancy. 

William S. Ellis was reared on his father's 
Miffln county farm, received his education 
in the common schools, and in 1862, en- 
listed in company M, 16th Pennsylvania 
cavalry, commanded by Colonel John Irwin 
Gregg. He participated in all the battles 
of the army of the Potomac from Chan- 
cellorsville to Appomattox Court House, 
and was honorably mustered out of the 
Federal service in 1865. He went out as a 
private but was promoted to corporal for 
meritorious duty. After the war he was 
engaged in farming until 1872, in which 
year he came to Pottstown and embarked 
in the foundry business. He had a small 
machine shop attached to his foundry, 
which he operated until 1882. He then 
sold out, and in the following year organized 
the present Ellis & Lessig Steel and Iron 
company, limited, and commenced to erect 
the buildings of their present extensive 
plant. This company manufactures nails, 
plate-iron and puddle bars. They do a 
large and prosperous business, having a 
patronage that extends beyond the boun- 
daries of the State. Mr. Ellis is a large 
stockholder of the company, and has served 



as treasurer ever since its organization. 
Besides manufacturing, Mr. Ellis takes an 
interest in industrial and other enterprises 
of Pottstown. He is a director of the Potts- 
town Passenger Railway company, and 
served for some time as president of the 
Pottstown Electric Eight company, which 
he helped to organize. 

On April 29, 1889, William S. Ellis was 
united in marriage with Mary Reed, a 
daughter of Alexander Reed, of Mifflin 
county. 

Office seeking and office holding for 
emolument or for prominent position before 
the public has never had any attractions 
for Mr. Ellis, who however, believes in an 
honest and hearty support of his party. He 
is a staunch Republican and was one of 
President Harrison's electors from Penn- 
sylvania. 



JOHN G. SMYTH, an industrious and 
competent business man of Norristown, 
is a son of John G. and Martha (McClure) 
Smyth, and was born at Bridgeport, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, in 1835. 
His father was a native of county Tyrone, 
Ireland, where he was engaged in farming, 
until about 1842. He then came to this 
country and located on Chestnut street, 
Philadelphia. He was engaged in various 
industrial pursuits until 1844, when he re- 
moved to Norristown, where he was em- 
ployed in a green-house, and afterwards be- 
came a brick worker. For some time he 
was engaged in manufacturing brick at 
Block House, Montgomery county, and in 
1868 established a brick-yard at Norristown, 
where he was the first manufacturer to use 
a steam brick machine. In 1874 he retired 
from active business and purchased six 



512 



Biographical Sketches. 



acres in what is now the Seventh ward. In 
politics he is a Democrat and has been an at- 
tendant of the Presbyterian church for years. 
He married Martha McClure and reared a 
family of four children: David N., Alex- 
ander J., John G., and Margaret J., de- 
ceased. 

John G. Smyth received his education in 
the public schools ot Bridgeport and also at- 
tended a seminary, where he took a thor- 
ough business course. He learned the 
trade of bricklayer with his father, and for 
twenty years was engaged as contractor and 
builder. He has employed as many as 
sixteen men at one time in his building 
contracts. He is a practical worker and 
thorough in the details of his business. 
Much of his work was done in the city of 
Philadelphia. Mr. Smyth is a member of 
the Presbyterian church and is a supporter 
of the Democratic party. 



ELMER E. JOHNSON, M. D., a young 
practicing physician of Pottstown, was 
born December 4, 1863, at Applebachville, 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and is a son 
Dr. Benjamin K. and Rosa L. (Gotschalk) 
Johnson. Benjamin K. Johnson, M. D., 
father, is a native of Montgomery eountv, 
who has practiced medicine for many years 
at North Wales and Norristown, and has 
won considerable reputation in his profes- 
sion. For a fuller account of him and his 
ancestors see his sketch elsewhere in this 
volume. 

Elmer E. Johnson obtained his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of North 
Wales, this county, and then entered the 
State Normal school at Millersville. He 
afterwards spent oue year at Home's Pre- 



paratory school, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 
and then took a four years' classical course 
in Muhlenburg college, of that place, from 
which he was graduated in 1885. In the 
autumn of that year he matriculated in the 
medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, and after 
three years of diligent application was 
graduated from that institution in 1888 
with the degree of M. D. He immediately 
began practice with his father at Norris- 
town, this county, and remained there un- 
til 1889. 

In the month of September of that year 
Dr. Elmer E. Johnson removed to Potts- 
town and began the practice of medicine 
and surgery in this city. He has become 
well known and popular and has built up a 
nice general practice, which is constantly 
growing. 

In addition to his private practice Dr. 
Johnson is a member of the surgical staff of 
the Pottstown hospital and a lecturer in the 
Pottstown training school, his special sub- 
jects being physiology and anatomy. He 
is a careful reader and occasional contribu- 
tor to some of the best medical journals of 
this country, and endeavors at all times to 
keep abreast of the progress constantly 
being made in the science of medicine. 

In September, 1888, Dr. Johnson was 
united in marriage with Emma C. Bickel, 
a daughter of E. B. and Louisa Bickel, of 
Norristown, Pennsylvania. He and Mrs. 
Johnson are members of the Lutheran 
church, and for three years the Doctor has 
been president of the Luther League, a re- 
ligious society composed principally of 
young people. Politically Dr. Johnson has 
never been active, preferring to devote his 
energies exclusively to his profession. He 
is a member of the Independent Order of 
, Odd Fellows and of the Shield of Honor. 



Biographical Sketches. 



.si 3 



SAMUEL K. ANDERS, president of 
the People's National bank of Norris- 
town, was born October 10, 1838, in Norri- 
toti township, Montgomery county, Penn- 
sylvania, and is a son of George and 
Susanna (Kriebel) Anders. He grew to 
manhood on the old Anders homestead 
near Norristown, and was educated in the 
public schools of this county. After at- 
taining his majority he engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits on his own account, and 
successfully followed that occupation dur- 
ing a period of twenty years. He gradually 
interested himself in other enterprises, and 
in 1S88 became president of the People's 
National bank of Norristown, a position he 
has continuously held to the present time. 
As a financier his course has been marked 
by sound judgment and conservative man- 
agement, and to his ability and watchful- 
ness is due in a large degree the success 
which has attended the business of this 
bank. Its affairs have been ably and intel- 
ligently conducted, and it has always en- 
joyed the confidence of depositors and the 
general public, being regarded as among 
the soundest financial institutions of east- 
ern Pennsylvania. Several years since, 
Mr. Anders was elected on the Republican 
ticket, to which party he has always ad- 
hered, as a member of the board of county 
commissioners, and has been twice re- 
elected to the same position. Bringing to 
the discharge of his official duties the same 
judgment and thoroughness that character- 
ize his management of private business, la- 
has promoted the public welfare and justi- 
fied the public confidence reposed in his 
integrity and ability. At all times he has 
manifested an intelligent interest in politi- 
cal and civic affairs, has served as school 
director of his township, and by his public 
spirit and practical benevolence has con- 

33 



tributed in many ways to the prosperity 
and well-being of his fellow-citizens. In 
religion he adheres to the faith of his 
ancestors and is a member of the Schwenk- 
felder denomination, with which body he 
was formerly connected in an official ca- 
pacity. 

In 1S60, Mr. Anders was married to 
Mary A. Heebner, a daughter of David S. 
Heebuer, now postmaster at Lansdale, 
Pennsylvania. To that union was born a 
family of four children, two of whom died 
in infancy. A daughter, Laura H., died at 
the age of sixteen, and the only one now 
living is George H., who is engaged in 
farming, near Norristown. Mrs. Mary A. 
Anders died September 16, 1881. 

The family from which Mr. Anders is 
descended is of German extraction, but its 
history in the new world dates back to the 
colonial period, its American progenitor 
having emigrated to this country and set- 
tled in what is now Montgomery county as 
early as 1734. He and nearly all his de- 
scendants were members of the religious 
body known as Schwenkfelders. Benja- 
min Anders, paternal grandfather of Sam- 
uel K. Anders, was a native of Montgom- 
ery county, a farmer and shoemaker by 
occupation, and died in Worcester town- 
ship. He was an old-time Whig in poli- 
tics, and in religion a strict member of the 
Schwenkfelder denomination. He reared a 
family of several children, one of his sons 
being George Anders (father), who was 
born on the old Anders homestead in 
Worcester township, this county. After 
attaining manhood, George Anders also en- 
gaged in fanning and followed that occupa- 
tion all his life. His last years were spent 
in Anders township, where he died. His 
remains were interred at his former home 
in Worcester township, beside others of 



5H 



Biographical Sketches. 



the family connection. He was a man of 
great public spirit and excellent business 
habits, and accumulated considerable prop- 
erty, being regarded as one of the most 
substantial citizens of his section. He 
married Susanna Kriebel, also of German 
descent. To them were born eight chil- 
dren, only five of whom grew to maturity: 
Abram K., now deceased; Elizabeth, wife 
of A. H. Seipt, of Philadelphia; William 
K , deceased; Daniel K., now a resident of 
Denver, Colorado ; and Samuel K., subject 
of the foregoing sketch. The other three 
died in infancy. 



WILLIAM A. SHAFFER, the senior 
member of the large brick manufac- 
turing firm of Shaffer Brothers, of Norris- 
town, was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, September 12, 1836, and is a 
son of George and Elizabeth (Whiteman) 
Shaffer. His paternal grandfather was 
born and reared in one of the States of the 
present German empire, and after attaining 
his majority came to Berks county, Penn- 
sylvania, which he subsequently left to be- 
come a resident of Philadelphia. In that 
city he died well advanced in years. Their 
children were five in number. 

George Shaffer was born near Reading, 
in Berks county, learned the trade of brick- 
maker with his father in Philadelphia, and 
subsequently became a resident of Norris- 
town, where he worked in a brick yard up 
to the breaking out of the late Civil war. 
In the early part of that great contest he 
sought to enter the Unior service, but hav- 
ing served in the War of 1812 and being 
somewhat advanced in years he could not 
stand active service, and became a teamster 
in Peter Whiteman's wagon train. He 



served but one year and then died of brain 
fever at Hatteras, North Carolina. He had 
been ordered to North Carolina during 
Burnside's expedition into the tidewater 
region of that State. George Shaffer mar- 
ried Elizabeth Whiteman. 

William A. Shaffer was reared principally 
at Norristown, where he received his educa- 
tion in the public schools, which he at- 
tended very irregularly on account of his 
services being needed at home to aid in the 
support of the family. He learned brick- 
making with his father, who was an expert 
in that line of work, and followed his trade 
up to 1869. In that year he commenced 
brick manufacturing on a small scale on a 
lot between Powell and DeKalb streets, and 
some years later he and his brother, Levi 
R., opened a brick yard in West Norris- 
town, which they operated for five years. 
They then removed to their present plant 
of twelve acres, which is just beyond tlie 
borough limits and in Norriton town- 
ship. Mr. Shaffer and his brother, Levi R., 
do business under the name of Shaffer 
Brothers, and employ a force of forty-five 
men during their working season of the 
year. Their plant is thoroughly equipped 
with everything necessary for successful 
brick manufacturing, and their season out- 
put yearly is three million brick. Mr. 
Shaffer wedded Mary Carroll, a daughter of 
William Carroll, a native of England. To 
their union have been born three children : 
Cora J., wife of Walter H. Griffith, of Nor- 
ristown ; Edith M., and George W., de- 
ceased. 

In addition to his interest in the brick 
plant Mr Shaffer owns a good residence at 
Norristown and fifty building lots at that 
place on DeKalb, Powell and Willow streets. 
He is the first man who learned the full 
trade of brick maker at Norristown. He is 



Biographical Sketches. 



515 



a reliable and energetic business man, and 
in politics takes but a nominal part. 

William A. Shaffer is a descendant of 
that Shaffer family in Germany that fur- 
nished many emigrants to the early settle- 
ment of Eastern Pennsylvania. He is a 
relative of Dr. Nathan C. Shaffer, the State 
superintendent of public instruction of 
Pennsylvania. 



[SSACHAR JOHNSTON, a thrifty and 
* enterprising business man of Norristown, 
was born July 25, 1825, and is a son of 
Samuel and Deborah (VanWinkle) Johns- 
ton. His paternal grandfather was a pio- 
neer hotel keeper in Plymouth township, 
near Hickorytown, being proprietor of what 
was known in that day as the " North Star 
Hotel." His children were : Samuel, born 
February 9, 1795; James, born July 10, 
1797 ; Joseph, born October 1, 1800; Eliza- 
beth, born November 7, 1802 ; Charles, born 
June 30, 1804 ; Isaac, born November 6, 
1806 ; and Maria, born July 6, 1808. 

Samuel Johnston was born in Plymouth 
township, obtained a fair common school 
education and then pursued for a time the 
avocations of a farmer, and later, other in- 
dustrial pursuits, among them the mercan- 
tile business for a time at Springtown, this 
county. He was a great reader, keeping 
himself well posted on the current events 
of the day. A man of good judgment, he 
was elected to the office of justice of the 
peace, and for a term of five years dealt out 
equity, as between man and man, in a way 
that met the approval of all fair-minded 
men. He was a Republican politically, 
and religiously a member of the Society of 
Friends. During the latter part of his life 
he resided in Norristown, where he died on 



May 21, 1879, at the age of eighty-four years. 
He was twice married ; he first wedded De- 
borah Van Winkle, of Holland Dutch ex- 
traction, and to them were born four child- 
ren, of whom two grew to maturity : Joseph, 
who was a fanner of the county up to the 
time of his death on May 5, 1885 ; and 
Issachar, subject. 

The education of Mr. Johnston was ob- 
tained in the subscription schools of Mont- 
gomery count)'. Following various pur- 
suits in his earlier days, he finally purchased 
a small farm in Norriton township contain- 
ing twenty-two acres, and engaged in gar- 
dening and small fruit raising. This he 
pursued with profit for a period of thirty- 
eight years. In 1889 he disposed of his 
farm and farming interests, through sale, 
to his sons, Isaac and Ambrose, and re- 
moved to Norristown, since which time his 
attention has been given to his real estate 
investments and other financial interests. 
He is largely interested in real estate in 
Kansas, where he owns sixteen hundred 
acres of land near Mead Center. His realty 
in Norristown is extensive and valuable 
and includes two fine brick houses and a 
square in West Norristown, in addition to 
a number of building lots. He is a director 
of the Montgomery Trust company, a heavy 
stockholder in the Philadelphia ec Reading 
railroad company, the Albertson Trust com- 
pany, and the Lehigh Valley railroad com- 
pany. 

On July 27, 1850, Mr. Johnston and 
Hannah, a daughter of George Arp, of this 
county, were made husband and wife, and 
four children bless this relation : Clarris- 
siana, who died December 14, 1880, was the 
wife of Allen Davis ; Samuel, married 
Hannah Charles, and is now engaged in 
merchandising in Philadelphia ; Isaac, mar- 
ried Harriet Wertzner, and is an agricul- 



5i6 



Biographical .Sketches. 



turist of Norriton township ; Ambrose, 
wedded Sarah Mielmer, and is also a farmer 
in Norriton township. President Andrew 
Johnson was a known cousin of Samuel 
Johnston, the father of the subject of this 
record, a difference existing in the spelling 
of the name. 



BF. MOORE, of Culpsville, present 
• justice of the peace, is a young man 
who has already gained for himself an en- 
viable reputation in the neighborhood in 
which he lives, and such is his energy and 
ambition that it is safe to predict that his 
public career is not to be confined to a 
small area. He is a son of Eli and Amanda 
(Schuyler) Moore, and was born on the 
13th of August, 1S66. His paternal grand- 
father was a farmer by occupation and fol- 
lowed his plow to good purpose for many 
years. In politics he was a Democrat, 
though he did not take a very active part 
in political work. He was a life-long com- 
municant of the Lutheran church, and a 
thorough Christian. He was the father of 
eight children. 

Eli Moore, father of B. F. Moore, was 
given a common school education. He 
was a laborer by occupation, and was 
known and respected as an honest, upright 
man and a good citizen. He voted the 
Republican ticket, and was a member of 
the Lutheran church. He was also a mem- 
ber of Lansdale Lodge, I. O. O. F., and 
was twice married. The children of the 
first wife were Edward and James. The 
second wife gave him the subject of this 
sketch and Mary Ann Mr. Moore is now 
dead, but his second wife still survives in 
good health. 

'Squire Moore was given a very limited 



education, leaving the common schools 
when he was only fifteen years old. But 
he was ambitious for a better position in 
the world, and resolved to win an educa- 
tion for himself. This sturdy young lad 
of fifteen, therefore, went to work to earn 
money. He labored on a farm for two 
years and saved his money. With this 
little horde of savings he was enabled to 
attend the high school during five terms, 
and in that way qualified himself to be- 
come a school teacher. He secured a 
school, and has been teaching ten years, 
up to the present time. He is popular, an 1 
recognized as a man of ability and in- 
dustry. 

In political faith and practice Mr. Moore 
supports with energy the Republican party 
His worth was soon recognized, and he was 
promptly elected justice of the peace, an 
office he now filli to the entire satisfaction 
of the general public. 'Squire Moore mar- 
ried Miss Amanda Detwiller, daughter of 
Amos Detwiller. They have one child, an 
infant boy, Amos, who was born on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1895. 



PROF. HENRY E. HARTZELL, the 
principal of the Sumneytown public 
schools and a popular educator of Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Michael and 
Catharine (Miller) Hartzell, and was born 
April 15, 1840, in the township of Freder- 
ick, this county. He is of German ancestry, 
but his great great-grandfather left the 
fatherland early in the eighteenth century 
and came to the new world, settling in 
Montgomery county. In Frederick town- 
ship, this county, was born George Hartzell, 
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
He was a man of good education for that 



Biographical Sketches. 



5i7 



time and did effective service as a teacher 
in the early educational history of Mont- 
gomery county. He was a great admirer 
of Andrew Jackson as a political leader, 
and helieved in a Jacksonian enforcement 
of the principles of the Jefferson school of 
political economists, and served the people 
of his township conscientiously and with 
marked ability in the judicial relation of a 
justice of the peace for a number of years. 
He was a very active church member, be- 
longing to the old Goshenhoppen Reformed 
church in Upper Salford township. He 
married Katie Croll, and to their marital 
alliance were born eight children. 

Michael Hartzell, father, was born in 
Frederick township in 1797, and died in 
Branchville on February 1, 1S59. He at- 
tended the subscription schools and ob- 
tained a good mental training, and then for 
twenty-four years was engaged in the pro- 
fession of teaching in the old subscription 
or " pay " schools of the county. While 
teaching, and for a time afterwards, em- 
bracing in all a period of about twenty-four 
years, he was assessor of Frederick town- 
ship. During the greater part of this time 
he resided upon a farm in Frederick town- 
ship, where he owned one hundred and 
eighteen acres of land, upon which most 
of his family was reared. In 1852 he re- 
moved to a farm in Upper Salford township, 
and was elected one of the county commis- 
sioners of Montgomery county for a term 
of three years. Afterwards he removed to 
Branchville, and the remainder of his life 
was engaged in the hotel business. He was 
a Democrat of pronounced views, and in 
addition to the political offices already 
mentioned served as school director a num- 
ber of years, and always took an active in- 
terest in the cause of popular education. 
He was a devoted and consistent member 



of the Reformed church, and was a man of 
recognized integrity and probity of charac- 
ter and of moral weight and influence in 
the community. His marriage union with 
Catharine Miller resulted in the birth of 
eleven children : Nathan, Jesse, George, 
Catherine, Michael, Elizabeth, Sarah, died 
in infancy ; Jonas, Sophia, Henry. Edwin 
and Annie. 

Professor Henry Edwin Hartzell received 
his educational training in the common 
schools of Frederick township and in 
Washington Hall college at the Trappe, 
then a popular institution of learning, and 
from the portals of which have gone forth 
many young men who afterwards distin- 
guished themselves in the professions and 
in the business world. Having obtained a 
liberal education Mr. Hartzell, in 1859, 
took a position as teacher in the public 
schools of the count}-, and has remained in 
the profession ever since, teaching in vari- 
ous townships and boroughs of the count}-, 
and in 1867 came to Sumueytown as 
principal of the schools of that borough, 
and has remained there ever since. During 
the winter season he is engaged in the 
teaching of the public school and during 
the summer as principal of the Sumuey- 
town academy. Professor Hartzell is a 
prominent and effective worker in the edu- 
cational field, and keeps fully abreast the 
educational progress of the day. He is an 
active member of the Montgomery county 
Reading society, of which body he was one 
of the organizers, and has been a member 
ever since. In the intervals since he has 
been connected with the Sumueytown pub- 
lic schools he has taught vocal music and 
has been leader of the Sumueytown cornet 
band since its organization. Politically he 
is a staunch believer in the principles of 
the Democratic part}-, with which party he 



5iS 



Biographical Sketches. 



has always voted. He served one term as 
justice of the peace of Marlborough town- 
ship, and has held various offices in the 
organization of the election board. He is a 
member of the Reformed church and an 
active worker in the Sunday school. Fra- 
ternallv he is a member of a number of 
well known orders, among which are the 
I. O. O. F., Scioto tribe, Improved Order of 
Red Men, and Green Lane Castle, Knights 
of the Golden Eagle. 

In January, 1S68, Professor Hartzell and 
Amanda, a daughter of Christian and Mary 
(Fry) Stitler, were united in marriage, and 
the following children bless this union : 
James B., a teacher by profession, but now 
employed as a clerk in Philadelphia ; Katie, 
a teacher by avocation ; Byron, died in in- 
fancy ; Ada, a teacher in the Sumneytown 
schools ; Perry, died in infancy ; Wayne, 
died in childhood ; Howard, Helen, Bessie, 
Grover, died in infancy ; Clifford and Ed- 
ward, died in infancy. 



DW. STETTLER, of Delphi P. O., 
• near Zieglersville, is one of the 
largest merchants in that section of the 
State, being engaged in the coal, lumber, 
flour and feed business. He is of American 
ancestry, and his family have been for 
generations residents of Montgomery 
county. He is the son of Christian and 
Kate Stettler and was born in Frederick 
township, April 30, 1856. A. D. Stettler 
was his paternal grandfather and resided 
in Frederick township all his life. He was 
a farmer on a very large scale, and his 
finely cultivated farm covered many acre^. 
In politics he was an active Republican, 
and a firm supporter of the principles of 
protection. He was a life-long member of 



the Lutheran church, and for many years 
was a deacon in the congregation. He 
married a Miss Schwenk. 

The father of the subject of this sketch 
was a prominent merchant and huckster of 
Frederick township. He was educated in 
the common schools and also attended col- 
lege. Later he owned and worked a large 
and profitable farm in the township, and 
was prosperous in all of his business under- 
takings Mr. Stettler was an earnest Chris- 
tian and a member of the Lutheran church, 
of which he was a trustee and elder for 
many years. He was the father of eight 
children, among whom are : Irvin, Sarah, 
Hiram, subject, Morris, Howard, and Lily, 
now wife of Doctor Neda. 

D. W. Stettler was given a public school 
education, and when he had finished there- 
went to Frederick institute, where he took 
a front place in his class. He left school 
at the age of twenty-three years and was 
engaged as a clerk for some time. He 
then went into the flour, feed, coal and 
lumber business at Delphi P. O., where he 
has since held a high place in business 
circles. His business is very extensive for 
such a region, amounting to over $40,000 
yearly. He is a Republican in politics and 
is very active. Mr. Stettler early identified 
himself with the Lutheran church and has 
always been an earnest Christian worker 
in the church of which he was a deacon. 
On January, 26, 1884, he married, and is 
the parent of one child, a son. 

Mr. Stettler is not only a prosperous 
merchant, but also owns a farm of one 
hundred and four acres, which he works 
with profit. In this and all his enterprises 
his conduct has been such as to bring him 
success and at the same time give him 
the high esteem of all with whom he comes 
in contact. 



Biographical Sketches. 



5i9 



JACOB H. LEISTER, who has been 
^J actively in business at North Wales 
for over a quarter of a century, is a son of 
Franklin and Mary Ann (Heavner) Leister, 
and was born in Marlborough township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, No- 
vember 8, 1838. His grandfather, Jacob 
Leister, was of German descent, and fol- 
lowed farming and powder-making in Marl- 
borough township, where he died in 1850, 
at sixty-two years of age. He was a Demo- 
crat and Lutheran and married a Miss 
Weidemyer, by whom he had the follow- 
ing children : Franklin Willoughby, Jacob, 
Hannah, and Mrs. John W. Loch. Frank- 
lin Leister was reared on the farm, and after 
his father's death, succeeded to the owner- 
ship of the home lands and the powder 
mill, the latter of which he had previously 
operated and which he had finally disposed 
of to the Du Pouts. After disposing of his 
powder works, he retired from active busi- 
ness, and died in 1892, aged eighty-four 
years. He was an old time Democrat, and 
a member of the Lutheran church, in which 
he served for a long period of time as a 
deacon. Mr. Leister wedded Mary Ann 
Heavner, who was born in 1808, and is 
still living. They had three children : 
Hannah, widow of G. Henderson ; Jacob 
H., and Mary, who died in childhood. 

Jacob H. Leister was reared in his own 
township, and left school at eighteen years 
of age, to remove to Norristown, where he 
learned the trade of tinner, which he fol- 
lowed in Philadelphia and Norristown and 
Doylestown, Bucks county, until 1867. In 
that year he came to North Wales, and 
started in the tin, stove and hardware busi- 
ness, which he followed most successfully 
for twenty years. He then was out of busi- 
ness for three years, at the end of which 
time, in 1890, he opened his present agri- 



cultural establishment and extensive coal 
yards, associating with him his son, under 
the firm name of J. H. Leister & Son. 

In 1863 Mr. Leister married Mary Reed, 
and to their union have been born seven 
children : Catharine and Amelia, dead ; 
Frank; Jacob and Milton, dead; Emma and 
Addie. 

Mr. Leister is a Democrat in politics, 
and a member and trustee of the Reformed 
church. He served as school director and 
as a councilman for twelve years, but when 
elected justice of the peace, refused to take- 
out his commission. He has been presi- 
dent of the North Wales board of trade for 
years. He has been a director for years of 
its improvement and water companies, and 
of its building and loan association. Jacob 
H. Leister is one of the pioneers of the 
early improvement and the later growth of 
North Wales. 



TAMES A. STEEN, of Conshohocken, a 
J prominent druggist, is the eldest son 
of John and Margaret (Armstrong) Steen, 
and was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, April 21, 1837. The name 
of Steen is of Scotch origin, and means a 
stone. John Steen was born at Euniskillen, 
in Ireland, and died aged fifty-two years. 
He was a man of good education, and at an 
early age came to Philadelphia, where he 
became a successful china and queens ware 
merchant, on Second street below South 
street. He became an old line Whig after 
coming to Philadelphia, where he united 
with the Wharton street Methodist Episco- 
pal church. He married Margaret Ann- 
strong. Of the nine children born unto 
them but four lived to reach man- 
hood and womanhood : James A., subject ; 



52o 



Biographical Sketches. 



Mary L., wife of Isaac T. Sharp ; Jose- 
phine, who died at eighteen years of age, 
and John F., whose death occurred at 
twenty-five years of age. 

James A. Steen received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools and the Episco- 
pal academy, of Philadelphia, and at six- 
teen years of age left school to learn the 
druggist business. He was employed in 
various drug stores and finally became an 
assistant in Dr. W. F. Patterson's drug 
establishment. While serving with Dr. 
Patterson he took the full course at the 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, from 
which institution he was graduated in the 
class of 1857. Immediately after gradua- 
tion he secured a position at Columbia, 
South Carolina, which he held for two 
years, and then after a visit home went to 
Raleigh, North Carolina, where he re- 
mained two years. He then, in i860, went 
to Pine Bluff City, Jefferson county, Arkan- 
sas, at which place he resided until he- 
secured the position of surgeon, steward 
and apothecary at the Philadelphia naval 
asylum. Two and one-half years later he 
went to Norfolk, Virginia, in the same 
capacity, and eighteen months later ac- 
cepted a similar position at the United 
States naval academy at Annapolis, Mary- 
land, where he remained for a year and a 
half. Leaving Annapolis he removed to 
Philadelphia, and in 1871 came to Consho- 
hocken, where he was a partner for nine 
years in the drug business with James W. 
Harry. At the end of that time he pur- 
chased the drug house of R. M. Service, at 
No. 241 Hector street, and has enlarged 
and remodeled the building until he now 
has a commodious and well appointed drug 
establishment. Mr. Steen gives careful 
attention to the filling of physicians' pre- 
scriptions, for which he is specially quali- 



fied, aud has secured a large and remuner- 
ative patronage in the general drug and pre- 
scription business. He is a Republican in 
politics, and has served for two terms as a 
member of the school board. He is a mem- 
ber of Fritz lodge, Free and Accepted 
Masons, Knights of the Golden Eagle, and 
the Protestant Episcopal church, in which 
he is a vestryman. 

On June 2, 1875 Mr. Steen married Eliza 
Ann Baxter, a daughter of James Baxter, 
of Conshohocken. Mr. and Mrs. Steen 
have three children : H. Baxter, who gradu- 
ated [in the mechanic arts from Drexel In- 
stitute in the class of 1895 ; Margaret Jose- 
phine, stenographer and assistant office 
manager for the Chester L. Smith Manu- 
facturing company, of Norristown, and 
Helen Armstrong, now attending school. 



HON. JOHN S. HUNSICKER, who 
was born in Perkioinen township, on 
November 19, 1837, is descended from Ger- 
man ancestry that has performed an impor- 
tant part in the making of history in cen- 
tral and eastern Pennsylvania. He is now 
fifty-eight years old, and during the whole 
of the time since reaching his majority 
he has been a prominent figure in the 
affairs of the locality in which he lived. 
In this he again strongly resembles the 
men from whom he is descended. His 
grandfather was born in Skippack town- 
ship, and passed his life in a dual capacity 
and with equal success. He tilled the soil 
of a large farm and also preached the gos- 
pel according to the tenets of the Reformed 
church. He was a godly man and went 
down to his grave in November, 1847, full 
of years and honor. He was a Whig in 
political faith, and for his time was a well- 



Biographical Sketches. 



521 



informed man. He was survived by six 
children ; Joseph, Henry, Mary, Elizabeth, 
Garret I), and Sarah. 

Henry Hnnsieker, father of John, was 
born in March, 1802. He received the 
advantage of the schools of his day and 
became a farmer. He owned a farm of 
one hundred and seventy-five acres, rich in 
soil and very profitable. He voted and 
worked with the Republican party and his 
zeal was rewarded by election to the posi- 
tion of justice of the peace, which he held 
about eight years, and assessor. He was a 
devout Christian and active church worker. 
He was one of the first trustees of the 
Collegeville church, and was always de- 
voted in the cause. He married Kate 
Shoemaker, and this union was blessed 
with nine children : Elizabeth, died at the 
age of fifteen ; Erias ; Francis ; Mary, who 
became the wife of Rev. Mailley ; Barbara, 
who died young; John S., the subject of 
this sketch ; Sarah, wife of D. D. Halde- 
man ; Isaac, who died young ; and Kate, 
who is the wife of John Umstad. Mr. 
Hnnsieker died in May, 1S65. 

Hon. John S. Hnnsieker, of whom this 
sketch especially treats, started his school 
life at a tender age in the common schools 
of the district. He afterwards finished his 
education with five winter terms at Free- 
land seminary, now Ursinus college. Fol- 
lowing this he went on a farm and has 
been following that occupation ever since. 
He owns a large and fertile farm and is 
successful in its management. He always 
affiliated with the Republican party, was a 
hard worker in the ranks, and held several 
more or less responsible positions, among 
them being assessor for five years and jus- 
tice of the peace for eight. Throughout 
his political career he has been noted for 
his honesty of purpose and square dealing 



with both friend and foe. Mr. Hnnsieker 
is a member of the Reformed church at 
Collegeville and has always taken a leading 
part in the affairs of the church. He was 
a deacon and a trustee of this congrega- 
tion for a number of years, a teacher of the 
Sunday school for fifteen years, and finally 
superintendent. 

< )n February 2, 1862, Mr. Hnnsieker 
married Louise F., daughter of Abraham 
E. Cole, who was a well-to-do farmer. Five 
children were born to this couple : Anna, 
born December 18, 1862, the wife of H. T. 
Hnnsieker; Mary, born July 30, 1864, and 
married to I. F. Savior; Elmer E., died 
young ; Wi lmer C, born October 17, 1868 ; 
and Henry C, born December 29, 1871. 



MAHLON J. GERHART, the head of 
the East Greenville Marble works, is 
a business man well known throughout the 
county. He has been in business in East 
Greenville since 1870, and has been very 
successful in all of his enterprises. Born 
and raised on a farm, still he was given the 
advantage of a good education, and has 
combined the marble business with agri- 
cultural pursuits to good advantage. He 
is a son of John F. and Leah (Kemmerer) 
Gerhart, and was born May 18, 1840, near 
New Goshenhoppen church in Upper 
Hanover township, Montgomery county, 
and is a descendant of German ancestry, 
his forefathers having been among the early 
settlers of this part of the State. 

Mr. Gerhart received his education at 
Freeland seminary, now Ursinus college, 
under Prof. H. A. Hnnsieker. He also 
took a course in music under Prof. Her- 
mann, as a private scholar and received ex- 
cellent instruction. After graduation he 



522 



Biographical Sketches. 



returned to the farm and assisted his father 
in working his fertile fields. About this 
time he married Man- Ann, daughter of 
George Gery, who was a prosperous farmer 
and a prominent member of the Goshen- 
hoppen church, in which he served as 
deacon, elder and trustee. Mr. Gerhart re- 
mained with his father on the farm at New 
Goshenhoppeu church until April i, 1895, 
when he removed to East Greenville and 
purchased a fine residence. He is still sole 
owner and manager of the East Greenville 
Marble works and employs five hands, who 
are kept busy all the year. The business 
of these works embraces all of the several 
kinds of ornamental stone work, and many 
fine granite monuments have been turned 
out by the establishment. His trade ex- 
tends over a wide district of the county, 
and he may be said to be one of the solid 
men of the region. Mr. Gerhart is at pres- 
ent organist of Pennsburg Reformed church, 
and is a musician of merit. For over forty 
years he was the organist at New Goshen- 
hoppen Reformed church, but resigned in 
1894. At one time he was also organist 
for the Swamp Trinity Reformed church 
and filled that post for fifteen years. He 
has always been very active in church af- 
fairs and Sunday school work. In politi- 
cal tendencies, Mr. Gerhart early cast his 
lot with the Republican party, but he never 
held or aspired to public office. He is a 
public spirited man, however, and always 
takes an interest in anything that is calcu- 
lated to subserve the welfare of his com- 
munity and the people among whom he 
lives. 

Mr. Gerhart's union with Mary Ann 
Gery was blessed with five children : Cora, 
is the wife of F. M. Mall, a well-to-do mer- 
chant ; Sallie L., was married to Dr. O. F. 
Gery, a prominent young physician, who 



is now located at Chapel, Berks county ; 
George Clement; one dead; Paul A., is a 
book-keeper at Philadelphia and is a gradu- 
ate of Pierce's Business college ; Katie R., 
is still unmarried and resides with her 
parents. 



FG. BIGONY, M. D., of Lansdale, is a 
• young practitioner who, in a few 
years, has gained a large clientele and 
has won the respect and confidence of the 
people of his neighborhood. He is of 
French extraction, though his ancestors 
have resided in this country for a number 
of generations. His grandfather was Joseph 
Bigony, a farmer by occupation, which he 
followed all his life. He was a Democrat 
in political belief and took a great interest 
in party work. As a farmer he was very 
successful and gave his children the benefit 
of good educational advantages. 

Dr. F. W. Bigony, his son, and the father 
of the subject of this sketch, finished the 
public school course, studied medicine and 
graduated from Jefferson Medical college. 
He opened an office in Skippackville and 
practiced his profession there until he re- 
moved to Doylestown. From there he went 
to Line Lexington, and finally settled at 
Montgomeryville, where he is enjoying a 
large and lucrative practice. He is a Dem- 
ocrat and an active politician, being a 
leader in his district. He is also a very 
prominent member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. His marriage union 
was blessed with seven offspring. 

Dr. F. G. Bigony attended the public 
schools, aftei wards took a nine months' 
course at Doylestown seminary, and then 
began to read medicine under his father. 
He attended Jefferson college and gradu- 
ated with honor March 29, 1884. He first 



Biographical Sketches. 



523 



located at Line Lexington and remained 
there until 1887, when he came to Lansdale 
and made it his home. Here he found a 
large field and has been prosperous. He is 
very popular, and being full of the spirit of 
progress and enterprise, is a prominent and 
valued citizen. He is a Democrat and a 
member of the Independent Order of ( kid 
Fellows. He married Ida, daughter of 
Rufus Yerkes, on June 7, 1888, and they 
have had four children : Marie O., born 
January 27, 1891 ; Rufus G., born June 24, 
1892, now dead ; Carl R, born June 2, 1893, 
ami Margaret, born in 1894. 



[ SHELLY WEINBERGER. A few 
kJ • miles northwest of Quakertown, in 
the township of Milford and the county of 
Bucks, stand three Mennonite meeting- 
houses, within a radius of less than a mile, 
and no others within a range of several 
miles. The country is a fine open level, 
and is still known as " the Swamp." Sixty 
years ago the citizens of the place almost 
exclusively held the religious faith of the 
Mennonites, and on the presidential elec- 
tion cast their ballots for the Whig candi- 
date. The school house was attached to 
the meeting house, and the most advanced 
in scholarship was generally called on to 
become the schoolmaster. The true genius 
of the Pennsylvania Germans was well dis- 
played in this locality. The inhabitants 
were farmers, with the exception of a few 
mechanics and store-keepers, and were early 
noted for sobriety, industry, non-resistance 
and shunning of debt. Not to pay one's debts 
was considered a marked disgrace, and to 
sue, unrighteous. The dictates of con- 
science were regarded far more binding 
than statute law. Their over- cautious 



habits, however, prevented them from tak- 
ing the initiative in any new enterprise, 
and the fact that a thing was new was 
thought sufficient ground for its rejection. 
Hence their slow progress in their early 
history. 

Amidst surroundings and associations of 
this kind lived the Weinberger family in 
humble style, having the Bible, hymn-book, 
prayer-book, and a few printed sermons for 
a library. Joseph Weinberger's grand- 
parents emigrated from the borders of the 
Rhine, in Germany, to this country. He 
was married to Mary Shelly, and to them 
were born four daughters, and one son, 
John Shelly Weinberger, named after his 
maternal grandfather, John Shelly. Joseph 
Weinberger could read and write German, 
and was esteemed for his correct habits and 
resoluteness, and died in the eighty-first 
year of his age, while his mother had be- 
come almost a centenarian. Young Wein- 
berger was educated in the common schools 
as they were conducted fifty-five years ago. 

When seventeen years of age he joined 
the church of his parents. In addition to 
subscribing to the creed he promised to 
obey the regulations of the church and to 
preach if the lot would fall on him. 
Bishop John H. Oberholtzer was the dis- 
trict school teacher. His increasing parish 
labors divided his time unfavorably for 
discharging the duties of either office. 
When young Weinberger was nineteen 
years of age the bishop asked him to suc- 
ceed him as teacher. The local director 
proposed to make it easy by requiring but 
a partial examination and allowing the 
novice to attend a term at boarding school 
before the district school would commence. 
Meanwhile his brother-in-law, Rev. Henry 
A. Huusicker, principal of Freeland semi- 
nary, was paying the family a social visit, 



524 



Biographical Sketches. 



and was urging the young man by all 
means to accept the proposition. That 
was the turning point of his future career. 
The attendance of one term at a seminary 
gave no little weight to the young teacher's 
standing in the estimation of the com- 
munity, and he succeeded far above his 
own expectations, especially in discipline. 
Having completed the winter session, he 
drew his pay and went to Freeland semi- 
nary for two terms during the summer, the 
directors not requiring him to come home 
to attend examination, as he had given 
satisfaction the previous winter. When 
twenty-one years of age he resolved to take 
a collegiate course and make teaching his 
profession. The resolution was strong, 
but the funds were wanting. Rev. Daniel 
Weiser offered to provide the means if 
young Weinberger would become a Re- 
formed clergyman. His brother-in-law 
proposed to loan him all the money to 
insure an independent course. After the 
father became fully acquainted with the 
strong resolution of his son, he resolved to 
furnish half the sum required and take 
notes for the other half. The way now 
was clear, and he concluded to prepare for 
Yale college, where his classical teachers, 
Wayne MaeVeagh and William L. Wil- 
liamson, had lately graduated. Two years' 
study, besides teaching and acting as pre- 
fect in Freeland seminary for board, amidst 
many discouragements, regrets and morti- 
fications, was regarded sufficient prepara- 
tion for entering an eastern college. 

In the second week of September, 1855, 
John Hunter Worrall, a senior, Joseph 
Alonzo Christinau, a junior, Henry Royer, 
a sophomore, and J. Shelly Weinberger, 
an applicant for admission, all of Mont- 
gomery county, started for Yale college. 
In the evening they found lodging at the 



Florence hotel, in the great metropolis, 
and on the following noon arrived at the 
City of Elms. Weinberger became Mr. 
Worrall's protege in all the preliminary 
arrangements for appearing to the best 
advantage in Alumni hall for examination. 
The applicant became a member of the 
Freshman class of '59, numbering one hun- 
dred and fifty-three. He spent four profit- 
able years at college, towards the close 
changed places with some whose early 
training had been far more favorable, and 
at the age of twenty-seven graduated with 
respectable honors. On the Monday fol- 
lowing the commencement of his alma 
mater he took his place in Freeland semi- 
nary as teacher of ancient and modern 
languages. He saved all of his salary he 
could for two years to pay his note, when 
he considered himself financially free, and 
had but a meagre balance to his credit. 
He entered into a new covenant by marry- 
ing a young lady of fine intellectual en- 
dowments and good taste, Miss Emma 
Kratz, daughter of Jacob S. Kratz, of 
i Plumstead, Bucks county. In 1863 he pur- 
chased a small farm, stock and all, moved 
on the farm, and managed it successfully 
without interfering with his teaching. 

After having taught for Mr. Hunsicker 
for six years, the school was leased for five 
years to Mr. Adam H. Fetterolf, now Dr. 
Fetterolf, president of Girard college. The 
services of Mr. Weinberger had previously 
been secured, and he became Mr. Fetterolf 's 
right-hand man in governing unruly boys 
and teaching refractory classes. Before 
Mr. Fetterolf's lease had expired Freeland 
seminary was sold to the board of directors 
of Ursinus college. The constitution of 
the college provides that one-fourth of the 
board may consist of members not belong- 
ing to the Reformed church. In the elec- 



Biographical Sketches. 



525 



tion of the facility it was considered wise 
by the board to make J. Shelly Weinberger 
a member, to represent the old element in 
the school, a stroke of policy for which 
there has been no cause for regret. He 
saved for the college one-half of the 
students of Freehand seminary, some of 
whom subsequently graduated. He ren- 
dered valuable aid to the Reformed breth- 
ren in their efforts to put the college on a 
firm basis and in their endeavors to estab- 
lish a good system of discipline. 

Professor Weinberger for some years 
studied the co-education of the sexes in 
colleges by reading all the books treating 
on the subject at his command, pro and 
con. Besides his own theory, the experi- 
ence of Oberlin college for fifty years, as 
well as that of other colleges which opened 
their doors to ladies at more recent periods, 
satisfied him that it is the natural and nor- 
mal way to educate, as mind knows no sex. 
Being acquainted with the difficulties 
which have to be overcome to introduce 
the system and make it effective at Ursi- 
nus, he proposed what he thought might 
prove an entering wedge. He made a re- 
quest that his daughter should be allowed 
to enter the college classes, proposing to 
pay for her tuition the same as if she were 
a son. The school had just commenced its 
session, and immediate action on the re- 
quest was painful and every intimation un- 
favorable. After a consideration of one 
week the request was granted with the 
understanding that no others be allowed to 
enter should they apply. Everything 
went on as before, and at the end of the 
scholastic year, Dr. Super, the vice-presi- 
dent, and Professor Weinberger were ap- 
pointed a committee to present an over 
ture to the board of directors to admit 
young ladies as day pupils into the institu- 



tion. The board reported favorably, and 
the president of the faculty in his next 
annual report stated that "the experiment 
of admitting young ladies had proved the 
wisdom of the measure." 

The quarter-centennial of the office of 
teacher in the different halls, on the same 
grounds, through three successive admin- 
istrations, was celebrated on the 26th of 
June, 1884, by the graduation of his only 
child, Minerva, who was the valedictorian 
in a class of nine, and the first lady gradu- 
ate in the classical department of Ursinus 
college. 

In 1884 he became a member of the Cen- 
tennial Association of Montgomery county, 
and served as committeeman of the upper 
district of Upper Providence. Each elec- 
tion district was asked to subscribe one 
hundred dollars. In two days after he re- 
ceived his papers he had raised his quota of 
one hundred dollars in paid up subscrip- 
tions. On his favorable report the com- 
mittee on finance began to breath more 
freely. Others fell in line and a fund of 
three thousand, five hundred and fifty dol- 
lars soon promised to make an assumed 
success of the coming centennial celebra- 
tion. After a successful celebration a hand- 
some balance of money was left in the 
treasurer's hands. It was proposed to spend 
the residue on a grand banquet. The pro- 
fessor objected to this as he said the funds 
were subscribed for the benefit of the citi- 
zens of Montgomery county and not for 
private use. He offered a resolution to 
place the money in mortgage trust forever 
for the benefit of Montgomery County His- 
torical society, the projector of the cele- 
bration. Some of the lawyers opposed the 
measure violently, but the good sense of the 
committeemen from the country districts 
prevailed, and it was so ordered. He be- 



526 



Biographical Sketches. 



came a member of the Historical society at 
that time. 

In 1889 he was chairman of the com- 
mittee of arrangements to celebrate the 
fortieth anniversary of the founding of Free- 
land seminary, on which occasion he de- 
livered a neat address of welcome, which 
called forth hearty response from Rev. H. 
A. Hunsicker, principal of Freeland semi- 
nary for seventeen years ; A. H. Fetterolf, 
LL. D., president of Girard college ; Milton 
T. Urner, a prominent lawyer and ex-con- 
gressman of Frederick, Maryland ; John M. 
Vanderslice, Esq., of Philadelphia ; and 
Hon. George N. Corson, of Norristown. 

J. A. Strassburger, Esq., of Norristown, 
and Professor Brunner, congressman elect 
from Berks county, made the after dinner 
speeches of the occasion. 

Prof. Weinberger served as professor of 
Latin and Greek in Ursinus college, 1870 
87, and has been professor of the Greek 
language and literature since 1887. He 
ranked as senior professor for twenty years 
and after the death of the first president, he 
held the second place in the faculty until 
the election of the second president in 1892, 
when he was elected dean of Ursinus 
college. 

In 1890 he was elected by the board of 
directors as a member of the building com- 
mittee of which Robert Patterson was 
chairman, to erect Bomberger Memorial 
hall. This token of honor he accepted with 
some reluctance, but all apprehensions were 
soon removed by an intimate acquaintance 
with Mr. Patterson, from whose noble pur- 
poses he learned that the college was 
building better than it knew. 

The Professor has had different offers 
since graduation to become principal or 
president of higher institutions, all of which 
he declined, preferring a less responsible 



position, as increasing responsibility weighs 
heavily upon him. He was a contributor 
to the Reformed Church Monthly. Among 
the addresses delivered in connection with 
his official duties are notably one on "Con- 
science," and another on " Success." Lec- 
tures on forestry were delivered by him 
when the question was first agitated in the 
State, and he has been president of the 
Montgomery county branch of the Penn- 
sylvania Forestry association for many 
years. The master-piece of his literary pro- 
ductions outside of his profession is an ad- 
dress on " Objective History," delivered at 
the Inter-County Historical meeting, at 
Ambler Park, June 10, 1S86. A reporter 
commenting on this piece of literature now 
in history, says that philosophy and criti- 
cism are natural to the speaker. 

The professor has always been closely in 
touch with all public interests in his com- 
munity and has discharged the duties of 
various trusts committed to him, and has 
been styled "the business professor." 

He was senior elder for many years in 
Trinity Christian church, and since its con- 
nection with the Reformed church, he re- 
presented it in classis three successive years, 
and was once a delegate to synod. He con- 
tributes to the interests of the mid-week 
prayer meeting and teaches his class regu- 
larly in Sunday school. 

He has been teaching the second genera- 
tion for some time. The sons in many cases 
have related incidents told by their fathers. 
Prof. Weinberger is the only member of the 
faculty from the start remaining in it at 
the present time. His relation with the 
educational institution of the place has been 
unique. For thirty-six consecutive years he 
has been a teacher here. He has always 
been the connecting link between the old 
and the new. 



Biographical Sketches. 



527 



He has been a successful teacher and dis- 
ciplinarian, and a true servant. The Re- 
formed Church Almanac savs : " His in- 
herent force of character and positive man- 
ner and expression tend to develop manli- 
ness and decision in the student. Prof. 
Weinberger contributes important qualities 
to the faculty of Ursinus." Another says, 
" There are but two tender spots in the 
professor's make-up, a tender conscience 
and a tender heart." 

He is now sixty-three years of age and 
lives in a modest home fronting on the main 
street of Collegeville. He has been hon- 
ored with the degrees, Master of Arts and 
Doctor of Laws. 



HENRY U. BRUNNER, a district 
attorney from 1871 to 1875, is a son 
of Frederick and Lydia (Umsted) Brunner, 
and a native of Worcester township, this 
county, where he was born, December 23, 
1841. The family is of German origin and 
trace their lineage back to the ancient 
palatines, or high officials with royal 
preogatives, in an unbroken line of descent. 
Its first representatives in America were two 
brothers, who left the fatherland early in 
1720, and after a long and tempestuous 
voyage landed at Philadelphia in the 
autumn of that year and settled, one in 
what is now Montgomery county, and the 
other in the county of Berks. From these 
two emigrants are supposed to be descended 
all the numerous Brunners now in this 
country. Thev each reared a large family, 
but the biographer lacks the necessary data 
to trace them carefully, and will only say 
that two of their descendants, uncles of the 
subject of this sketch, served with distinc- 
tion in the War of 1812, and that others 



have been among the useful and respected 
citizens of Montgomery county and Eastern 
Pennsylvania. PYederiek Brunner, paternal 
grandfather of Henry Y . Brunner, was a 
blacksmith and farmer by occupation, a 
Jacksonian Democrat in politics, and an 
adherent of the German Reformed church. 
He passed nearly his entire life in Mont- 
gomery county. He married and reared a 
family of several children, one of his sons 
being Frederick Brunner (father), who was 
born in Worcester township, this county, 
in 1797. The latter obtained a good com- 
mon school education, and after arriving at 
man's estate engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits, which he followed all his life. Like 
his father, he was an ardent Democrat in 
politics, and served as school director for a 
period of six years, between 1850 and i860. 
He was a member of the Reformed church, 
and died at his home in Worcester town- 
ship, this county, December 1, 1869, aged 
seventy-two years. He married Lydia Um- 
sted, and by that union had a family of 
children, only seven of whom now survive : 
Joseph, Albert, Franklin, Jacob, Henry U., 
Samuel, and Hannah, now the wife of 
George M. Weber, of Worcester township. 
The deceased were : Julia A., Mary, Eliza- 
beth, Isabella, Frederick and Daniel (twins), 
Benjamin, John, Lydia and Elizabeth, the 
last named dying in infancy. 

Henry U. Brunner was reared on the old 
homestead in Worcester township, this 
county, and attended the public schools un- 
til his sixteenth year. By that time he 
had acquired a very good common school 
education and began teaching in the dis- 
trict schools of this county. After four 
winters passed in that employment he en- 
tered Franklin and Marshall college in the 
spring of i860, and was graduated from 
that institution early in 1864. He then 



528 



Biographical Sketches. 



taught a select school in Westmoreland 
county, and at the same time began the 
study of law with the late Hon. Henry I). 
Foster, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Hav- 
ing completed his preparation and passed 
the usual examination he was admitted to 
the bar of Westmoreland county in August, 
1866, and in September of the same year 
was admitted to practice in the courts of 
Montgomerv countv. He at once located 
at Norristown, where he has been engaged 
in a lucrative general practice ever since. 
He has been solicitor fjr a number of 
county officers and is a member of the com- 
mittee on records for the county of Mont- 
gomery. 

In the year 187 1 Mr. Brunner was elected 
to the office of district attorney, and served 
acceptably until 1875. His administration 
of the office was alike creditable to himself 
and conducive to the public welfare. In 
his more than a quarter of a century of 
general practice in the courts of Eastern 
Pennsylvania, he has been connected with 
many important actions, among which may 
be mentioned the Curling murder case in 
1875, the Supplee libel case in 1879, and 
the Hoskins and Earnest case, in all of 
which he prominently figured. 

On August 7, 1872, Mr. Brunner was 
united in marriage to Mary A. Houpt, a 
daughter of the late Isaiah B. Houpt, of 
Norristown. To. Mr. and Mrs. Brunner 
have been born two children, one son and a 
daughter : Blanche and Charles H., the 
latter now a member of the Freshman class 
at the alma mater of his father, Franklin 
and Marshall college, Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
vania. In his political affiliations Mr. 
Brunner is a Democrat, and for many years 
has taken an active part in local politics. 
He has been officially identified with the 
Democratic county committee, and is re- 1 



garded as among the conservative and far- 
seeing leaders of his party in Montgomery 
countv. 



HON. CHARLES H. STIXSON, one 
of the most efficient and popular pub- 
lic men that Montgomery county has ever 
produced, is a son of Hon. Robert and 
Elizabeth (Porter) Stinson, and was born in 
Xorriton township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, June 28, 1825. The Stinsons 
are of sturdy Scotch-Irish descent, and in- 
herit all the worthy traits of their celebra- 
ted and distinguished race. Hon. Robert 
Stinson was a man of prominence and 
worth, and led a life above reproach and 
worthy of imitation. He was a justice of 
the peace for many years and served as an 
anti-Masonic member of the legislature of 
Pennsylvania in 1836. He married Eliza- 
beth Porter, daughter of Stephen Porter 
and niece to General Andrew Porter. 

Chas. H. Stinson was reared in his native 
county, and after completing his academic 
course entered Dickinson college, at Car- 
lisle, this State, from which institution of 
learning he was graduated in the class of 
1845. His hard work at college im- 
paired his health, and he spent a year 
very profitably to himself physically in 
traveling through several mountainous 
sections of the State. At the end 
of that time he returned home and read law 
with his brother, George W. Stinson, of 
Norristown, until the death of the latter in 
1848. After this sad event he completed 
his legal studies under Addison May, and 
and was admitted to the Montgomery 
county bar May 22, 1849. Immediately 
after admission to the bar, Mr. Stinson en- 
tered upon the practice of his profession at 
Norristown, where he has remained ever 



Biographical Sketches. 



529 



since. He practices in the courts of Mont 
gomery and adjoining counties, where he is 
known as a lawyer of ability, diligence and 
honesty. 

In politics Mr. Stinson is a Republican. 
He refused the nomination of his party for 
State senator in 1864, but three years later 
was prevailed upon to accept it, and was 
elected with Dr. Werthington, of West 
Chester, this State, to represent the counties 
of Montgomery, Chester and Delaware. He 
served on the general judiciary and other 
prominent committees of the State senate 
in 1868, and was elected speaker in 1869. 
He was re-elected to that office in 1870, and 
presided with such dignity, fairness and 
general acceptation to all parties as to com- 
mand general respect and make his brief 
political career one of honor and worthy of 
record. 

Shortly after retiring from the political 
field and refusing any further nominations, 
he declined the appointment of additional 
law judge of Montgomery and Bucks coun- 
ties, tendered him by Governor John \V. 
Geary. In April, 1882, Governor Hoyt ap- 
pointed Senator Stinson president judge of 
the thirty-eighth judicial district to fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge 
Henrv P. Ross. Senator Stinson took his 
place on the bench and by the urbanity of 
his manner and the prompt, accurate and 
impartial discharge of every duty of his 
position made as worthy a judicial record 
as he had a political career. In the autumn 
he was the unanimous choice of his party 
for judge, but the district being largely 
Democratic he was defeated, although pop- 
ular and running ahead of his ticket. 

Judge Stinson has always been philan- 
thropic and patriotic, and throughout the 
late Civil war was an earnest supporter of 
the Union, serving as a private in an eraer- 

34 



gency company called into the Gettysburg 
campaign when the legions of Lee threat- 
ened Pennsylvania. Judge Stinson has 
also been active and useful in varous ways 
to his fellow citizens. lie was one of the 
organizers and is the solicitor of the First 
National bank, of Norristown, ami served 
as a trustee of the hospital for the insane of 
Southeastern Pennsylvania. While serv- 
ing in the latter position he was instru- 
mental in breaking the old hospital system 
of this country, and placed a woman phy- 
sician at the head of the women's depart- 
ment. The results of this change in hos- 
pital management of the insane have been 
so beneficial that every hospital for the in- 
sane will soon have a woman for chief 
physician of the women's department. In 
private and public life Judge Charles H. 
Stinson has been faithful and efficient in 
the discharge of every duty devolving upon 
him. 



HUGH MclNNIS, a self-made man and 
a leading manufacturer of Norris- 
town, is a son of John and Martha (Hunter) 
Mclnnis. John Mclnnis was born in Ren- 
freeshire, Scotland, from which place he 
emigrated to America and came to Phila- 
delphia, where he was killed. He estab- 
lished the first carpet manufactory in Phila- 
delphia, and for several years was engaged 
in burning lime, in which he dealt, at No. 
1328 North Ninth street, the oldest lime 
market stand in the city. In politics he 
was a Republican and in religious matters 
a member of the Presbyterian church, in 
the success of which he was deeply inter- 
ested. He was a member of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows and was highly 
respected as a citizen. He was united in 
marriage with Martha Hunter, by whom 



532 



Biographical Sketches. 



ss and has over since conducted a very 
large establishment, his stock being esti- 
mated at $6,000. He is a man of thorough 
business capacity and gives his affairs close 
personal attention. 

Politically Mr. Christian is a Democrat 
and has always been most active in the 
work oi his party. For tour years he was 
assistant postmaster of the town and tor 
two terms has held the position of post- 
master. He has also held several 
offices and is very popular in the party. In 
gion he is an active Christian and a 
member oi the Reformed church. He mar- 
ried Sarah Krat/. daughter of Isaac and 
Kate Krat.:. They have only had one 
child, who died young. 

Mr. Christian is respected in the district 
in which he lives and has always been 
earnest in the advocacy of local improve- 
ment. 



EPHRAIM C. BOORSE, now resident 
of Norristown, and a retired coal and 
lumber operator, is a sou o{ Henry C. 
and Susan (Cassel) Boorse, and was born 
in Towamenein township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1SJ5. 
He was reared on the farm, received his 
education in the local pay and the early 
common schools, and then engaged in farm- 
ing, which he quit four years later to em- 
bark in the lumber and coal business. His 
yards were near JefFersonville, in Norriton 
township, and he handled a large amount 
of lumber and coal. After fourteen years 
spent in the lumber and coal business, he 
sold out and bought a farm, which he tilled 
for sixteen years. At the end oi that time, 
Mr. Boorse retired from all active business 
pursuits and removed to his present resi- 
dence at Xo. 1340 DeKalb street, Norris- 



town. Mr. Boorse through life has been 
strictly a conservative business man with 
no turn of mind for rash or speculative 
ventures. 

On March 10, 1845, ^' r Boorse married 
Elizabeth K. Ziegler, a daughter of Abra- 
ham K. and Rachel iKrause^ Ziegler. Mr. 
and Mrs. Boorse have six children: Isaiah C, 
Susan A.. Clara C, wife of James Hoffman, 
of Norriton township ; Harry A., Lizzie A., 
now engaged in teaching in the State of 
California ; and Mary C., a teacher in the 
Lansdale schools of this county. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boorse are members ot the 
Mennouite church, while all of their child- 
ren have united with the Presbyterian 
church. 

The ancestor o( the American Boorse 
family was Harman Boors, who came from 
Holland and settled about 1750, in what is 
now Towamenein township, where he 
owned property, and resided near Kulps- 
ville. His business affairs required him to 
re-visit his native country several times, 
and on his last voyage he died at sea. He 
had five sons, ol whom three: Peter, Arnold 
and Harman, jr., were married. Harman, 
jr., was a farmer, and married and reared a 
family. His children were : John, Mar- 
garet, Peter, Henry, Anna Catharine. 
Sibilla, Susanna and Elizabeth. 

John Boorse was born October 17, 170;, 
wedded Elizabeth Cassel June S, T707, and 
died January 26, 1S47. His children were: 
Henry C. , Magdalena, Peter, Daniel, Joseph, 
Harman, Jacob, Catharine, Mary and 
Hubert. Henry C. Boorse, father, was born 
October 14, 1700, and was reared on the 
old Boorse farm that has been in the pos- 
session of the family for nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty years. He was a farmer and 
held several local offices during his lifetime. 
He married Susanna Cassel, who died April 



Bk ".!■: vphic \i. Sketches. 



533 



6, 1856. Mr. Boorse survived his wife 
thirteen years, dying April 26, [869. To 
Henry C. and Susanna (Cassel) Boorse were 
born five children : Barbara, Bphraim C, 

subject ; John C, Catharine and Susan. 



DANIEL WEBSTER SHELLY, M.D., 
a physician in active practice at 
Ambler, is a son of Isaac II. and Susan 
(Mover) Shelly, and was born in Milford 
township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, 
August 10, i860. The ShelK' family of 
which Dr. Shelly is a member is descended 
from Henry, one of three Shelly brothers, 
who came from Platney, Germany, and 
settled shortly after the commencement of 
the last century in Lehigh and Bucks 
counties. In line of direct descent from 
this immigrant, Henry Shell)-, was an 
other Henry Shelly (grandfather), who was 
a farmer and Mennonite and resided in 
Rucks count)-, where he married Elizabeth 
High, by whom he had one child, Isaac 
H. Shelly, the father of the subject of this 
sketch. Isaac II. Shelly attended Ursinus 
college and learned the trade of miller. 
His fust employment was in a store at 
Vera Cruz, in Lehigh county, and later en- 
gaged in farming and milling in Lower 
Milford township, that count)-, but soon re- 
moved to Bucks county, where he con- 
ducted a general mercantile business for 
ten years. At the end of that time he re- 
moved to Quakertown, Lucks count)-, where 
lu has been engaged in the general mer- 
cantile business ever since. Mr. Shelly is 
an active Republican and a consistent mem- 
ber of the Mennonite church, and has 
served for several years as a director of the 
Quakertown National bank, In 1S55 he 
married Susan Mover. The}- have two 



children : James II. and Dr. It. \Y., whose 
name appears at the head of this sketch. 
Dr. I). W. Shelly was reared in his native 
township until he was eight years of age, 
when he was brought to Pleasant Valley. 
He received his education in the public' 
schools, Quakertown high and the Men- 
nonite academy, of Wadsworth, < >hio, con- 
ducted by a Professor Shell)-, who was a 
distant relative. Leaving school he com- 
menced the stud)' of medicine in 1S7.X in 
the medical department of the University 
of Pennsylvania, from which he was gradu- 
ated as an honor man in the class of [882. 
Immediately after graduation he came to 
Ambler, where has been actively and suc- 
cessful lv engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession up to the present time. Dr. Shell) 
stands well in his profession, being a mem- 
bei of the Montgomery county and the 
Pennsylvania State Medical societies. 

< >n < >ctober 9, 1885, Dr. Shelly married 
Lydia S. Acuff. To their union have been 
born four children, three sons and a daugh- 
ter : Isaac H., James H., J. Marshall and 
Mary, deceased. 

Dr. Shelly is a Republican, and has been 
elected for a second term as burgess of 
Ambler. He is a member of the Mennon- 
ite church and Spring House lodge, Inde- 
pendent ( )rder of < )dd bellows. 



H()X. FRANKLIN A. COMLY, a 
member of the present house of rep- 
resentatives of Pennsylvania from Mont- 
gomery county, is a son of Major Samuel 
W. and Julia (Peters) Comly, and was born 
in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1856. 
Major .Samuel W Comly was born and 
reared at Spruce Mills, near Philadelphia, 



534 



Biographical Sketches. 



and learned the trade of miller. He ran 
the Spruce mill for some years and then 
removed to Whitemarsh township, this 
county, where he operated the old and 
well known Linden flouring mill for up- 
wards of twenty years. In connection with 
running the last named mill he was en- 
gaged in farming to a considerable extent. 
Major Comly was born in 1821, and lived 
to be sixty-three years of age, dropping 
dead in 1884, in the Palace hotel, San 
Francisco, California, while on a pleasure 
trip to the Pacific slope. He was an active 
Republican and a strong Union man when 
the late Civil war commenced. He was 
captain of a company of Pennsylvania cav- 
alry and served in the Army of the Poto- 
mac, where he was promoted major for 
meritorious service. He married Julia 
Peters, whose father obtained the first 
right of way granted for passenger railways 
in the city of Philadelphia, and ran an 
old stage line from that city to Bethlehem. 
Major and Mrs. Comly had three children : 
Emma P., wife of William Wersler ; one 
who died in infancy ; and Hon. Franklin 
A., of whom this brief sketch is given. 

Franklin A. Comly attended the district 
schools, was a student for two terms in 
Swarthmore college, Delaware county, and 
then entered the Friends' Central high 
school at Fifteenth and Race streets, Phila- 
delphia. He then took the commercial 
course of Bryant &. Stratton's business col- 
lege at Tenth and Chestnut streets, and in 
1876 received a position in the freight de- 
partment of the Bound Brook railroad corn- 
pan}- at Second and Berks streets. Two 
years later he received the contract to 
deliver all the New York freight of that 
company for the city of Philadelphia, and 
in 1880 transferred his contract to other 
hands to engage in the produce business as 



a member of the firm of Nice & Comly. 
They did business on South Water street 
until May, 1884, when on the death of his 
father he withdrew to take charge of the 
home farm. After six years spent partly 
in farming, he sold the farm to the Penn- 
sylvania railroad, and has resided since 
then near Ambler. 

Mr. Comly is a staunch Republican who 
believes in a protective tariff for the best 
interests and rapid advancement of Ameri- 
can industries. He was elected in 1892, 
when the count}' was politieallv close, to 
the legislature, and in 1894 was re-elected 
by a majority of nearly three thousand. 
He gave close and personal attention to 
the interests of his constituents during the 
legislative sessions of 1893 and 1895 
and was a member of important com- 
mittees. Franklin A. Comly is a member 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
Junior Order of American Mechanics, and 
Ambler Lodge, Knights of Malta. 



ALFRED WALTERS, general superin- 
tendent of the Swedes' furnace at 
Swedelaud, Montgomery county, is a 
native of Reading, Pennsylvania, where he 
was born on the 22d of October, 1847. His 
parents were Robert and Elizabeth (John- 
son) Walters, the former born in Scotland 
and the latter a native of the city of Read- 
ing. Robert Walters (father) came to 
America when quite young, and settled 
near Waynesburg, in Chester county, this 
State. His father remained in Scotland 
and died in that country. After attaining 
manhood and securing a good common 
school education, Robert Walters learned 
the blacksmith trade at Waynesburg, and 
followed that occupation most of his life. 



Biographical Sketches. 



535 



He continued to reside in Chester county 
until his death. He was a Presbyterian in 
religion and for many years an active mem- 
ber of St. Mary's Presbyterian church, at 
Hill, Chester county. Politically, he was 
a Democrat and held a number of local 
offices. He became a man of considerable 
prominence in his community, and was 
noted for his love of domestic life. In 
1846 he married Elizabeth Johnson, and 
they had a family of five children, of whom 
the subject of this sketch is the eldest. The 
others were : Frank, now with the Wil- 
mington & Northern railroad ; Annie, who 
married H. Ames ; William ; and Emma, 
who became the wife of James Miller, an 
employee of the Swede furnace at Swede- 
land. 

Alfred Walters spent the early part of 
his life in Chester county, attending the 
public schools until eighteen years of age, 
and afterwards went to Berks county and 
entered the employ of the Monocacy Fur- 
nace company, near Reading. He re- 
mained with them for a period of eighteen 
years. He then went to Columbia, Penn- 
sylvania, and assumed the management of 
the Shawnee furnace at that place. This 
he operated for one year, and then removed 
to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he became 
manager of General Grubb's furnace. After 
one year in this position he entered the 
employ of the Crane Iron company, at Cat- 
asauqua, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, and 
ran their furnace successfully for two years. 
From Catasauqua Mr. Walters came to 
Swedeland, Montgomery county, and as- 
sumed the management of the Swede fur- 
nace, of which he has now had entire 
charge for nine years. He is a successful 
and practical iron operator, and is favora- 
bly known in business circles throughout 
eastern Pennsylvania. 



In his political affiliations Mr. Walters 
is a Democrat, and has frequently taken an 
active part in local politics. Religiously 
he is a strict Presbyterian. He is a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Red Men ; 
Knights of the Mystic Shrine ; and Lodge 
No. 24, Knights of Pythias. He has 
passed all the chairs in the two orders last 
named, and is active in all. 

In 1868 Mr. Walters married Esther 
Richards. To them was born a family of 
fourteen children : Harry, now night fore- 
man in the Swede furnace; William; Fan- 
nie, wife of H. A. Allender ; Howard, de- 
ceased ; Edward; Oscar; Harriet, deceased; 
Dollie; Frank, deceased; Paschal; Bentley; 
Pearl; Edith; and Richard. Mr. Walters 
is what has justly been called a self-made 
man, and has passed through every depart- 
ment of a blast furnace, thoroughly master- 
ing every detail until he is well qualified 
to superintend the entire plant, and may 
justly feel proud of the position he has 
attained bv industry and ability. 



JOHN BREEN, a prosperous business 
man of Merion Square, who has been 
the architect of his own fortune, is a son 
of Arthur and Annie (McMannis) Breen, 
and was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, June 30, 1857. He was 
reared in Philadelphia until he was twelve 
years of age, and then left the city schools 
and Chester business college to learn the 
market gardening business at Merion 
Square, this county, where he remained 
until 1878. In that year he went to Dela- 
ware county and took charge of the prop- 
erty of S. R Fuller which he managed 
until 1885, and during that period of time 
he read much in Mr. Fuller's large library 



534 



Biographical Sketches. 



and learned the trade of miller. He ran 
the Spruce mill for some years and then 
removed to Whitemarsh township, this 
county, where he operated the old and 
well known Linden flouring mill for up- 
wards of twenty years. In connection with 
running the last named mill he was en- 
gaged in farming to a considerable extent. 
Major Comly was born in 1821, and lived 
to be sixty-three years of age, dropping 
dead in 1884, in the Palace hotel, San 
Francisco, California, while on a pleasure 
trip to the Pacific slope. He was an active 
Republican and a strong Union man when 
the late Civil war commenced. He was 
captain of a company of Pennsylvania cav- 
alry and served in the Army of the Poto- 
mac, where he was promoted major for 
meritorious service. He married Julia 
Peters, whose father obtained the first 
right of way granted for passenger railways 
in the city of Philadelphia, and ran an 
old stage line from that city to Bethlehem. 
Major and Mrs. Comly had three children : 
Emma P., wife of William Wersler ; one 
who died in infancy ; and Hon. Franklin 
A., of whom this brief sketch is given. 

Franklin A. Comly attended the district 
schools, was a student for two terms in 
Swarthmore college, Delaware county, and 
then entered the Friends' Central high 
school at Fifteenth and Race streets, Phila- 
delphia. He then took the commercial 
course of Bryant & Stratton's business col- 
lege at Tenth and Chestnut streets, and in 
1876 received a position in the freight de- 
partment of the Bound Brook railroad com- 
pany at Second and Berks streets. Two 
years later he received the contract to 
deliver all the New York freight of that 
company for the city of Philadelphia, and 
in 1880 transferred his contract to other 
hands to engage in the produce business as 



a member of the firm of Nice & Comly. 
They did business on South Water street 
until May, 1884, when on the death of his 
father he withdrew to take charge of the 
home farm. After six years spent partly 
in farming, he sold the farm to the Penn- 
sylvania railroad, and has resided since 
then near Ambler. 

Mr. Comly is a staunch Republican who 
believes in a protective tariff for the best 
interests and rapid advancement of Ameri- 
can industries. He was elected in 1892, 
when the county was politically close, to 
the legislature, and in 1894 was re-elected 
by a majority of nearly three thousand. 
He gave close and personal attention to 
the interests of his constituents during the 
legislative sessions of 1893 and 1895 
and was a member of important com- 
mittees. Franklin A. Comly is a member 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
Junior Order of American Mechanics, and 
Ambler Lodge, Knights of Malta. 



ALFRED WALTERS, general superin- 
tendent of the Swedes' furnace at 
Swedeland, Montgomery county, is a 
native of Reading, Pennsylvania, where he 
was born on the 22d of October, 1S47. His 
parents were Robert and Elizabeth (John- 
son) Walters, the former born in Scotland 
and the latter a native of the city of Read- 
ing. Robert Walters (father) came to 
America when quite young, and settled 
near Waynesburg, in Chester county, this 
State. His father remained in Scotland 
and died in that country. After attaining 
manhood and securing a good common 
school education, Robert Walters learned 
the blacksmith trade at Waynesburg, and 
followed that occupation most of his life. 



Biographical Sketches. 



535 



He continued to reside in Chester county 
until his death. He was a Presbyterian in 
religion and for many years an active mem- 
ber of St. Mary's Presbyterian church, at 
Hill, Chester county. Politically, he was 
a Democrat and held a number of local 
offices. He became a man of considerable 
prominence in his community, and was 
noted for his love of domestic life. In 
1846 he married Elizabeth Johnson, and 
they had a family of five children, of whom 
the subject of this sketch is the eldest. The 
others were : Frank, now with the Wil- 
mington &. Northern railroad ; Annie, who 
married H. Ames ; William ; and Emma, 
who became the wife of James Miller, an 
employee of the Swede furnace at Swede- 
land. 

Alfred Walters spent the early part of 
his life in Chester county, attending the 
public schools until eighteen years of age, 
and afterwards went to Berks county and 
entered the employ of the Monocacy Fur- 
nace company, near Reading. He re- 
mained with them for a period of eighteen 
years. He then went to Columbia, Penn- 
sylvania, and assumed the management of 
the Shawnee furnace at that place. This 
he operated for one year, and then removed 
to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he became 
manager of General Grubb's furnace. After 
one year in this position he entered the 
employ of the Crane Iron company, at Cat- 
asauqua, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, and 
ran their furnace successfully for two years. 
From Catasauqua Mr. Walters came to 
Swedeland, Montgomery count}', and as- 
sumed the management of the Swede fur- 
nace, of which he has now had entire 
charge for nine years. He is a successful 
and practical iron operator, and is favora- 
bly known in business circles throughout 
eastern Pennsylvania. 



In his political affiliations Mr. Walters 
is a Democrat, and has frequently taken an 
active part in local politics. Religiously 
he is a strict Presbyterian. He is a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Red Men ; 
Knights of the Mystic Shrine; and Lodge 
No. 24, Knights of Pythias. He has 
passed all the chairs in the two orders last 
named, and is active in all. 

In 1868 Mr. Walters married Esther 
Richards. To them was born a family of 
fourteen children : Harry, now night fore- 
man in the Swede furnace; William; Fan- 
nie, wife of H. A. Allender ; Howard, de- 
ceased ; Edward; Oscar; Harriet, deceased; 
Dollie; Frank, deceased; Paschal; Bentley; 
Pearl; Edith; and Richard. Mr. Walters 
is what has justly been called a self-made 
man, and has passed through every depart- 
ment of a blast furnace, thoroughly master- 
ing every detail until he is well qualified 
to superintend the entire plant, and may 
justly feel proud of the position he has 
attained bv industry and ability. 



JOHN BREEN, a prosperous business 
man of Merion Square, who has been 
the architect of his own fortune, is a son 
of Arthur and Annie (McMannis) Breen, 
and was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, June 30, 1857. He was 
reared in Philadelphia until he was twelve 
years of age, and then left the city schools 
and Chester business college to learn the 
market gardening business at Merion 
Square, this county, where he remained 
until 1878. In that year he went to Dela- 
ware county and took charge of the prop- 
erty of S. P. Fuller which he managed 
until 1885, and during that period of time 
he read much in Mr. Fuller's large library 



536 



Biographical Sketches. 



and thus added greatly to his limited educa- 
tion. Leaving Mr. Fuller's employ in 1885, 
he returned to Merion Square in Lower 
Merion township, and bought the local and 
city newspaper routes throughout that sec- 
tion of the county which he operated for 
some time. He then embarked in the 
general mercantile business and slowly in- 
creased his stock of goods until he now has 
one of the largest stores in his section. He 
has prospered in ever}- enterprise in which 
he has ever been engaged. Mr. Breen is a 
staunch, sound money, high protective 
tariff Republican. He has been prominent 
in local politics and for several years has 
been a delegate from Lower Merion to all 
district and county conventions of his 
party. He served four and a half years as 
postmaster of Gladwyne (Merion Square), 
being appointed by President Harrison, and 
is now an auditor of Lower Merion town- 
ship. His record in politics has been such 
as to command respect and win him friends 
in all parts of the county. 

On April 20, 1887, Mr. Breen married 
Matilda Norris, a daughter of Robert Nor- 
ris, of Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Breen 
have three children, two sons and a daugh- 
ter : Raymond, born December 12, 1888; 
Anna, born March 27, 1892, and Harold, 
born November 10, 1893. 

John Breen is a self-made man in the 
truest sense of that term, and has always 
won success in whatever field he has en- 
tered. His township is one of the wealthi- 
est townships in the State, and his high 
home standing attests to his reliability and 
integrity in local positions where the 
finances handled would equal those of some 
counties. He is one of the finest marks- 
men in the county, but gives little time 
from business to the chase or hunting party. 
Mr. Breen is a member of the Lower Merion 



Building and Loan association, in whose 
prosperity he takes a deep interest. 

On September 24,- 1895, Mr. Breen was 
presented by the Republicans of Lower 
Merion township as a candidate for the 
office of sheriff of Montgomery county, but 
was defeated by Charles Johnson, of Norris- 
town. The indications are plain, however, 
that he will be an exceedingly strong con- 
testant in 1898. 



JOHN TODD, M. D., one of the most 
successful physicians of Pottstown and 
Montgomery county, is a son of John and 
Christiana (Boughman) Todd, and was 
born at Freeland, now Collegeville, Upper 
Providence township, Montgomery count}-, 
Pennsylvania, April 25, 1830. Dr. Todd's 
paternal grandfather, Andrew Todd, bought 
from the Penns a large tract of land near 
Freeland, which remained in the family 
until 1884. Andrew Todd was a man of 
recognized ability and superior mechanical 
attainments, enterprising and progressive. 
He was one of the founders of Providence 
Presbyterian church, the first Presbyterian 
church in the county, and was a warm 
friend and ardent supporter of the eminent 
and celebrated divine, Dr. William Ten- 
nant. He was the first justice of the peace 
appointed for Montgomery count}', by Gov- 
ernor McKean, his commission bearing date 
of November 12, 1824. He held that office 
up to his death, which occurred in 1834. 
'Squire Todd wedded Hannah Boyer, and 
their children were : John, William Ten- 
nant, who went west in 1840; Isabella, 
who married Samuel Hammel, a merchant 
of Norristown, and died in 1850 ; and Han- 
nah, wife of Samuel McClintock, of North- 
umberland county. John Todd, father, 





^^Qj7fz*>f& & 



Biographical Sketches. 



537 



was born in 1776, and died in 1863. He 
was an extensive fanner and a prominent 
man in all matters pertaining to the public 
welfare of the county and State. He served 
one term as sheriff, and two terms as county 
treasurer, and was appraiser of public works 
under Governor Porter. John Todd was 
twice married ; first to Miss Campbell, and 
after her death, to Christiana Boughman. 
By his second marriage he had six children: 
Dr. John, William T., Samuel M., Charles 
W. B., Christiana and Emily. 

Dr. John Todd passed his boyhood days 
on the farm, received his education at Free- 
land seminary, and then taught school for 
three years. In 1855 he commenced the 
study of medicine with Drs. Keeler and 
Groff, of Harleysville, and a year later en- 
tered the Pennsylvania Medical college, 
from which he was graduated in the class of 

1857- 

After graduation he located at Boyer- 

towu, Berks county, where he prac- 
ticed until 1868, and then came to Potts- 
town, a wider field for the practice of his 
profession. He soon built up a good prac- 
tice, which he has held ever since and in- 
creased from year to year. 

In 1857 Dr. Todd married Ida Amanda 
Smith, who was a daughter of Jacob K. 
Smith, of Philadelphia, and died in October, 
1859, leaving one child, Amanda, now the 
wife of George Kramer, a merchant of 
Philadelphia. For his second wife, Dr. 
Todd, in 1864, wedded Sarah M. Heller, a 
daughter of Daniel Heller, of Boyertowu, 
Berks county. To this second union have 
been born five children : Blanch, wife of J. 
G. Kulp, a merchant of Philadelphia ; 
Bertha C, married Lyman Byers, an elec- 
trician of Pottstown ; Sallie, wife of M. E. 
Gilbert, proprietor of the Mansion house, 
of Pottstown ; Mary, and John, a telegraph 



operator, now with the District Telegraph 
company. 

Dr. John Todd is a member of the Luth- 
eran church of the Transfiguration, at Potts- 
town ; a member of Stichter Lodge No. 
254, Free and Accepted Masons ; Royal 
Arch Masons ; and Knights Templar. 
While not neglecting his profession, he 
never fails to take an active part in all po- 
litical and public movements. He is a 
Democrat in politics, and served two terms 
as burgess and nine consecutive terms as 
councilman of Pottstown. He was a mem- 
ber from Montgomery county to the State 
constitutional convention of 1891, and in 
1894, was the candidate of his party in the 
Seventh district for congress. Dr. Todd 
ran far ahead of his ticket, but was unable 
to reduce the Republican majority suf- 
ficient to be elected. But two other Demo- 
cratic congressional candidates did better 
in holding the party vote in that disastrous 
year, and they were in very strong Demo- 
cratic districts. He is the present president 
and has been a director of the Bringhurst 
Poor trust, of Pottstown, ever' since it was 
founded, and during the last year, has di- 
rected the expenditure of $5,000 of its funds 
in relief of the poor of Pottstown. He is 
also president of the Montgomery, Berks 
and Chester County Agricultural and Hor- 
ticultural society, and has served for several 
years as a director of the Pottstown Security 
company. 

Dr. John Todd is one of the prominent 
and successful physicians of Montgomery 
county. He is a general practitioner and 
while often called in consultation in 
particular and complicated cases, yet has 
made no specialty of any branch of his 
profession. He has been remarkably suc- 
cessful, and his rare professional skill and 
attainments have given him a deserved pres- 



53§ 



Biographical Sketches. 



tige. He is a member of the Pottstown 
Medical society, and the president of the 
medical staff. 



JAMES BROWNBACK, president of the 
March-Brownback Stove company of 
Pottstown, is a son of William and Eliza 
(Wilson) Brownback, and was born in Ches- 
ter county, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1833. 
He is a representative of one of Chester's 
fine old families, which was planted in 
America more than two hundred years ago 
by Garrett Brownback, a native ofWurtem- 
burg, Germany, who emigrated to this 
country in 1683, on the vessel Concord. 
from Amsterdam, and settled first in Ger- 
mantowu, near Philadelphia. In 1734 he 
removed to Chester county, where he 
founded Brownback's Reformed church, 
and became one of the largest land-owners 
in the county. He married Mary Pepen, 
youngest daughter of Howard Pepen, whose 
wife was Mary Rittenhouse, and they reared 
two sons — Benjamin and Harry — and four 
daughters. He died about 1758, aged 
ninety-six vears. Benjamin Brownback mar- 
ried Mary Paul and had three sons — Henry, 
John and Edward. Henry Brownback mar- 
ried Magdalena Paul and reared a family of 
five children : John, Peter, Benjamin, Annie 
and Susan. From the families of these two 
sons of the original emigrant have sprung 
a numerous and widely distributed race, 
which it would require a volume to set 
forth in regular order. Among them have 
been a number who have become distin- 
guished in various lines of endeavor, and 
have furnished the State with some of her 
most useful and exemplary citizens. 

William Brownback, father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born and reared in 



Chester county, where he engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits and became quite success- 
ful. He married Eliza Wilson, and by that 
union had a family of children. She died 
in 1840, at the age of thirty-two. Her hus- 
band survived her for half a century, dying 
in 1890, in the eighty-fourth year of his 
age. 

James Brownback attended the common 
schools of Chester county during his early 
youth, and subsequently entered the Ches- 
ter county academy at West Chester, where 
he remained until 1849. He then engaged 
in farming with his father during the sum- 
mer, and taught district school in the win- 
ter. This was kept up for five years, after 
which Mr. Brownback embarked in the 
mercantile business in which he remained 
three years. He then sold out and pur- 
chased a farm, and followed farming for 
eight years. In 1868 he purchased a fourth 
interest in March, Lisle &. Co's stove foun- 
dry, at Linfield, Pennsylvania. In 1891 
the business was removed to Pottstown, and 
a corporation organized, under the name of 
the March-Brownback Stove company. Mr. 
Brownback was elected president of the 
company and has ever since continued to 
occupy that position. The works were en- 
larged and greatly improved, and their 
business has become extensive and impor- 
tant. The company now employs about 
one hundred and fifty men, and the pro- 
ducts of their foundry have a well earned 
popularity wherever they have been intro- 
duced and sold. 

In 1872 Mr. Brownback, in company 
with William March and J. Keeley, of 
Philadelphia, purchased the Dauphin fur- 
nace, located in Dauphin county, this State. 
They owned and operated this furnace for 
two years and then sold the property to a 
Philadelphia company. Mr. Brownback is 





cr&>+^ ^t/« L?<T%^)ra^eL~i 



Biographical Sketches. 



539 



a director in the BramcOte Land company, 
and a stockholder in the Pottstown Textile- 
works. For a number of years he served 
as a trustee of Ursinus college, but resigned 
the position on account of the pressure of 
private business on his time. He also 
served as school director for some time. 

In December, 1857, Mr. Brownback was 
married to Ella S. March, a daughter of 
Michael and Susanna March, of Chester 
county, this State. They have three chil- 
dren : Adia E., married Henry G. Kulp, of 
Pottstown ; Henry M., now district attorney 
of Montgomery county — see his sketch on 
another page ; and William M. Politically 
Mr. Brownback is an ardent Republican 
and uncompromising protectionist. He is 
a Knight Templar Mason, and an ardent 
religious worker. 



J 



OHN G. HERSH, M. D., of East 
Greenville borough, is a direct de- 
scendant of one of the oldest families of 
Montg-omerv countv. Indeed, his family 
contributed not a little to make the history 
of the county, and in him they have an 
able representative, who is known to be a 
public spirited citizen and one of the most 
skillful practitioners in the county. He at 
present holds the office of chief burgess, 
and has been closely identified with the 
politics of the county and State, and he is 
to-day thoroughly respected and looked up 
to as a man who is destined to be one of the 
leading men of the district. Dr. Hersh is 
of German origin, but his family have been 
in this country for many generations. The 
original spelling of the family name was 
Hersch, but it was shortened and angli- 
cized long ago. t 

Dr. Hersh is a son of John and Maria 



(Gery) Hersh, and was born in Upper Han- 
over township, near East ( '.reenville, on 
August 23, 1852. His paternal great-great- 
grandfather was Heinrich Ludwig Hersh. 
With two other brothers he came from 
Strasburg, Germany, to this country about 
1750, and located at Fort Pitt, now I'itts- 
burg, Pennsylvania, his brothers, however, 
soon settled along the Ohio river. Hein- 
rich came last and soon settled in York 
county, where he permanently established 
himself and resided up to his death. He 
had a sou, Elias Hersh, born August 15, 
1769, died February 19, 1855, aged eighty- 
five years and six months, who was the 
the great-grand lather of the subject of this 
sketch. His wife, Susanna (Long), was born 
August 24, 1777, died January 7, 1S44, aged 
sixty-six years and four months. Jacob 
Hersh (grandfather) was born November 
21, 1801, and lived on a large farm, which 
is now included in the borough of Penns- 
burg. He bought another farm near Six 
Corners church, near Pennsburg, where he 
remained until he died. This farm is now 
owned by Dr. Hersh. Jacob Hersh was for 
a short time a merchant on a large scale at 
Klinesville. He was allied with the Demo- 
cratic party. He was also a member of the 
new Goshenhoppen Reformed church, of 
which he was a deacon and an elder and 
held other important offices in the gift of 
the congregation. Among other important 
positions filled in this connection may be 
mentioned that he was a member of the 
building committee under whose super- 
vision the present new Goshenhoppen Re- 
formed church was erected. He was mar- 
ried to Sophia Miller, and their union 
brought them five children : John, father 
of Dr. Hersh ; Lydia, who is the wife of 
Aaron Greasimer, both of whom are dead ; 
Thomas, who resides in the .State of Illi- 



54° 



Biographical Sketches. 



nois ; Daniel, of Philadelphia, and Henry, 
who is dead. Grandfather Hersh died 
June 3, 1877, aged seventy-five years, six 
months and sixteen days, and his kind and 
faithful helpmate died August 19, 1883, in 
her eighty-third year. 

On January 28, 1821, John M. Hersh, 
father of Dr. Hersh, first saw the light of 
day in Upper Hanover township. He was 
brought up on his father's farm, and at a 
suitable age was sent to school, where he 
secured an average education. He worked 
on the farm, and when he reached man's 
estate he took to farming on his own ac- 
count. He also became a huckster and a 
postman and was engaged in hauling to 
Philadelphia prior to the introduction of 
traffic by railroad. After leaving school he 
learned the trade of wheelwright, but never 
followed it to any extent. He and his 
estimable wife are still living in East 
Greenville, and he has long been retired 
from business. Following the inclination 
of his father he became a Democrat when 
he could vote, and was an eager and earnest 
worker in the party and held a number of 
local offices. He is a consistent Christian 
and a member of the Reformed church, 
and always took an active part in church 
work. He was married to Maria Gery on 
November 28, 1847, and this union was 
blessed with five children, three sons and 
two daughters : Man- Jane, who died in in- 
fancy ; Dr. John G., Milton Jacob, who 
died at the age of five years ; Katie Maria, 
who is the wife of David H. Keller, of 
Bangor, Northampton county, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Dr. Daniel G, who is a practic- 
ing physician at Bangor, Pennsylvania. 

And now we come to the direct history 
of the gentleman whose portrait accom- 
panies this sketch. Dr. John G. Hersh has 
always been a close student, and it is 110 



doubt due to this fact, together with his 
wide experience, that has made him so suc- 
cessful. Arriving at the proper age he was 
sent to the public schools of Pennsburg, 
and on being well grounded in the rudi- 
ments was placed at Mt. Pleasant seminary, 
at Boyertown, Berks county. After taking 
the course provided in this institution he 
soon began to read medicine under Dr. 
Bobb, of East Greenville, and then entered 
the University of Pennsylvania, where he 
graduated with high honors. His first field 
of practice was Chapel village, Berks 
count}-, where he remained ten years, and 
was very successful. In 1886 he removed 
to East Greenville, where he has been 
located ever since, and soon after locating 
here took a special course at the Polyclinic 
Institute on diseases of the ear, nose and 
throat, and from that time on has combined 
the work of the general practitioner with 
with that of the specialist, which is of 
special value in districts outside of large 
cities. He owns the old homestead farm of 
sixty-five acres in Upper Hanover township, 
besides considerable other property. 

Dr. Hersh is a Democrat in everything 
that word implies. He has from earliest 
manhood taken the deepest interest in poli- 
tics and has been a worker for his party at 
all times. That his efforts for his party's 
principles and tickets are appreciated is 
seen by the fact that he is now serving his 
third term as chief burgess of East Green- 
ville. In 1894 he was placed on the ticket 
for State assembly, and although that was 
a very disastrous year for Democrats he ran 
away ahead of his ticket, a sure sign of his 
great popularity. It is not likely that his 
constituents will let him rest here, and he 
is certain to be retained in public life. 

In secret society circles Dr. Hersh is as 
well and favorably known as in any other 



Biographical Sketches. 



54* 



walk in life. He is a member of Perkio- 
men lodge, No. 595, F. and A. M., of which 
he is secretary, and Nativity Commandery, 
No. 72, Knights Templar, of Pottstown, 
Pennsylvania ; a member of Pottstown 
Chapter, No. 271, Royal Arch Masons; 
Pennsburg lodge, No. 449, I. O. O. F.; East 
Greenville Castle, No. 298, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, and several other orders. 

Dr. Hersh was married on November 1, 
1877, to Miss Ida, daughter of Dr. John G. 
and Kate (Ziegler) Hillegas, and they have 
had five children : Elmer, aged seventeen 
years ; Katie Maria, who died at the age of 
one year ; Mary Elizabeth, also dead ; Ella 
Matilda and Ida Olivia. The family is 
united with the new Goshenhoppen Re- 
formed congregation near East Greenville, 
and Dr. Hersh has served as a deacon of 
that church for four vears. 



JOHN HAMPTON, a farmer of some 
means, near the village of Abrams, 
is the youngest son of John and Anna 
(Chalfant) Hampton, and was born in Dela- 
ware county, Pennsylvania, 1842. His 
paternal grandfather lived in Chester 
county, where he was one of the great 
farming class of that county. He married 
and reared a family of children, and his 
son, John Hampton, was born in 1819. 
John Hampton grew to manhood in his 
native township and then removed to Dela- 
ware county, which he left in 1840 to settle 
in Upper Merion township, this county. 
He lived three years past man's allotted 
three score and ten years and died in 1882. 
He was a shoemaker by trade, but followed 
farming principally for a livelihood. He 
was a Republican and a Baptist, took an 
interest in local affairs, and had served as 



supervisor of roads besides holding other 
township offices. He married Ann Chal- 
fant. Mrs. Hampton was born in 1806, 
and died in 1S79. To Mr. and Mis. Hamp- 
ton were born a family of four sons and 
four daughters. The sons were: David, 
Isaac, George, deceased ; and John. The 
daughters were : Lydia ; Sophia, married 
Joseph Gill; Jane, who died; and Mary, 
wife of J. Ortlett. 

John Hampton was brought at two years 
of age by his parents to Upper Merion 
township, in which he was reared and in 
which he has resided ever since. He was 
carefully trained to farm labor of all kinds, 
and after attending the common schools 
assisted his father in farming until he at- 
tained his majority. He then made choice 
of farming as a life vocation, and rented 
of Heister Jones a farm which he tilled. 
In that year he bought his present farm, 
which is well adapted to grain raising and 
grazing, and lies near Merion or Abrams. 
Mr. Hampton is a practical and well-to-do 
farmer, who gives close attention to the 
cultivation and improvement of his land. 
He is a Republican in politics, and has 
served for the last year as township auditor. 
He is a member of the Patrons of Hus- 
bandry. 

In 1S66 John Hampton was united in 
marriage with Esther Ramsey. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Hampton have been born four 
children, three sons and a daughter: Clar- 
ence ; William, deceased ; Howard; and 
Bertha E. 



LEVI R. SHAFFER, the senior member 
of the large and prosperous brick 
manufacturing firm of Schaffer Brothers, 
of Norristown, is a son of George and Eliza- 



542 



Biographical Sketches. 



beth (Whiteraan) Sliaffer, and was born at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, February 26, 1843. His parents 
were of German descent, and his father, 
George Shaffer, was a brewer and brick- 
maker by trade. George Shaffer at a very 
early age served in the War of 1812, and 
was slightly wounded at the defense of 
Baltimore. Returning from the War of 
1S12, he was engaged as a brewer and in 
brick-making until the opening of the late 
Civil war, when, although somewhat up in 
years and exempt from all military duty by 
age, yet enlisted in company D, 51st Penn- 
sylvania infantry, commanded by Colonel, 
afterwards, General John F. Hartranft. 
He served as a private until his death, 
which occurred June 21, 1862, when on 
board a boat. Patriotic and brave, he knew 
no fear nor danger and gave his life as a 
sacrifice in defense of his country's liberty 
and preservation. 

He was married to Miss Elizabeth 
Whiteman. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer had a 
family of thirteen children, of whom ten 
grew to maturity : John W., Sophia H., 
now deceased ; George, Sarah, wife of Rob- 
ert Patton ; Charles W., Mary, who married 
William Smith, and is now deceased ; Jos- 
eph, deceased; William A., Joseph (2nd), 
now dead ; and Levi Roberts, whose name 
heads this sketch. 

Levi Roberts Shaffer was reared at Nor- 
ristown, where he received his education in 
the public schools. He learned the trade of 
brick-making, which he followed until 
1869, when he formed a partnership with 
his brothers, John and William, under the 
firm title of Schaffer Brothers. This firm 
manufactured brick for two years at Nor- 
ristown, and then John withdrew, after 
which, Mr. Shaffer and his brother, Wil- 
liam, continued the business to 1886. In 



that year they abandoned their yard and 
opened a brick-making plant just beyond 
the borough limits and in Norriton town- 
ship, which they equipped with the best 
improved machinery, and where they have 
manufactured, ever since, an excellent qual- 
ity of brick by the steam process. Their 
plant is known by the name of the East 
Penn brick works, and has an out-put of 
four millions of brick per year. They em- 
ploy from thirty to forty men, and for sev- 
eral years have furnished all the brick that 
have been used for public buildings and 
school houses at Norristown. They are 
now furnishing the brick for the new mar- 
ket house, and for some private buildings 
at Norristown, besides filling a large num- 
ber of orders for brick to be used for vari- 
ous other building purposes. Mr. Shaffer's 
good management of these works has made 
his business an extensive and a profitable 
one. 

In September, 1888, Mr. Shaffer wedded 
Annie C. Thornley, whose parents are 
George and Emma Thornley, of Norristown. 
Mr. and Mrs. Shaffer have one child, a 
daughter named Ethel Attalene. 

In politics Mr. Shaffer is not prominent. 
He served as mayor of Norristown from 
March 6, 1893, to March 6, 1894, and 
shortly before his term of office expired, de- 
clined a re-election to the mayoralty. Pre- 
vious to this he had served two terms as a 
councilman, the first one in 1878-79, and 
the second one in 18S0-81. He has been 
quite prominently connected with the fire 
department of Norristown for the excep- 
tionally long period of twenty-eight years. 
Mr. Shaffer has held all the offices of the 
fire department from president down to 
treasurer, and also served as treasurer of 
the Fairmount Fire Engine company for 
fourteen vears. 



B IOC, K A PHICA I. SKETC 1 1 ES. 



543 



DR. HOWARD WILSON, V. S., has 
for the past three years been practic- 
ing his profession of veterinary surgeon 
with great success and profit at Hatboro, 
and being a young man of excellent educa- 
tion and thoroughly drilled in his calling, 
has built up a large practice that extends 
over a very wide territory. Dr. Wilson 
was born on January 15, 1871, and is a son 
of Lorenzo F. and Anna (Ritter) Wilson. 
He is descended from American ancestry, 
running back at least five generations. His 
grandfather was a veterinary surgeon, and 
was well known and very popular in his 
day. He married and had several chil- 
dren. The father of our subject, Lorenzo 
F. Wilson is a veteran of the Civil war and 
parted with one of his legs in the service 
of his country. This was at the fiercely- 
contested battle of Antietam. He served 
until he was totally disabled by the loss of 
his leg. Mr. Wilson received a thorough 
common school education. He then be- 
came a clerk in a store in Philadelphia, 
where he remained until his services were 
needed to help defend the old flag. He 
married Anna Ritter, and their union 
was blessed with two children : Eva, and 
Dr. Howard Wilson. 

Having received a public school educa- 
tion, Howard Wilson took a scientific 
course in the Philadelphia high school. 
He then entered the New York Veterinary 
college, from which he graduated with 
honor in 1892. As soon as he had received 
his diploma, Dr. Wilson came to Hatboro, 
where he opened an office and began prac- 
tice. He soon came to be recognized as a 
surgeon of ability and one who was thor- 
oughly posted on all the diseases and ail- 
ments of horses and cattle and the proper 
and most modern treatment thereof, and 
his services were sought accordingly. He 



is a good student and thoroughly conscien- 
tious in his professional relations, so that 
with a genial disposition and a high stand- 
ard of character he has become deservedly 
popular. 

Dr. Wilson is an active worker in the 
Republican party politics of his section, 
and is now serving a term as justice of the 
peace. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Masonic Order and Knights of the Golden 
Eagle. Dr. Wilson is not married. 



HON. M. S. LONGAKER, the present 
postmaster at Pottstown, is a son of 
Rufus B. and Elizabeth (Smith) Longaker, 
and was born December 24, 1842, at Crooked 
Hill, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. 
He obtained his elementary instruction in 
the public schools of his native place, and 
completed his education in the Meigs 
academy at Pottstown. He then engaged 
in teaching for several years, and about 
1863 entered the county treasurer's office 
as deputy treasurer, under his father, who 
was then treasurer of Montgomery county. 
In the spring of 1875 M. S. Longaker was 
elected burgess of Pottstown, and re-elected 
in the spring of 1876. In the fall of the lat- 
ter year he was elected to a seat in the 
•State assembly, and resigned the office of 
burgess to assume his new duties as a State 
legislator. ( )n January 20, 1886, Mr. Long- 
aker was appointed postmaster of Pottstown 
by President Cleveland, and took charge of 
the office February 16th. He served as 
postmaster for four and a half years, when 
he was succeeded by an appointee, under 
the administration of President Harrison. 
On August 16, [894, Mr. Longaker was 
again appointed to the office by President 
Cleveland, and once more assumed charge 



544 



Biographical Skktches. 



on September ist, of that year. He is now 
discharging the duties of postmaster, and 
his administration of the office has proved 
very acceptable to the general public and 
creditable to himself 

For a number of years Mr. Longaker has 
been a prominent local leader of his party, 
and has been a delegate and chairman of 
several Democratic conventions. He is a 
member of Trinity Reformed church, and a 
Knights Templar Mason, and has served as 
treasurer of the blue lodge and chapter for 
a period of twenty consecutive years. He 
is a stockholder of the Pottstown Water 
company, and a manager of the Reading & 
Perkiomen Turnpike company. 

In 1867 Mr. Longaker was married to 
Diana M. Beerer, a daughter of Joseph 
Beerer, of Norristown, who had served as 
treasurer of this county. To that union 
were born two children : Gertrude, now a 
clerk in the Pottstown postoffice, and Helen. 
Mrs. Longaker died in 1872, and in 1876, 
Mr. Longaker married a sister of his first 
wife. By this second marriage he had a 
family of six children : Charles K., Mont- 
gomery, Beulah, Mabel, Louis, and Joseph 
B., the latter now deceased. 

Peter Longaker, paternal grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, was a native of 
Lawrenceville, Chester county, Pennsylva- 
nia, where he was born March 14, 1786 
He died November 1, 1866, aged eighty 
years. He married Hannah Boyer, daugh- 
ter of George and Mary Boyer, of Berks 
count)', and reared a family of six children : 
Rufus B., Mary, who married Abram Kohl, 
deceased ; Louisa, became the wife of Se- 
bastian Kohl ; Emmeline, John B. and 
Frances Elmira, deceased. 

Rufus B. Longaker, eldest of the family 
and father of Hon. Montgomery S. Long- 
aker, became a pupil in the Trappe board- 



ing school, in Montgomery county, at the 
age of sixteen. On completing his studies 
he removed to Berks county and engaged 
in teaching. After two years he returned 
and became a clerk in a country store at 
Trappe, where he was employed one year. 
He then embarked in the mercantile busi- 
ness at Crooked Hill, Pottsgrove township, 
this county, where he remained from 1840 
to 1851. Having been elected recorder of 
deeds, he removed to Norristown in the lat- 
ter year, and served in that office for three 
years. 

In 1855 he removed to Pottstown and 
engaged in the live stock business, buy- 
ing and selling cattle until about i860. In 
1863 Mr. Longaker was elected on the 
Democratic ticket as treasurer of Mont- 
gomery county, and returned to Norris- 
town. He served two terms in this office. 
In 1862 he engaged in the wholesale wine 
and liquor business at Norristown, under 
the firm name of Longaker &. Buskirk. He 
served at various times as a delegate to the 
State conventions of his party, and was for 
three years a member of the Pottstown bor- 
ough council. For many years he was a 
member of the board of managers of the 
Union Mutual Fire and Storm Insurance 
company of Montgomery county, and a 
manager of the Reading and Perkiomen 
Turnpike company. In 1842 he married 
Elizabeth Smith, a daughter of the late 
Abram Smith, of Pottstown. Their chil- 
dren were : Montgomery S., whose name 
heads this sketch; Hannah E., Mrs. Mathias 
Geist, Horace S., Mary, wife of William H. 
Thomas ; Lewis C, of Bradford, Pennsyl- 
vania ; and two who died in infancy. Mr. 
Longaker was a member of the Reformed 
church. He enjoyed a reputation for in- 
tegrity and promptness in business, and 
was extensively acquainted with public men 



Biographical Sketches. 



545 



throughout the State. His life was one of 
great activity, and was closed by death on 
September 36, 1892. 



DR. J. M. ANDERS, an eminent physi- 
cian and lead i no; medical authority of 
this country, and for five years a Professor 
in the Medico-Chirurgical College at Phila- 
delphia, is a member of one of Montgomery 
County's oldest and most respected families. 
Dr. Anders received his education in the 
old "Oak Tree" school, the Norristown 
High school and a Theological seminary at 
Wadsworth, ( >hio. He subsequently read 
medicine with Dr. G. K. Mechter, and later 
took a course at the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, graduating in 1877 with the degree of 
M. D. , and soon after with the degree of 
Ph.D. He made a brilliant record as a stu- 
dent at the University, and won a number 
of prizes. On December i, 1877, ne W;:s 
appointed a resident physician of the Epis- 
copal Hospital of Philadelphia, and served 
up to March 31, 1879, when he resigned to 
pursue the practice of his profession. In 
1880 he was appointed assistant physician on 
the visiting staff of the Episcopal Hospital, 
and served up to 1885. In this year he was 
appointed to the Chair of Forestry and the 
" Relation of Plant Life to Health " in the 
Bureau of Scientific Information of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadel- 
phia. From 1887 up to 1892 he served on 
the visiting medical staff of the Protestant 
Episcopal Hospital, and in 1889 was ap- 
pointed a lecturer on Materia Medica in the 
Medico-Chirurgical College, and soon suc- 
ceeded to the Chair of Hygiene, with a seat 
in the faculty. In 1S91 he was appointed 
to the newly-created Chair of Clinical Medi- 
cine, and the following year he succeeded to 



the Chair of Theory and Practice of Medi- 
cine, made vacant by the resignation of Dr. 
W. 1'. Waugh, in which position he has ably 
served ever since. In 1889 he was elected 
by the Board of Charities to his present 
position as a member of the medical staff of 
the Philadelphia Hospital, a position very 
much coveted by leading physicians. In 
1892 he was appointed by Minor Stuart as 
one of the Civil Service Examining Board 
of Hospital Physicians, consisting of three 
members. 

Among the original articles written by 
Dr. Anders are the following : 

"The External and Internal Use of Guaiacol. with 
Brief Reports of Cases." "Beriberi, with Report of 
Cases." "Special Wards for the Treatment of Ty- 
phoid Fever." "Seasonal Influences in Erysipelas, 
with Statistics." "Points in the Etiology and Clinical 
History of Erysipelas." " Complications and Mortal- 
ity-rate of Erysipelas." " The Treatment of Erysipe- 
las." "A Statistical Study of the Complications of 
Malaria." " A Statistical Study of Influenza ; Its Po- 
tency to Lessen the Receptivity of the Body to Ma- 
laria, as well as to Increase the Receptivity to Pneu- 
monia, and probably Typhoid Fever." "House Plants 
as Sanitarj Agents." "Forests; their Influence upon 

Climate and Rain-fall. file Exhalation of Ozone 

by Flowering Plants." "Hygienic and Therapeutic 
Relation of Plants." "House Plants and Lung lu's- 
ease." " Beneficial Influences of Plants." " Sanitary 
Influences of Forest Growth." "The Relation of 
Forests to Health Resorts." 

Among the published lectures delivered 
by Dr. Anders are the following : 

"The Diagnosis and Treatment of Catarrhal Dys- 
pepsia." "Treatment of Typhoid Fever: Two Re- 
lapses and other Complications — Asthma associated 
with Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis." "Speci- 
mens from a Case of Impacted Gall-stones, with Fistu- 
lous Connection between the Gall Bladder and the 
Colon ; A Case of Irregular Malarial Fever ; and a Case 
of Atrophic Cirrhosis of Liver." "A Case of Typhoid 
Fever; Numerous Intestinal Hemorrhages, the amount 
I of Blood Lost being Seventy-eight and a-half Oum 
and Obstinate Vomiting, with Recovery." "Acute 
Pleurisy with Effusion; Interstitial Pneumonia (Chali- 
35 






Bii igraphicai. Sketches. 



cosisi, with Encysted and probably Interlobular Locu- 
la'ed Pleurisy." "Cases Illustrating the Various 
Forms of Chronic Diffuse Nephritis Mitral Regurgita- 
tion following Acute Rheumatism." " Cardiac Dila- 
tation." "Dilatation due to Chronic Valvular Dis 
ease ; Subsequent Acute Endocarditis ; Three Cases of 
Bronzing of the Skin : one due to Pediculosis Corporis, 
one to Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and one to Syphilis, 
(11,1 Vg ■, and Pulmonary Phthisis." "Subacute Pleu- 
ritis, with Effusion ; Paracentesis." 

He is one of the founders and direc- 
tors of the City Trust, Safe Deposit and 
Surety Company, and a Director of the Pro- 
vident Mutual Insurance Company. He is 
a Repuhlican politically, and a member of 
Oxford Presbyterian Church. He has been 
compelled to abandon, to a large extent, gen- 
eral practice, and, since located at 1605 
Walnut St., is confining his work almost 
entirely to consultation and office practice. 

Dr. Anders is a member of the Pan- 
American Medical Congress, the Pennsyl- 
vania Forestry Association, the American 
Medical Association, and his County, City 
and State Medical Societies. He is also a 
life member of the Philadelphia Academy 
of Natural Sciences. 

Exact, clear and eloquent as a lecturer, 
Dr. Anders invests the driest subject of his 
profession with life, and renders it interesting 
and instructive. As an author he is exact and 
comprehensive, and as an original investi- 
gator is unprejudiced and progressive, yet 
does not favor innovation or rash experiment. 

He regards his profession in its true light 
and progressive character, and would keep 
it abreast of the wonderful advances of the 
present age. 

He knows no grander or nobler field for 
human effort than that of medicine, and 
though but in the early prime of matured 
manhood, yet has contributed much to the 
improvement and elevation of his profession, 
which justly stands in the van of earth's 
leading professions. 



GUSTAVUS F. THEEL, M. D., a 
specialist in nervous and spinal dis- 
eases, who resides at Ambler and practices 
' in Philadelphia, is a son of Major Charles 
F. and Marie (Bonahels) Theel, and was 
born at Colon, on the Rhine, in Germany, 
February is, 1833. Major Charles F. Theel, 
who received the Cross of the Eagle, for 
bravery, from the hands of the Emperor 
William I, of Germany, entered the Prus- 
sian army at a very early age. He was in 
the battle of Waterloo and fought through 
the Prussian and Danish war. He served 
with distinction, rose step by step until he 
became major of his regiment, and when 
the weight of years disqualified him from 
active service he resigned. He died Janu- 
ary 13, 1895, at tne r 'P e °'d a ? e °f uinetv- 
eight years. He married Marie Bonahels, 
and reared a family of twelve children. 

Gustavus F. Theel was reared at Cologne, 
Prussia, until he was fourteen years of age, 
and attended a military school in that Ger- 
man citv. When in his fifteenth vear he 
came to the United States, and resided with 
an uncle at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where 
he attended school for two years. He then 
went to Chicago, Illinois, where he resided 
with another uncle. Leaving Chicago he 
returned home, and after attending a mili- 
tary college took full medical courses at 
the University of Bonn, Germany. He was 
graduated from both medical schools that 
he attended, and then became a medical as- 
sistant in Berlin for six vears. At the end 
of that time he came to Philadelphia, and 
after taking the full medical course in Hah- 
neman college, went to Indianapolis, In- 
diana, where he established a homeopathic 
college, which he conducted for one year. 
He then returned to Philadelphia, where 
he has practiced ever since. In 1885, Dr. 
Theel purchased property at Ambler, which 



Biographical Sketches. 



547 



is still his place of residence, although prac- 
ticing in Philadelphia. He makes a spec- 
ialty of nervous and spinal diseases and 
blood poisons. 

In 1865 Dr. Theel married Eliza Hoff- 
man. To their union were born two chil- 
dren : Joseph, deceased ; and Dr. Thomas, 
engaged in practice with his father in 
Philadelphia. Mrs. Theel died in 1883, at 
the age of forty-eight years. 

Dr. Theel is a staunch Republican, took 
an active part in the Garfield and Blaine 
campaigns of 1880 and 1884, and served in 
1892 as burgess of Ambler. He has given 
many years to the study and practice of his 
chosen profession and has enjoyed the best 
of opportunities for thoroughly qualifying 
himself as a physician. Dr. Theel is a 
member of W. R. Snyder Lodge, Free and 
Accepted Masons, and Washington Lodge, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 



SAMUEL P. SEESE, M. D., has been 
one of the leading physicians of Lans- 
dale since 1884, and on account of his wide 
and varied experience, covering over twenty 
years of active practice of medicine in all 
its departments, he gained the confidence 
and esteem of the district and is therefore 
one of the busiest men of his profession in 
the county. 

Dr. Samuel P. Seese is a native of Bucks 
county and was born in Plumstead town- 
ship, on January 6, 1849. He is a son of 
John A. and Mary (Lott) Seese and is of 
German ancestry, though his forefathers 
have been citizens of England and this 
country for many generations. His pater- 
nal grandfather, John Seese, was born July 
2, 1757, in New York city. He was a far- 
mer by avocation and tilled a very large 



and fertile tract of land. He served faith- 
fully through the Revolutionary war. On 
October 7, 1779,11c married Elizabeth Kep- 
ler, and ten children were born to them : 
Catharine, Joseph, Sarah, Elizabeth, Jane, 
John A., Susan, Rebecca, Mary and Ann. 
John A., the second son and Dr. Seese's 
father, was born November 25, 1792. He 
attended the common schools of the dis- 
trict in which he lived and then taught a 
pay school for a number of years. Later on 
he learned the trades of carpenter and cabi- 
net maker and worked at them for some 
years, finally abandoning that avocation to 
take hold of a farm in Bucks county, where 
he remained until 1873. After this he re- 
sided at North Wales, Montgomery county, 
where he died March 22, 1882. He was a 
Democrat in politics, but never took a very 
prominent part in party work. He . also 
served his country during the latter part of 
the War of 1812. On August 6, 1S29, he 
married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Lott 
and grand-niece of George Clymer, signer 
of the Declaration of Independence. This 
union was blessed with the following chil- 
dren : William and Sarah, who died young ; 
Elizabeth, married to Samuel Geil ; Mi- 
randa, intermarried with Isaac G. Freed ; 
Mary and Jennie, deceased ; Samuel and 
Emma. 

Dr. Seese was sent through the common 
schools of his native town. He then be- 
came the teacher of a common school at 
Gardenville, Pa., and remained there sev- 
eral years. Afterwards he took a one year's 
course at the State Normal school, Millers- 
ville, and the following year had charge of 
the intermediate department of Newark 
academy, at Newark, N. J. He began to 
read medicine with Dr. B. K. Johnston, of 
North Wales, and when he resignad his po- 
sition in Newark academy, entered the 



548 



Biographical Sketches. 



University of Pennsylvania, from which he 
graduated in 1874. 

Dr. Seese first began to practice the pro- 
fession at Erwinna, Bucks county, where 
he remained ten years and was very suc- 
cessful. He, however, saw a better opening 
at Lansdale, and he located there in 1884, 
and his present very extensive practice is 
testimony to the fact that his judgment was 
right. Besides his office and visiting prac- 
tice, Dr. Seese is a surgeon of rare ability 
and is called upon very often to perform 
operations and attend to persons injured on 
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, as 
he is the doctor for the company in that 
district. He is a Democrat like his fore- 
fathers, and takes a great interest in politi- 
cal matters, though never making a bid for 
office. 

On the 17th of September, 1874, Dr. 
Seese and Miss Mary, daughter of Robert 
Wetherill, of Delaware county, were joined 
in marriage, and three children have been 
born to them, Mary, Richard and Gertrude, 
all of whom are living. Dr. Seese is a 
member of the following fraternal organi- 
zations : Masonic, Patriotic Order Sons 
of America, and Commandery Sons of 
America. 



WILLIAM D. ZIMMERMAN, the 
efficient cashier of the First Na- 
tional bank of Conshohockeu, is a son of 
Lorenzo D. and Anna M. (Dager) Zimmer- 
man, and was born September 7, 1854, in 
Whitpain township, this county. Mr. 
Zimmerman received his education in the 
public school of his native township, and 
subsequently took a course in the Norris- 
town high school. After leaving school he 
returned home and remained with his father 



on the farm up to 1875. In that year, 
through a personal friendship that existed 
between his uncle, Isaac Zimmerman, who 
had been a director in the Bank of Mont- 
gomery county, and Mr. William H. Sling- 
luff, whom he assisted in making cashier of 
that institution when only twenty-one years 
of age, Mr. Slingluff reciprocated this early 
confidence of Mr. Zimmerman by tendering 
his nephew a position as book-keeper in the 
same institution. Mr. Zimmerman entered 
on the duties of that position September 1, 
1875. After serving faithfully in this ca- 
pacity up to 1889, in recognition of his very 
satisfactory service, he was asked by Mr. 
John Slingluff, then president of the Mont- 
gomery Trust company, to accept a similar 
position in that institution, then recently 
organized and located in the same building. 
He remained in the capacity of book-keeper 
in the Trust company up to May, 1890, 
when he was elected as its secretary and 
treasurer, in which capacity he continued 
up to October 1, 1894, when, upon the res- 
ignation of William McDermott, the vet- 
eran cashier of the First National bank of 
Conshohocken, he was elected to his pres- 
ent position, at once assuming the duties 
and responsibilities of the same, after hav- 
ing spent more than nineteen years in va- 
rious capacities in the two institutions of 
the Montgomery National bank building of 
Norristown. 

Mr. Zimmerman is a Republican in poli- 
tics but has never taken an active part in 
political matters. On April 10, 1879, he 
was united in marriage with Miss Mary L., 
a daughter of William W. Baily, a retired 
builder, formerly of Tamaqua, Pa., but then 
residing in Plymouth township, this county. 
This marital relation has been blessed with 
one child, Frederick. 

The original progenitor of that branch of 



Biographical Sketches. 



549 



the Zimmerman family of which our sub- 
ject is a member, was one of the traditional 
three brothers who came to this country 
from Germany about the year 1700, and 
whose descendants are scattered through 
parts of New Jersey and eastern Pennsyl- 
vania. The earliest Zimmerman of whom 
any definite information is obtainable, was 
Christopher Zimmerman, who was a farmer 
and resided in Worcester township, in the 
early part of his life. Later and at the 
time of his death he lived on the old home- 
stead in Whitpain township, and his re- 
mains repose in the old Bethel church ceme- 
tery in Worcester township. The date of 
his birth, 1735, is still legible on the 
weather-worn tombstone. He had a family 
of seven children : Isaac, Jacob, William, 
Christopher, Catharine Clemens, Magdalene 
DeHaven and Susan Supplee. One of his 
.sons, William Zimmerman, grandfather, 
was born and lived the early part of his life 
in Worcester township. He was a stone- 
mason by trade but never followed that oc- 
cupation to any extent. Subsequently, 
from 1830 to 1835, he was engaged in the 
lumber business at Philadelphia, in partner- 
ship with John Evans, operating under the 
trading name of Zimmerman & Evans. He 
afterwards purchased the old homestead 
farm of two hundred acres in Whitpain, 
where he resided up to his death. He was 
a Whig and afterwards a Republican, and 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He was one of the emergency 
men in the War of 1812, and was stationed 
at Marcus Hook near Chester. He married 
Esther Butler, a daughter of Thomas But- 
ler and Mary Norman Butler, of Whitpain, 
and four children were born to this mar- 
riage : Sylvester and Cecilia, twins ; Lo- 
renzo and Franklin. William Zimmerman 
died November 6, 1862, in the eighty-second 



year of his age. His wife, Esther, died 
August 8, 1888, at the age of ninety years. 
Lorenzo D. Zimmerman, father, was born 
in Gwynedd township, this county, July 20, 
1827. His father soon after removed to 
Philadelphia, thence to Whitpain, where he 
received his education at the Ellis school 
of that township. Here he reared his fam- 
ily and continued in an extensive fanning 
business up to February, 1SS1, when he re- 
tired from active pursuits and removed to 
Norristowu, where he purchased a site at 
No. 1300 DeKalb street, and erected a hand- 
some residence in which he has since lived 
in well earned retirement. 

In 1853 Mr. Zimmerman married Anna 
Maria, daughter of Jacob and Caroline 
Streeper Dager, of Springfield township. 
To this union were born two children : 
William D. and George S., the latter at 
this writing occupies the home farm. 

Caroline S. Dager, grandmother, was a 
daughter of George Streeper, of White- 
marsh, who died in 1864, at the age of 
eighty-two years. His father was Leonard 
Streeper, who owned an extensive tract of 
land in Whitemarsh township during col- 
onial times, from which he donated the 
ground upon which the church and ceme- 
tery at Lafayette Hill are located. George 
Streeper was married to Elizabeth Hinckel. 
She was born near Philadelphia in 1779, 
and reached the age of ninety-two years, 
her death having taken place in 1871. She 
is, of course, distinctly remembered by the 
subject of this sketch. 



PO. WICK ART, M. D., who has been 
. practicing medicine with success in 
and about Salfordville during past years is 
a man who came here as a stranger, but 



55° 



Biographical Sketches. 



soon demonstrated his worth as an experi- 
enced practitioner, gaining and retaining 
the confidence and respect of the community 
and all with whom he came in contact. 
Dr. Wickart is a native of Lehigh county, 
where his ancestors have for many years 
resided and have helped to build it up and 
add to its importance. He is the son of 
Peter and Mary (Person) Wickart, and was 
born on the 27th of November, 1858. His 
forefathers were originally Germans, and 
when they came over to America they lo- 
cated in the Lehigh Valley and contributed 
to the great Pennsylvania German settle- 
ment in that section of the State. 

Charles Wickhart, his grandfather, was 
born in Lehigh county. He was a farmer 
and owned and successfully wprked two 
hundred acres of the finest land in the val- 
ley. 

He was a Democrat in principle and 
precept and took considerable interest in 
the work of his party in his locality. Dur- 
ing many years of an active life he was a 
member of the Reformed church and was a 
devout Christian. He was a deacon of his 
congregation for many years and was be- 
loved by all. He was married and the 
union was blessed by three children : Peter, 
Charles and Julian. 

Dr. Wickart's father was also born in 
Lehigh county on the 16th of February, 
1827, an d followed the pursuits of a farmer 
all his life and was eminently successful. 
He also became largely interested in coal 
mining interests and was well known in 
the region. Politically he took to the 
Democratic principles, but did not take a 
very active part in politics. He was a 
deacon and trustee of the Reformed church 
and was an earnest and untiring supporter 
of Sunday school work. His marriage with 
Mary Person was productive of a family 



of three children : Jennie, Alfred and Dr. 
Wickart. 

The common schools of forty years ago 
did not in any way compare with the sys- 
tem of the present day, but they were sound 
institutions. It was in this class of schools 
that Dr. Wickart was initiated into the 
early stages of an education. He then took 
a two years' course at the Keystone State 
Normal school, and after serving some 
time as a clerk in a drug store began to 
read medicine. His medical education was 
prosecuted at the Baltimore Medical college, 
where he graduated in 1882, after which 
he took a special advanced course. Having 
finished his medical training Dr. Wickart 
went to Ohio, where he remained some 
time, and then came to Salfordville, where 
he now enjoys a commendable practice. 
Dr. Wickart has made an enviable name 
for himself as a general practitioner and 
has a very bright future before him. 

On the 30th day of June, 1882, Dr. Wick- 
art married Grace B., the cultured daughter 
of George and Kate Long, and this union 
has been fruitful in the birth of five chil- 
dren, two only of whom, however, now live 
to bless the home happiness of their par- 
ents. The children are : Peter, deceased, 
who was born April 14, 1883 ; Levi, de- 
ceased, born July 7, 1884; Lewis W. , de- 
ceaaed, born July 13, 1887 ; Benjamin, 
born February 18, 1890, and J. A., born 
September 31, 1893. 



MONTGOMERY EVANS, Esq., a 
prominent attorney of Norristown, 
this county, is a son of Thomas and Mary 
(Schwenk) Evans, and was born November 
18, 1853, in Limerick township, Montgom- 
ery county, Pennsylvania. The old world 



Biographical Sketches. 



551 



home of that branch of the Evans family, 
of which the subject of this biographical 
record is a worthy scion, is in the historic 
little principality of Wales. The coming 
to this country of the founder of the fam- 
ily, William Evans, is co-existent with the 
early colonial history of the country. In 
1698 William Evans, together with his 
wife and family, settled in what is now 
Limerick township, Montgomery county. 
In this vicinity he and members of his 
family became the owners of "a large tract 
of land, part of which is yet in the posess- 
ion of his descendants. The. first deed bears 
date of 1 7 16, from the London Land com- 
pany. William Evans died soon after 
emigrating to this country. One of his 
children, Owen, the second son, was the 
lineal ancestor of the subject of this sketch. 
He became owner of a portion of the Evans 
estate and resided all his life in Limerick 
township, engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
He married Mary Davis, who died Novem- 
ber 28, 1854. One of the sons of Owen 
Evans was David Evans, the great-grand- 
father of Montgomery Evans, born January 
22, 1730, died October 23, 1S00. His wife 
was Anna Brooke. One of his sons was 
Owen Evans, the grandfather, who was 
born October 23, 1767, died April 14, 1845, 
in Limerick township, and following in the 
footsteps of several generations of his an- 
cesters, followed farming as a means of 
securing a livelihood. He was a Democrat 
of the Jeffersonian stamp and exhibited a 
commendable interest in the administration 
of local political affairs. Religiously he 
was a member of the Society of Friends. 
He married Rachel Brooke, and the fol- 
lowing children were born of this union : 
Anna, Robert, David, John, David, 2nd, 
Matthew and Thomas Brooke. 

Thomas Brooke Evans, father, was born 



on the old family homestead in Limerick 
township on April 21, 1809. He attended 
the common schools and obtained a fair 
education for that day, and taught 
for a time in the public schools 
of the county in his younger days. 
He learned the trade of a tanner, 
and for a time followed that trade in Clus- 
ter county and in Limerick township, and 
then located upon a farm in the same town- 
ship, where he followed farming the re- 
mainder of his life, dying on December 13, 
1863. In political texture he was a Demo- 
crat, and being a man of good judgment 
was elected to the office of justice of the 
peace a number of terms and served as a clerk 
to the county commissioners and directors 
ot the poor of Montgomery county a num- 
ber of years. His marriage with Mary 
Schwenk, daughter of Jacob Schwenk, re- 
sulted in the birth of eight children : R. 
Brooke, who resides on the homestead 
farm in Limerick township ; Franklin and 
Montgomery, both died in early boyhood ; 
Mary E., wife of Frank S. Savior, a wire 
manufacturer of St. Louis, Missouri; Char- 
lotte, died in 1892 ; Emma, wife of Garrett 
E. Brownback, a butter manufacturer, of 
Linfield,this county; Montgomery, 2nd; and 
Zella, wdio died at the age of five years. 

Montgomery Evans obtained his ele- 
mentary and preparatory education in the 
public schools of Limeiick township and in 
the select schools of Phcenixville, Spring 
City and Norristown. He then entered 
Lafayette college, at Easton, from which 
educational institution of high standing he 
graduated in 1875. Leaving college he 
took a position as principal of the public 
schools of Montrose, Susquehanna county, 
this State, and remained there two years. 
At the end of that time he came to Norris- 
town and registered as a student at law in 



552 



Biographical Sketches. 



the office of the late B. E. Chain, and was 
admitted to the bar of Montgomery county 
on November 30, 1878. He at once en- 
tered upon the practice of his profession at 
Norristown, and has remained there ever 
since actively and successfully engaged in 
the practice of the law. In the spring of 
1888 he formed a partnership with Louis 
M. Childs, under the firm name of Childs 
& Evans, which relation still continues. 
He is vice-president of the Norristown 
Trust and Safe Deposit company; and sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Norristown 
Land and Improvement company, a Demo- 
crat in matters political and a strict and 
consistent member of the Central Presby- 
terian church, of Norristown. He is an 
elder in this church organization, has been 
superintendent of its Sabbath school for a 
period of twelve years, and a member of the 
board of trustees for the same -length of 
time. 

He is a member of the Montgomery 
County Law association, and since 1885 the 
treasurer of the law library committee of 
the county. 

On November 30, 1886, Mr. Evans and 
Miss Cara G., a daughter of Rev. James G. 
Ralston, of Norristown, and formerly pro- 
prietor of Oakland female seminary, were 
united in marriage. Two children, Doro- 
thy L. and Roger, deceased, were the fruits 
of this marriage. 

As a lawyer Mr. Evans stands deservedly 
high and is literate in all the intricacies 
and subtleties of the law. He is a careful 
student of legal and judicial literature 
as well as of human nature, possesses 
a keen and discriminating mind aud is al- 
ways alert in the detection of technical 
points and in legal manceuvering. Person- 
ally he is affable and dignified and com- 
mands the highest esteem. 



HON. MILTON H. WALTERS, an 
ex-member of the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature and a successful business man of 
Montgomery county, is a son of John K. 
and Kate (Hoffman) Walters, and was born 
September 4, 1848, in Marlborough town- 
ship, Montgomery count}-, Pennsylvania. 
His paternal grandfather upon arriving at 
maturity embarked in the pursuits of hus- 
bandry in Centre county, this State. In- 
dustrious, frugal and of strict integrity, he 
won not only pecuniary success, but the 
confidence and respect of all who had busi- 
dess or social relations with him. Politi- 
cally he was a Democrat, whilst religiously 
he was a devout and consistent member of 
the Lutheran church. He wedded, and the 
following children, now all deceased, blessed 
their union : John, Jacob, George, and 
Anna. John K. Walters, father, was born 
in Upper Salford township, this county, 
and died at the age of sixty-three years. 
He was reared upon his father's farm, and 
attended the subscription schools obtaining 
only an elementary education. Leaving 
school at the age of sixteen years, he soon 
began life on his own account as a tiller of 
the soil and followed it until death closed 
his useful, industrious, and successful 
career. He was a Democrat and a member 
of the Lutheran church, in the work of 
which he took a prominent part, holding 
the office of deacon, and his life was an 
exemplification of cardinal Christian vir- 
tues. His marriage union with Kate 
Hoffman was blessed in the birth of the 
following children : Maria, who became 
the wife of David Kline ; Charles, Ephraim, 
Emaline, Oswin, and Milton H, subject. 

Milton H. Walters' boyhood days were 
spent after the fashion of a typical farmer 
boy, doing chores about and working upon 
the farm during the summer months and 



Biographical Sketches. 



553 



attending school during the winter. At 
school he was quick and apt in his studies. 
After attending the common schools until 
he had mastered the course of instruction 
provided in them, he attended Washington 
Hall Institute, at the Trappe, one session 
and Freeland seminary for the same length 
of time, and so rapid was the progress 
made that at the early age of fifteen he was 
qualified to teach and received the county 
superintendent's license or certificate. He 
taught four terms successfully in Marlbor- 
ough township and then relinquished teach- 
ing to engage in the milling business, hav- 
ing learned the trade with his brother. For 
sixteen years he followed the fortunes of a 
miller in this township. On the economic 
questions of the day Mr. Walters believes 
in a Jacksonian enforcement of Jefferson- 
ian principle and has always accorded it 
his suffrage, uniformly taking an active 
interest in the success of the Democratic 
party. He is a man well recognized for 
his good judgment and fair dealing and in 
1883 was elected to the judicial office of 
justice of the peace, and at the end of his 
first term was re-elected, but resigned on 
December 31, 1890, to accept a higher 
office. The people of his district, recogniz- 
ing in him those qualities of head and heart 
that go to make up a good legislator, 
elected him in 1890 to represent them in 
the Pennsylvania legislature, and his 
course in that body was such as reflected 
honor upon himself and was entirely satis- 
factory to his constituents. He has always 
been a staunch friend of the cause of popu- 
lar education and has served continuously 
as school director from 1880 to the present 
time (1895), acting as secretary of the 
board since 1883. In his business relations 
and transactions he has exhibited the same 
rare good judgment that has characterized 



him in other phases of life's activities, and 
as a business man has been eminently 
successful, posessing large and valuable 
land interests, among which are the follow- 
ing: two well improved farms one of sixty- 
eight acres and the other of sixty-five acres 
in Marlborough township; joint owner of 
forty-eight acres adjacent to the fair 
ground near Pottstown ; and a nicely im- 
proved small farm at Royer's Ford. Mr. 
Walters has been twice married. His 
first union resulted in the birth of two 
children : Irvin G. and Agnes K , both de- 
ceased. His second marital alliance has 
been blessed in the birth of three children : 
Laura, Howard and Norma. Mr. Walters 
is affable and well liked and his success 
and popularity among his neighbors and 
acquaintances is well deserved and last- 
ing:. 



|()HN C. HATHAWAY, who owns 
<J shirt factories at Norristown and Lans- 
dale, is a son of John C, sr., and Barbara 
Ann Hathaway. He was born at Norris- 
town, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
in September, 1851. The Hathaway fam- 
ily is of English origin and John C. Hath- 
away, sr., was born in Delaware county, 
near the city of Wilmington, in the State 
of Delaware. He received a common En- 
glish education and learned the trade of 
carpenter, which he followed for some time 
at Chestnut Hill. He afterwards came to 
Norristown and engaged in contracting on 
a small scale. He built up an extensive 
business, and at the time of his death, was 
one of the largest contractors at Norristown, 
employing quite a force of hands and erect- 
ing many buildings in various parts of the 
borough and in the adjacent suburbs and 
surrounding county. Mr. Hathawav was 



554 



Biographical Sketches. 



in religious matters inclined to the faith 
and practice of the Quakers or Society of 
Friends. He was patriotic, and when the 
government called for men to maintain the 
union, he responded to the call. He en- 
listed in company C, 2nd Pennsylvania 
cavalry, and participated in many hard bat- 
tles and numerous skirmishes. He con- 
tracted rheumatism from cold and exposure 
while in the Union service, and died from 
the effects of that disease, when in the six- 
ty-sixth year of his age. Mr. Hathaway 
wedded Barbara Ann Kitzginer, whose 
father, John Kitzginer, was a native and 
resident of Delaware county. Mrs. Hath- 
away lived to be fifty years of age. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hathaway reared a family of four 
children, three sons and a daughter: George, 
who went to California ; John C, the sub- 
ject of this sketch ; William and Mary. 
John C. Hathaway was reared in his na- 
tive town, received his education in the 
Norristown public schools, and at fourteen 
years of age, entered the employ of a con- 
tractor, with whom he worked for two 
years. He then entered the employ of his 
mother, who was then carrying on the 
manufacture of pantaloons at Norristown, 
and remained with her up to 1869, when he 
embarked, on DeKalb street, in shirt manu- 
facturing on a small scale. Three years 
later he removed to his present place of 
business, 520-522, George street, near West 
Marshall street. He opened out there in 
rather an unpretentious manner, safely 
weathered the financial panic in 1873, and 
yearly increased his business until he now 
has a large demand for his products in 
many of the eastern cities. He has remod- 
eled, enlarged and fully equipped his fac- 
tory, and employs a force of one hundred 
hands. Mr. Hathaway also owns and ope- 
rates a shirt factory at Lansdale, which he 



started in 1894, and whose capacity and 
output are such that he there employs 
fifty hands. Xo panic or financial depres- 
sion has effected his business, and in 1893 
and 1894, when the distrust and uncertainty 
of the times caused many shirt factories to 
either close down or run on half time, his 
trade was such that the output of his Nor- 
ristown factor) - was five hundred dozens of 
shirts per week. 

On Christmas day, 1869, Mr. Hathaway 
was united in marriage with Emma E. 
Shuber. Mr. and Mrs. Hathaway have six- 
children living. 

In politics Mr. Hathaway is a Republican 
and has served three years as a member of 
the borough council. He is a member of 
L-ynwood Lodge, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. 



JOHN G. HUNSICKER, proprietor of 
J the central store of Souderton, has 
been located in that town for the past two 
years, and i., well and favorably known all 
over the county as a business man of 
sound principles and thorough mercautile 
training. He was born on June 4, 1S50, 
and is the son of Isaac C. and Mary 
(Garges) Hunsicker, and is a descendant of 
American-German ancestry. His paternal 
great-grandfather, Isaac Hunsicker, was a 
native of this county. He was the father 
of thirteen children. His grandfather was 
also named Isaac Hunsicker, -and after get- 
ting a common school education, he went 
to svork on a farm. He followed the 
peaceful life of a farmer until his death and 
was respected by all who knew him. On 
February 4, 1845, ne married a Miss Cassell, 
and after the death of his first wife married 
Miss Stauffer. He was the father of seven 



Biographical Sketches. 



555 



children. Isaac C. Hunsicker, who is the 
father of the subject of this sketch, was 
born October 3, 1819, and was a farmer 
by occupation, working a fertile farm and 
becoming prosperous. He was a man of 
excellent judgment and held the confidence 
of his neighbors. The Hunsicker family 
were all members of the Mennonitc church 
and this gentleman was very active in 
church work. He was the father of the 
following children : James, born January 7, 
1846, deceased ; Isaac, born January 7, 
1848, deceased ; John G., born June 4, 1850; 
Anna, born February 26, 1852, deceased ; 
and Henry G. , born February 10, 1856. 
He is a Republican in politics, and is still 
living at the age of seventy-six years. 

John G. Hunsicker was sent to the com- 
mon schools and then spent one term at 
Freeland seminary. On finishing his 
schooling he accepted a position as clerk 
in the wholesale dry goods store of Rom- 
berger, Long cc Co., of Philadelphia, where 
he remained four years and then resigned 
to start in the general store business at 
Lederachville. Later on he engaged in 
the same business in Bucks county and 
remained there four years. During this 
time he assisted in establishing the first 
creamery in that vicinity. Then he bought 
the creamery at Branch Valley. In 1895 he 
came to Souderton and bought the store 
he now manages with such skill and 
profit. Besides being a prosperous mer- 
chant, Mr. Hunsicker is a man of enter- 
prise and public spirit. He assisted in 
organizing the Trust Company at Lansdale 
and is at present a stockholder in that con- 
cern. He makes a specialty of butter in a 
mercantile way and handles ten thousand 
pounds of that article every week. In 
every thing that Mr. Hunsicker has taken 
an interest, he has prospered. He started 



in the world on nothing and his Inst posi- 
tion netted him only S3 a week. But his 
indomitable energy and strong ambition 
carried him onward and upward until now 
he holds the most prominent place in the 
neighborhood and is generally respected 
for his business ability and integrity. 

Mr. Hunsicker was married October 30, 
1873, to Sallie, daughter of Hiram Heil, 
and this marriage has been blessed with 
six children, five of whom are living. The 
children are: Harry H., born August 2, 
1874; Charles, born January 4, 1877; Irvin, 
born January 2, 1879, now deceased; Lilly, 
born January 13, 1881; Sallie, born Sep- 
tember 4, 1883; and Lizzie, born August 
24, 1889. The family are regular attend- 
ants of the Reformed church. In politics, 
Mr. Hunsicker is a Republican, but does 
not hold office or aspire to do more than 
to assist in preserving the prosperity of 
his countrv. 



SAMUEL C. MOVER, M. D., who since 
1892 has been a very successful 
homeopathic physician at Lansdale, is a 
native of Bucks count} - , this State, and was 
born on November 17, 1846. He is a de- 
scendant of good old German- American 
ancestry. His paternal grandfather was 
Joseph M. Moyer, who was a prosperous 
farmer in Bucks county, a prominent mem- 
ber of the Mennouite church, and was first 
a Whig and then a Republican in political 
faith. He married, and they had several 
children. 

The father of our subject was born in 
Bucks county, received his education in 
the common schools of his day and then 
began farming, following that avocation 
all his life. He owned a productive farm 



556 



Biographical Sketches. 



in Bucks county, which he cultivated with 
profit. He was an active member of the 
Mennonite congregation of this township 
and was a staunch, unswerving Republican 
in politics. He married and they had five 
children ; Henry, born March 17, 1837 ; 
Barbara, born March 21, 1840 ; Mary, born 
January 20, 1843, and married to Daniel 
Christmau ; Dr. Samuel C, and John, who 
was born November 29, 1851. Mr. Moyer 
died on April 4, 1885, and his wife died 
January 13, 1881. 

Dr. Samuel C. Moyer was given a com- 
mon school education, also attended the 
Ouakertown normal institute and after- 
wards spent two terms at Wadsworth semi- 
nary, Ohio. He subsequently read medi- 
cine and graduated from Hahnemann Medi- 
cal college, Philadelphia, on March 12, 
1872. On securing his diploma Dr. Moyer 
became associated with Dr. Detwiller, of 
Bucks county, and practiced his profession 
with commendable success. He remained 
there until he saw a good opening in Lans- 
dale and vicinity. Since locating in the 
above mentioned locality he "has built up a 
very large practice and is deservedly popu- 
lar in that neighborhood. Dr. Moyer is a thor- 
ough student and a close observer, and his 
long years of experience have made him one 
of the leading physicians of his school in 
Montgomery county. He is a Republican 
in politics and an earnest supporter of 
the party ticket. He is a member of 
the Mennonite faith, like his forefathers, 
and is very active in church work. His 
first wife was Mary Swartley. By this union 
he became the father of three children : 
Ella, William, and John, who is now de- 
ceased. His second marriage resulted in 
the birth of six children : Winfield, born 
December 15, 1884; Herbert, born Febru- 
ary 7, 1886 ; Sarah, born March 8, 1889 ; 



Katie, born October 19, 1890; Samuel, born 
April 10, 1893; and Emma G., born Feb- 
ruary 9, 1895. 



ELWOOD G. GILBERT, V. S., a well 
known veterinary surgeon, was born 
July, 1855, in Bucks county, this State, and 
is a son of Joseph S. and Mariah (Most) Gil- 
bert. His parents were both natives of 
Bucks count}-, and were descended from 
good old German stock. Joseph S. Gilbert 
(father) was a prominent and successful 
farmer of Bucks county, and a steadfast ad- 
herent of the Quaker faith. He was of a 
quiet disposition, unassuming in manner, 
and never aspired to public office. He died 
much respected by all who knew him in 
1S72. He married Mariah Most, and by 
that union had a family of several children. 
Dr. Elwood G. Gilbert attended the pub- 
lic schools of Newtown, Bucks county, dur- 
ing his youth, and as he emerged into man- 
hood began an apprenticeship at the mill- 
ing business with David R. Warman, at 
Frenchtown, New Jersey. He subsequently 
followed that business for eight years, and 
in 1S79 began the study of veterinary sur- 
gery under Dr. Isaiah Michner, the dis- 
tinguished veterinary surgeon of Car- 
versville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. 
After two years' study with Dr. Michner, 
Dr. Gilbert went to New York and 
entered the American veterinary col- 
lege of that city, from which he graduated 
in 1884, receiving a silver medal for having 
passed the best practical examination of any 
student in his class. In the fall of that 
year Dr. Gilbert located at Pottstown, 
Montgomery county, for the practicing of 
his profession. He has now been in active 
practice for eleven years, and during that 



Biographical Sketches. 



557 



time, has by ability and energy, built up a 
large and lucrative business, winning at the 
same time a reputation in his profession of 
which he may justly feel proud. His prac- 
tice now extends over several counties of 
the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
and he is frequently called for consultation 
by some of the most distinguished veteri- 
nary surgeons of Philadelphia and other 
large cities. 

In August, 1879, Dr. Gilbert was united 
in marriage to Susanna Eichlin, a daughter 
of Lewis Eichlin, of Bucks county, Penn- 
sylvania. To their union have been born 
three children : Honore, Lizzie and Willie. 
In politics the Doctor is a Republican, and 
fraternally a member of the Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons. 



THOMAS H. BARKER, a successful 
business man and a member of the 
important woolen manufacturing firm of 
Booth & Bro. of Gladwyne, is the eldest son 
of Edward and Elizabeth (Hardy) Barker, 
and was born at Todd Morton, Delaware 
county, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1S49. 
His paternal grandfather, Thomas' Barker, 
was a cotton spinner and worked for main 
years in English cotton factories. He left 
Olden, England, in 1842, and settled at 
Todd Morton, Delaware county, where he 
afterwards died. He married in England, 
and his son, Edward, came with him to 
this country. Edward Barker was born at 
Olden, England, in 1823, received an ordi- 
nary education and learned the trade of 
spinner, which he followed for upwards of 
twenty-five years after coming to this 
country. In 1868, he came to Montgom- 
ery county, and rented the old mill prop- 
erty on Mill creek and was engaged for two 



years in the manufacture of woolen yarn. 
The mill then burned and Mr. Barker lived 
a retired life until his death in 1883. He 
was a Democrat until after Buchanan's 
election and then became a Republican. 
He was a member of the Episcopal church, 
and Leeperville Lodge, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. Edward Barker in 1847 
married Elizabeth Hardy and to their 
union were born three sons and two daugh- 
ters : Thomas H.; George and Henry, who 
are both dead ; YVillimina; and Mary, wife 
of Thomas Donnelly. Mrs. Barker was a 
Miss Hardy before marriage. 

Thomas H. Barker was sent at nine 
years of age from his native place to West 
Philadelphia, where he attended the public 
schools until 1865, and then became a card 
feeder in the cotton and woolen mill of 
James Greenwood at Forty-seventh and 
Market streets. After two years spent in 
the employ of Mr. Greenwood, he came to 
Lower Merion township and drove a team 
and also acted at times as engineer for his 
father. After the burning of the mill in 
1870, he went back to Philadelphia and 
rented the factory at Forty-seventh and 
Market streets, which he operated up to 
1872. In that year he and William Booth 
(a half-brother) formed a partnership under 
the firm name of Booth & Brother and be- 
came possessors of the Rose Glen mill on 
Mill creek, which they have operated ever 
since in the manufacture of carpet yarn. 
This mill was built by Samuel Nippes in 
1814 and used for some years as a gun 
factory. It was afterwards used as a car- 
pet yarn mill by James Ledward, and later 
for the same purpose by Thomas Schofield. 
The present firm commenced with but ten 
hands and now have a large force of em- 
ployees. 

Mr. Barker married Josephine Courad, a 



558 



Biographical Sketches. 



daughter of Jacob Conrad. Mr. and Mrs. 
Barker have a family of the following sons 
and daughters : William, Thomas J., Con- 
rad, Frank K., Charles F., Margaret H., 
and Eva. 

Thomas H. Barker is a staunch Republi- 
can and has served of late years as a dele- 
gate to all the important State and county 
conventions of his party. He is a member 
of the Episcopal church ; Merion Lodge 
No. 260, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; 
Lodge No. 219, Knights of Pythias, and 
has served several times as representative 
to the State Grand Lodge of the Odd Fel- 
lows and of Pythian Knighthood. In addi- 
tion to these two secret organizations he is 
a member of ten other secret and beneficial 
orders, besides four Republican and several 
social clubs. Mr. Barker is a thirty-two 
degree or Scottish Rite Mason, having 
passed through lodge, chapter, council, 
commanderv and consistory. 



CHARLES B. HOUGH, M. D., one of 
the successful physicians of Ambler, 
and a relative of General Ulysses S. Grant, 
is a son of James F. and Margaret (Fries) 
Hough, and was born at Ogontz, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, October 31, 
1854. He was taken by his parents, in 
1865, to Bucks county, and received his edu- 
cation in the public schools, Hatboro pri- 
vate school, Carversville Normal school 
and Doylestown English classical school, 
from which latter educational institution he 
was graduated tn 1874. Leaving school he 
studied medicine with Dr. Frank Swartz- 
lander, of Doylestown, and then entered 
Jefferson Medical college, from which he 
was graduated in 187S, with the degree of 
M. D. Immediately after graduating he 



located at Prospectville, where he practiced 
for three years. He then removed to Three 
Tuns, and a year later, came to Ambler, 
where he has been in successful practice 
ever since. 

In 1887 Dr. Hough married Mary Paul 
Hallowell, M. D., a graduate of the 
Woman's Medical college, and a practicing 
physician at Swarthmore, in Delaware 
countw They have three children : Wil- 
liam J., Margaret and Tacy. 

Dr. Charles B. Hough is a Republican in 
politics, and has been for several years a 
member of the Reformed church. He has 
served as school director and as health 
officer of his borough and is a member of 
Ambler Lodge, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. 

The Hougfh familv is of distinguished 
Xorman-French ancestry, and the original 
name, De la Hough, was subsequently 
changed to De Hough, then La Hough, 
and finally written Hough. The family 
came into England with William the Con- 
queror, in 1066, and two centuries later, one 
of its member, Richard Hough, who re- 
sided at Macclesfield, in Chestershire, re- 
solved upon settling in the new world. He 
came in 1683, to Makefield in Bucks county, 
where in the ensuing year, he married 
Margery Clowes, by whom he had five 
children. Their son, Joseph Hough, sr., 
wedded Elizabeth West, and was the father 
of Joseph, jr., who married Mary Toinpkin 
and reared a family of seven children. One 
of these children was Benjamin Hough, sr., 
who married Hannah Simpson, a sister of 
John Simpson, the maternal grandfather of 
General Ulysses S. Grant. Benjamin and 
Hannah Hough had a sou, Benjamin 
Hough, jr., who resided at Xewville, Bucks 
county, where he owned a large tract of 
land and had a general mercantile store. 



Biographical Sketches. 



559 



He was a man of extensive means for his 
day and by marriage had eleven children : 
John, .Silas, Simpson, Samuel, Benjamin, 
George, Harry, James F., Ellen, wife of G. 
E. Bryan ; Jennie and Anna. The eighth 
sen, James F. Hough, was born in Bucks 
county, attended boarding school and 
learned the trade of miller with Chas. Bos- 
sier, at Shoemakersville, now Ogontz. 
After remaining at Shoemakersville for five 
vears, he removed near Doylestown, Bucks 
county, where he bought a farm and mill, 
which In- disposed of five years later to be- 
come the owner of the Horsham flouring 
mill. He operated the last named mill for 
eight years and then sold it to purchase a 
farm in Bucks county, where he followed 
farming for ten years. He then established a 
general mercantile store at Ambler and 
later on went to Atlantic city, New Jersey, 
wdiere he died in 1889. 

He was a Republican politically, and 
married Margaret Fries. To James F. and 
Margaret Hough were born three children : 
Dr. Charles B., Horace, and Ellen, wife of 
J. S. Buchanan. 



WE. PHILLIPS, a leading citizen 
and representative farmer of the 
southern part of the county, is a son of 
Jonathan C. and Sarah (Abrams) Phillips, 
and was born in Upper Merion township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, May 9, 
1856. The founder of the American branch 
of the Phillips family was Griffith Phillips, 
who came from Wales, in 1731, and settled 
on the William Peun farm in Upper Merion 
township. His son, Jonathan Phillips, a j 
prominent citizen and farmer and who 
helped to organize the first Philadelphia 
market, was the father of Samuel D. Phil- 



lips, a prominent surveyor and large land- 
holder. Samuel I). Phillips was a stirring 
and progressive man and started the move- 
ment to organize the first Norristown Bap- 
tist church, in which he was a deacon 
up to the time of his death. He was 
widely known throughout his own and 
adjoining counties, his advice often be- 
ing sought on matters of importance, and 
died in 1861, aged seventy-two vears. He 
married Theodosia Cleaver, and their chil- 
dren were : Jonathan C, William E., and 
Charles D. The eldest son, Jonathan C. 
Phillips, born 1814, and died 1884, on the 
old homestead, and like his ancestors for 
three generations before him, was a fanner. 
He attended the old subscription schools 
and Rev. Samuel Aaron's celebrated aca- 
demy, and then devoted his life to agricul- 
tural pursuits. He was a Republican and 
Baptist, and a leading advocate of the 
Grange movement, being a member and 
past officer up to his death, of Merion 
Grange, No. 112, Patrons of Husbandry. In 
1845 he married Sarah Abrams, whose 
father was Joseph Abrams, a resident of 
Upper Merion, Pa. They had six children : 
Anna (deceased), Joseph A., Martha E., 
Mrs. F. S. Maniel, Samuel D. Jr., (de- 
ceased), William E., and Ella M., now 
dead. 

William E. Phillips was reared and has 
always resided on the old homestead, pur- 
chased by Griffith Phillips nearly two cen- 
turies ago, from Wm. Penn, and from 
which circumstance it is known as " Wm. 
Penn's Farm," and which has always been 
in the family. He received his education 
in the district schools, John W. Loch's aca- 
demy and Lewisburg university (now Buck- 
nell university) from which well known 
institution he graduated with honor in 1877 
and received the degree of B. S. Leaving 



5 6o 



Biographical Sketches. 



college he was manager of his father's farm 
until the death of the latter. He then en- 
gaged in the hardware business at Norris- 
town, but two years later returned to the 
old homestead farm where he has been en- 
gaged ever since in farming and raising im- 
proved breeds of horses. Mr. Phillips has 
done and is doing much to improve the 
stock of horses in the county. He is a Re- 
publican politically, a member of the first 
Baptist church at Xorristown, Pa., and su- 
perintendent of King of Prussia Sunday 
school since 1888. He is also a member of 
Merion Grange and like his father is a pro- 
gressive farmer and leader in agricultural 
pursuits. 

On October 18th, 1886, Mr. Phillips mar- 
ried Hannah A. Rapp, a daughter of Joseph 
E. and Rachel A. Rapp, of Norristown. 
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have one child, Jos- 
eph Leon, who was born June 15, 1888. 



GW. EGOLF, has been a well known 
• and highly successful manufacturer 
of clothing at Harleysville for many years. 
He is a native of this town and was born 
February 22, i860. He is a son of John G. 
and Sarah (Leister) Egolf He is of Ger- 
man ancestry, his paternal grandfather, 
having been born in Baden Baden, Ger- 
many, March 1800. He was a well known 
farmer, a Democrat and a devout Christian, 
and came to Philadelphia in 1854, at which 
time he located in Philadelphia and re- 
sided there up to the time of his death. 
He was the father of the following chil- 
dren: Charles, Caroline Fertig, nee Keener; 
John G., Elizabeth Dush, Sophia Foltz, 
Rosa Turner. 

Mr. Egolf's father was born in Baden 



Baden, Germany, on April 1, 1832. He was 
a tailor by trade and followed cutting for 
several years. He came to Harleysville in 
1865 and established himself as a manufac- 
turing tailor. He was very successful in 
business, and in 1S88 sold his establishment 
to his son, George, and came to Philadel- 
phia and carried on the grocery business 
for four years, up to May 24, 1895. He is 
a Democrat and a member of Grace Re- 
formed church, of Philadelphia. Twelve 
children blessed his fireside. They are : 
William, who died young ; George, the 
subject of this sketch ; Laura, wife of Mont- 
gomery Linderman ; Sally, wife of Benja- 
min F. Gerhab ; Mary, wife of Joseph Fred- 
erick ; Henry, Ida, wife of Samuel B. Cas- 
sel ; Samuel, Kate, Ella, Harvey and Cloid. 
He is a member of Perkiomenville Lodge, 
I. O. O. P., No. 367. 

George Egolf was given a common 
school education and graduated when he 
was sixteen years old. He then entered his 
father's store, and after a few years was taken 
into parnership. At the expiration of two 
years he became sole owner of the establish- 
ment. He has ever since conducted a con- 
stantly growing business and his sense of 
integrity has earned for him the highest 
respect. 

Politically Mr. Egolf is a Democrat. He 
is a member of the Reformed church and 
prominent in the administration of its 
affairs. He is also a member of the follow- 
ing secret organizations : Lansdale Lodge, 
No. 558, F. and A. M. ; the lodge of Odd 
Fellows of Perkiomenville, No. 367, and 
Lodge No. 18, O. U. of A. M., of Mont- 
gomery Council. On January 22, 1880, he 
married Miss Emma S Kindig, and this 
marriage has resulted in a family of four 
children. These are : George H., Anna K., 
Sail)- K. and Elva. 



Biographical Sketches. 



561 



ANDREW J. SMITH, now a resident, 
of Jenkintown, this county, is a son 
of Daniel and Eliza (Delaney) Smith, and 
was born in the county of Bucks, Pennsyl- 
vania, on the old homestead, still in posses- 
sion of the family, June 25, 1841. 

The founding of the Smith family in this 
county is traceable to Welsh progenitors. 
The first of the lineal descendants of which 
anything definitely is known is Captain 
Smith, grandfather of Andrew J , whose 
residental city was Philadelphia. He fol- 
lowed the sea for a livelihood, and for many 
years was in command of merchant vessels 
owned by the late Stephen Girard. He re- 
mained in his employ almost throughout 
life and died at sea. Daniel Smith (father) 
was a native and a resident of Philadelphia, 
where he lived until his death in 1851. His 
business was that of a leather currier, at 
which he worked in his native city for 
Robert Pechim. This was his life work. 
Politically, he affiliated with the Demo- 
cratic partv, to which he gave very liberal 
support. In his religious predilections he 
was an Episcopalian, and for many years 
was the superintendent of the Sunday 
school connected with Christ church, Phila- 
delphia. He was a zealous Christian- 
worker and a faithful churchman. In the 
year 182 1 Daniel Smith espoused in mar- 
riage Eliza Delaney, who gave birth to five 
children : Caroline, deceased ; Mary, John, 
James and Andrew J. 

The subject of this annal, during his early 
childhood, removed to Philadelphia with 
his parents, and remained in that city until 
ten years of age. His education was ob- 
tained in the public schools of Philadelphia 
and Jenkintown, in which latter place he 
attended school during the period interven- 
ing the age of ten and sixteen years. 
Subsequently he entered the general store 

36 



of Charles Harper, of Jenkintown, with 
whom he remained four years, after which 
he was placed in charge of the store of 
George Peirson, at Weldon, this county, 
with whom he continued the two succeed- 
ing years. At the expiration of this time 
he was seized with an illness that incapaci- 
tated him for business actively for an addi- 
tional two years. After his recuperation 
he entered the employ of Henry Danbert, 
an iron merchant, and remained with him 
until his appointment as postmaster of the 
village of Jenkintown by President Andrew 
Johnson in the year 1865. He held office 
throughout Johnson's administration, and 
then, in partnership with B. W. Fleck, pur- 
chased the iion business of Mr. Danbert, 
which was henceforth conducted by the 
firm of Smith & Fleck for some three or 
four years. Succeeding this venture he 
purchased a property located on York pike, 
and started the first bakery in the village, 
which remained under his control for four- 
teen vears. After a somewhat varied em- 
ployment up to the year 1890, he entered 
the feed and lumber business with Samuel 
L. Schively, which has been continued 
down to the present time. In his fraternal 
relations Mr. Smith was a member of both 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
a Mason. 

He is a staunch Democrat in politics, 
has served as school director and council- 
man, and as president of council in Jenkin- 
town borough. He is a member of the 
Episcopal church, in which he is a vestry- 
man, and also was a director of the Jenkin- 
town Building and Loan Association for 
ten years. 

In 1868 Mr. Smith married Mary C. Zane, 
by whom six children have been born : W. 
Raymond, E. Gertrude, Francis C., Amanda, 
Alfred and Herbert. 



562 



Biographical Sketches. 



CHARLES W. HUMPHREYS, real 
estate assessor of Lower Merion town- 
ship, is a son of Charles and Mary Ann 
(Burrows) Humphreys, and was born at 
Humphreysville, now Bryn Mawr, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania, April 16, 
1845. His paternal grandfather, Benjamin 
Humphries, was a blacksmith by trade and 
a Whig in politics, and passed his life at 
Humphreysville, where he died in 1863 at 
the age of eighty-six years. His son, 
Charles Humphreys, was born November 
2, 1802, and after leaving school, learned 
the trade of carpenter which he followed 
up to the time of his death on April 7, 
1861. He was an elder in the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and a Lincoln Republi- 
can in i860. He was an honest, upright 
and highly respected man, and in 1831 
purchased the place and erected buildings 
where his son, the subject of this sketch, 
now resides. Charles Humphreys was a 
member of the Minute Men, a military 
organization that met at Merion Square 
and in every way was patriotic and loyal 
to the Federal government. In 1826 he 
married Mary Ann Burrows. To their 
union were born nine children : Lydia, now 
dead; Jessie B.; Rachel, wife of E. A. 
Johns, of Philadelphia; Mary W.; Eliza- 
beth; Sarah; Fannie; Annie L.; and Charles 
W., whose name appears at the head of 
this sketch. 

Charles W. Humphreys was reared at his 
native place and received his education in 
the Bryn Mawr public schools and the 
Friends' Central High school of Philadel- 
phia. He was then engaged in the leather 
and finding business in Philadelphia from 
1862 up to 1888, in which year he was 
elected real estate assessor of Lower Merion 
township. At the end of his term he was 
re-elected two times. He 



his third term and has been very successful 
in assessing' the real estate of one of the 
wealthiest townships in the State. 

In July, 1870, Mr. Humphreys married 
Bell Palmer, of Philadelphia. They have 
three children, two sons and a daughter : 
Charles E., who was graduated from Prince- 
ton college in 1893, and is a civil engi- 
neer; Florence A.; and Warren P., now a 
student at Haverford college. 

In politics Charles W. Humphreys has 
always been a Republican. He served as 
school director from 1882 to 1888, and has 
not missed a delegate or regular election 
since 1865 Mr. Humphreys has been 
active in various ways for the benefit of his 
community. He is a member and past 
master of Cassia Lodge No. 273, Free and 
Accepted Masons, of Ardmore, and a mem- 
ber and past officer of American Star 
Lodge No. 53, United Order of American 
Mechanics of Bryn Mawr, and was one of 
the original members of the Merion Cricket 
club of Bryn Mawr. He is a member of 
the Espicopal church. 



ELMER G. KRIEBEL, M. D., one of 
the young and rising physicians of 
Montgomery county, is a son of Henry and 
Elizabeth Kriebel, and was born in Berks 
county, Pennsylvania July 27, 1867. Henry 
Kriebel was also a native of Berks county, 
and followed farming and milling in 
the early part of his life. He was a man 
of prominence in his community and filled 
various local positions of trust and responsi- 
bility. He served continuously for several 
years as director of a National bank in Berks 
county, was postmaster at Hereford, which 
was near his birthplace, for over fifteen 
years, and served his township as a member 



Biographical Sketches. 



563 



of its school board for a number of years. 
Henry Kriebcl was a Democrat in politics, 
and died in November, 1893. Mr and Mrs 
Kriebel were the parents of eight children, 
as follows : Howard ; Lewis ; Calvin ; Reg- 
ina ; Sallie, wife of Adam S. Urffer ; Dr. E. 
G. (subject) ; Andrew ; and Asher. 

Dr. Elmer G. Kriebel received his ele- 
mentarv education in the public schools 
of Hereford township, Berks county, and 
then went to the state of Wisconsin, where 
he spent one year in the University of Wis- 
consin, at Madison, the State capital. Leav- 
ing Wisconsin, he went to Toronto, Can- 
ada, and entered the ■ Ontario Veterinary 
college of that city, from which he was 
graduated March 24, 1891. Leaving Onta- 
rio college he was engaged for one year as 
a veterinary surgeon. He then resolved to 
qualifv himself for another sphere of labor 
in life, and in 1892 entered Jefferson Medi- 
cal college, of Philadelphia, from which 
well known institution he was graduated 
May 9, 1894. During the same year, on 
June nth, he passed the Pennsylvania 
State medical board of examination, and 
after viewing various locations for a suita- 
ble field of practice, selected his present 
place, where on September 1, 1894, he 
formed a partnership with Dr. James R. 
Care, who was the successor of Dr. Mesht- 
ler of that place. Drs. Care and Kriebel 
have an extensive practice, which requires 
the larger part of their time. Dr. Kriebel 
is not active in politics, but gives his time 
to the practice of his chosen profession. 



DAVID HARMER, a leading carriage 
manufacturer of Jenkintown, was born 
in Cheltenham township, this county, on 
the Brock property, September 15, 1834, and 



is a son of Samuel and Deborah A. (Smith) 
Harmer. His paternal grandfather, James 
Harmer was a life-long resident of Chelten- 
ham township, a fanner and shoemaker 
by vocation, and a large land holder, 
owning property at one time from Jenkin- 
town to Glenside station. He was a Quaker 
both by descent and through individual 
conviction, and possessed many of the vir- 
tues of a good citizen and a progressive 
man. In connection with farming, he was 
a large fruit grower and probably the first 
in his section of the county to give special 
attention to the cultivation of peaches. 
He was also a pioneer in the dairy business 
and very eaily established a milk route in 
the city of Philadelphia. Aside from purely 
business interests, he was a warm friend 
and patron of popular education, and 
donated the ground upon which the Har- 
mer school building was erected, now torn 
down. He was a Whig in politics. His 
union in marriage with Mary Thomas re- 
sulted in the birth of nine children. He 
died about the year 1853 or '54. 

Samuel Harmer was born February 27, 
1802, and was brought up on one of his 
father's farms near Glenside station. He 
received his education in the public schools 
and at Abington Friend's school, located 
near by. After the period of his school 
days, he learned the trade of shoemaking, 
which he followed for a while and then re- 
turned to farm life, which henceforth be- 
came his leading occupation. He owned 
the farm now in the possession of the Griffith 
estate. He was a nominal Republican only, 
but took an exceedingly marked interest in 
church affairs. He was a strong Methodist, 
served as class leader for a number of years 
and was largely instrumental in the estab- 
lishment of the house of worship of that 
sect at Harmer Hill. Through his relig- 



564 



Biographical Skktches. 



ions zeal and constant exertion in behalf of 
the cause, he left an indelible impress upon 
the church congregation with which he was 
so long and so actively identified. He mar- 
ried Deborah A. Smith on February 27, 
1X27. Nine children resulted: Caroline, 
intermarried with Christopher Ottinger ; 
Henry S. ; Hannah, deceased; Harriet, 
widow of George Waterfield, and David. 
Mrs. Harmer died July 19, 1836, and on 
February 13, 1S28, Mr. Harmer married for 
his second wife Susannah Funk, by whom 
he had four children : James, Mary, de- 
ceased ; Samuel B , deceased ; and John 
Samuel Harmer, the elder, died in 1861, at 
the age of fifty-nine years. 

David Harmer attended the schools of 
his township, and when he reached the 
proper age indentured himself to learn the 
trade of carriage builder with his brother at 
Three Tuns, Montgomery county. After 
serving a three years' apprenticeship, he 
spent an additional year at Fox Chase, this 
countv. Succeeding this, he removed to 
Jenkiutown and occupied a farm of twenty- 
seven acres in conjunction with the farm 
of James Kent, upon the latter of which now 
stands the Beechwood hotel. He farmed here 
for a period of three years and then returned 
to his trade at Weldon, this county. He 
conducted the business at Weldon from 
1861 to 18S4, upon which latter date he re- 
moved to Jeukintown and purchased the 
factory of Joseph A. Shoemaker, wdiere he 
has since continued as the leading builder 
of that section of the country. In his 
earlier days he was an active Republican 
and served for two terms as'justice of the 
peace Like his father before him, he was 
formerly a strong adherent of the Methodist 
church, with which denomination he was 
connected for a period of twenty-seven 
years. Since his removal to Jeukintown, 



he joined the Grace Presbyterian church, of 
which he is now an elder. He quarried 
Susan E. Tustin in 1855, by whom he has 
had four children : George, Hattie, Mary 
and Samuel. The three latter children 
are deceased. 



WILLIAM MARTIN, a veteran Union 
soldier, and a resident of Upper 
Merion township, is a son of Richard and 
Hannah (Moore) Martin, and was born in 
the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
March 12, 1839. His paternal grandfather, 
Samuel Martin, was a resident of the great 
manufacturing city of Manchester, where 
he was a silk hand loom weaver. His son, 
Richard Martin, the eldest of nine brothers, 
was a resident of Bolton, in Yorkshire, 
until 1825, when he came to America, and 
after spending some time in the vicinity of 
Philadelphia, removed to Upper Merion 
township. He there operated the woolen 
mill and for several years manufactured 
cotton and woolen goods. He was a Re- 
publican in politics, and when the fateful 
strutrole came for masterv between the 
northern and southern sections of this great 
nation, no man gave more generously of 
his time and means to the Union cause 
than Richard Martin. He lived to see the 
government successful and disunion a 
dream of the past, and died April, 1871, 
when lacking but a twelve months of being 
an octogenarian. He was a master Mason, 
being initiated, passed, and raised in York 
lodge, England. He married Hannah 
Moore, who was a daughter of Thomas 
Moore, and passed away in December, 1879, 
aged seventy-three years. They had nine 
children : Samuel, Henry, Richard, Wil- 
liam, Jane, James, Sarah, George and Han- 



Biographical Sketches. 



565 



nah. Two of the sons served as soldiers in 
the Union army, and one of the daughters, 

Sarah, married William Siter, and Hannah 
became the wife of Charles Crerve. 

At twelve months of age, William Mar- 
tin was brought by his parents to Upper 
Merion township, where he grew to man- 
hood and received an ordinary English 
education. He learned the trade of carpen- 
ter, at which he worked steadily until the 
commencement of the late Civil war. He 
enlisted on August 19, 1861, in company 
E, eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, and 
served until August, 1864, when he was 
honorably discharged from the Federal 
service at Jones' Landing. His principal 
service was in the Army of the James, and 
while never wounded and always escaping 
capture, yet he participated in the battle of 
Franklin, the defence of Suffolk, the siege 
of Petersburg and Richmond, battle at 
South Anna Bridge, and in numerous cav- 
alry skirmishes. Returning home he again 
engaged at carpentering to which he has 
added building and contracting. He re- 
sides near King of Prussia. He is and 
always has been a Republican in political 
affairs. He is a member of < >wen Jones 
Post No. 591, Grand Army of the Republic, 
at Hrvn Mawr. 

( )n June 13, 1S67, William Martin was 
united in marriage with Josephine Carr, a 
daughter of James Carr, of Chester county. 
Their union has been blessed with two 
children, a son and a daughter: Hannah 
M. and H/nvard S. 



PHILIP S. GARRETT, now a resident 
of Ardmore, is the eldest son and 
child of William and Hannah (Super) Gar- 
rett, and was born in Upper Darby town- 



ship, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, Janu- 
ary 25, 1S34. His paternal grandfather, 
William Garrett, Sr., was of English 
Quaker stock and spent his life in Delaware 
county as a farmer. He married, and his 
son William Garrett was born in 1808. Wil- 
liam Garrett learned the trades of carpenter 
and cabinet maker, which he followed until 
the death of his father, when he came into 
possession of the home farm. Some years 
later he sold the farm and removed to Up- 
per Darby township, in his native county, 
and resided there until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1868. After disposing of the 
home farm he dropped cabinet making and 
gave his time to carpentering and farming. 
He was a Quaker or Friend in religious be- 
lief and a Whig and Republican succes- 
sively in political opinion. He served as a 
member of the Emergency militia company 
during Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, and 
was near Gettysburg, when that great bat- 
tle was in progress. In 1833 he married 
Hannah Super, and their family consisted 
of five children : Philip S , Mary A., Wil- 
liam H., Rachel S., and John K. 

Philip S. Garrett was reared in Delaware 
county, until he was nine years of age, and 
then went to George Hill, Philadelphia, 
where he grew to manhood. He attended 
the common schools and was employed on 
a farm and in delivering milk on a city 
route until 1851. In that year he came to 
Lower Merion township, where he learned 
the trade of carpenter which he has fol- 
lowed ever since. 

In October, 1856, Philip S. Garrett wed- 
ded Elizabeth McAfee. To their union 
have been born five children : Lydia C, 
William Ellsworth (deceased), Louis M., 
Mary A. (deceased), and M. Edith. 

Politically Mr. Garrett has always been a 
strong Democrat, but is no office seeker, al- 



5 66 



Biographical Sketches. 



though an active worker at the polls, and 
serving frequently as a delegate to county 
and State conventions of his party. He is a 
past grand of Banyan Tree Lodge, No. 378, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; and a 
member of Cassia Lodge, No. 273, Free and 
Accepted Masons. Mr. Garrett is a good 
workman and reliable citizen, and has 
served for some time as the vice-president 
and a director of the Lower Merion Build- 
ing and Loan association. 



PETER A. BLANCHETTE, a resident 
of Gulf Mills, and a veteran Union 
soldier of the late Civil war, is a son of 
John and Lucy (Larver) Blanchette, and 
was born February 14, 1849, in the old and 
historic city of Quebec, in the Dominion of 
Canada. John Blanchette was of French 
descent and spent his life in Quebec, which 
was the city of his birth. He owned a large 
farm, was a skilled mechanic and a good 
surveyor, and died in 1875 when in the 
seventieth year of his age. He was an ac- 
tive and prominent man in his community, 
and married Lucy Larver, a resident of his 
native country, and reared a family of 
twelve children. Mr. Blanchette was a 
member of the Catholic church, and in 
Canadian politics warmly supported the 
Liberal party. 

Peter A. Blanchette was partly reared 
and educated in his native city, and at 
thirteen years of age came to Vermont, 
which he soon left to go to Marlboro, Massa- 
chusetts, where he began to learn the trade 
of shoemaker. The Civil war, then at its 
height, drew the attention of every one, the 
young as well as the old, and although but 
fifteen years of age he enlisted in 1864 in 
company H, fourth New Jersey volunteers, 



and served until the close of the war, being 
honorably discharged in 1865. He took 
part in several battles and numerous skir- 
mishes, and by an accident was severely in- 
jured, by which he was unable to perform 
any labor for about a year after being dis- 
charged. His name is inscribed on a roll 
of military honor issued by Governor Mar- 
cus L. Ward, of New Jersey. After the 
war Mr. Blanchette returned to Massachu- 
setts, and shortly afterwards went to Knox- 
ville, Tennessee, where he completed learn- 
ing the trade of shoemaker. He was a resi- 
dent of Nashville for nearly three years and 
then came to Philadelphia, where he fol- 
lowed shoemaking for five years. During 
the Centennial year he opened a restaurant 
at No. 136, North Sixth street, which he is 
still running successfully. In 1893 Mr. 
Blanchette purchased the George Nugent 
property at Gulf Mills, and has resided there 
ever since, although still doing business in 
Philadelphia. He is a member of Perkin 
Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Para- 
dise Lodge, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and the Phil Kearney Brigade, a 
military order. 

In 1871 Mr. Blanchette married Mary 
Love. To their union have been born three 
children two sons and a daughter: Emma, 
Peter A., jr. and Louis. 



JONATHAN M. SHAINLINE, of near 
k-» Abrams, a substantial farmer and busi- 
ness man, is a son of George W. and Han- 
nah (Moore) Shainline, and was born 
in Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1829 ^is pa- 
ternal grandfather, Jacob Shainline, was 
an influential man in Upper Merion town- 
ship, who served as a director of the Norris- 



Biographical Sketches. 



567 



town Bridge company, in which he held 
considerable stock. He was a Whig, and 
when Washington was at Valley Forge, he 
furnished the American troops with quite 
an amount of provisions. He was a mem- 
ber and vestryman of the Episcopal church 
and died in 1833. His sou, George W. 
Shaiuline, who was reared on the farm and 
obtained a fair education, went at thirty- 
three years of age to Norristown, and built 
the first steam mill of that place, which he 
operated for eleven years. He then re- 
turned to farming in his native township, 
where he died in 1874. He was an Episco- 
palian, and a Whig and Republican and 
served for twelve years as supervisor of 
highways. He married Hannah Moore. 
They had four children, three sons and a 
daughter: Rebecca J., Richard M., Jonathan 
M., and Jacob. 

Jonathan M. Shaiuline grew to manhood 
in his native township, attended the or- 
dinary schools of his neighborhood and 
Treeinount seminary when under Rev. 
Samuel Aaron, and at eighteen years of age 
went to Reading, Berks county, where he 
served a three years' apprenticeship in the 
machine shops of that place. At the close 
of his apprenticeship, he went to the cele- 
brated Baldwin Locomotive works, of Phila- 
delphia, in which he worked as a machinist 
for seven years. He then went to a farm 
which he cultivated for nine years, and at 
the end of that time purchased his present 
farm of good, arable land in Upper Merion 
township, and within a short distance of 
Abrams. Mr. Shaiuline has assiduously 
devoted himself to the upbuilding of his 
farm, and has been successful in all of those 
agricultural pursuits in which he has ever 
been engaged. He is an independent Re- 
publican and supports only those political 
measures that in his estimation are calcu- 



lated for the best interests of the State and 
nation. He was auditor for three years of 
his township, and also served as assistant 
assessor for one term. He is a member of 
Lodge No. mo, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, of Philadelphia. 

In 1851 Mr. Shainline wedded Jane B. 
Graff. Their union has been blessed with 
one child, a son, George W. 



DANIEL D. DRESLIN, a self-made 
business man of Bridgeport, is a son 
of George and Margaret (McGrath) Dresliu, 
and was born at Bridgeport, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1855. His 
paternal grandfather, George Dreslin, was a 
native of County Tipperary, Ireland, where 
he was engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
He was a member of the Catholic church, 
and reared a family of three children : 
George, Margaret and Mary. George 
Dreslin, father, was born in the same county 
as his father, and in 1849 emigrated to 
America and settled in New York city. 
There he resided until 1853, when he came 
to Norristown. He was an iron worker by 
trade and helped to build the Montgomery 
court house in 1855. He continued as a 
worker in the iron business until i860, 
when he enlisted in company C, of a Penn- 
sylvania regiment. He served as a fireman 
on the Cumberland in the great engage- 
ment with the Merrimac at Fortress Mon- 
roe, and for one year after he was engaged 
on the Cossack. At the close of the war he 
was honorably discharged and returned to 
Xurristown, where he worked in the iron 
mills until 1871. He afterward removed to 
Hampton, Virginia, where he is still living, 
aged seventy years. Politically he was a 
Republican, and married Margaret McGrath, 



568 



Biographical Sketches. 



who died January n, 1871, at the age of 
thirty-five years. This union was blessed 
with ten children, among whom were : 
George, deceased; Daniel D., John, George 
(2nd), Mary Bell, Thomas (deceased), Catha- 
rine (deceased). 

Daniel D. Dreslin received his education 
under a private tutor, Dr. Bradley, of Nor- 
ristown, and in 1869 entered Jamison's 
cotton mill. Eight years later he learned 
the trade. of bricklayer, serving an appren- 
ticeship of three years. At the end of this 
time he started in business with James A. 
Murray under the firm name of Dreslin & 
Murray, and for one year they were en- 
gaged in contracting and building. Since 
then he has operated the business himself 
and has erected a large number of fine 
buildings among which are the Catholic 
church and school buildings, the public 
school building of Bridgeport, the Ameri- 
can Surgical works and the Thomas tack 
works. He carries on an extensive and 
successful business. 

On August 1, 1889, Mr. Dreslin married 
Maggie Dillion, the only daughter of 
Thomas Dillion, of Bridgeport. They have 
a family of three children : Annie A., 
George T. , and Edward. 

Mr. Breslin is a supporter of the Demo- 
cratic party, and a member of the Catholic 
church, and for five years was a member of 
the National Guard of Pennsylvania, com- 
pany H, 1 6th regiment, commanded by 
Captain Samuel J. Dong. Mr. Dreslin is 
president of the Pioneer Lawn Mower com- 
pany, and a director of the Fame Building 
and Loan association. He has done his 
share toward advancing the business in- 
terests of his borough. Starting in life 
with but little means, he went right ahead 
and has succeeded in acquiring a comfort- 
able competency. 



CHARLES MATHER is a son of John* 
and Martha (Potts) Mather, and a well 
known resident of Jenkintovvn, this county. 
He was born in Cheltenham township, 
Montgomery count}-, Pennsylvania, on 
March 19, 1823. This locality has been 
the seat of his residence and the scene of 
his activity down to the present time. His 
education was acquired at the school of the 
Society of Friends in his immediate neigh- 
borhood. After his school days were 
ended, which were very limited, he re- 
mained on the farm with his father until 
the latter retired from active work, after 
which he joined his brother, with whom he 
lived until he reached his majority. About 
this time he gravitated to Rochester, N. V., 
where he entered the printing office of the 
Daily Advertiser and maintained his con- 
nection with it two years. At the expira- 
tion of this time he gave up the trade of 
printing, returned to Philadelphia, and 
purchased a spice mill. Later he engaged 
in the manufacture of printer's ink, in 
Philadelphia, in which business he re- 
mained some four or five years, afterward 
connecting himself with the Y. B. Palmer 
Advertising agency, of the same city. 
Some time later he again returned to Jen- 
kintown, and finally took up the real estate 
and conveyancing business, which he has 
ever since continued. From 1869 to 1878, 
he served as justice of the peace, but in the 
latter year resigned to qualify for the posi- 
tion of notary public of the First National 
bank of Jenkintown, which place he now 
holds. At present he is also secretary of 
the Union Mutual Fire Insurance company 
of Jenkintown, secretary of the Storm In- 
surance company, the Live Stock Insurance 
company, the Abington Library society, 
and the Union Company for the Recovery 
of Stolen Horses, all of Jenkintown, and a 



Biographical Sketches. 



569 



director of the Jenkintown Building and 
Loan Association. Fraternally, Mr. Mather 
is a member of Friendship Lodge No. 400, 
F. and A. M., of Jenkintown, of which he 
was an organizer, and at the time senior 
warden. He married Alice ( ). Warner, a 
descendant of one of the oldest families in 
the State, in 1846, by whom he had three 
children : Mary, Charles and William. 

The Warner family came into Pennsyl- 
vania about twenty-five years prior to Penn, 
and settled in Mantua village, now the 
present site of West Philadelphia. 

The ancestors of Charles Mather came 
from England contemporaneously with 
William Penn. The original founder of 
the family in Pennsylvania was one, Joseph 
Mather, who first landed in Maryland, and 
subsequently settled in what is now Chel- 
tenham township, and married a Miss Rus- 
sell, who had inherited three hundred acres 
of land from her father. Ogoutz seminary, 
formerly the estate of Jay Cooke, is now 
located on this tract. 

His son Richard succeeded to the estate 
bv purchase from his mother. Richard had 
eight children : Joseph, Bartholomew, Ben- 
jamin, Richard, Isaac, Elizabeth, Hannah, 
and Sarah. Isaac was the grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, lived in White- 
marsh township, was a millwright by trade 
and built the old mill in 1769 on the place, 
near Jenkintown, now owned and occupied 
bv Hon. John Wanamaker, a part of the 
old family tract. He spent his latter days 
in Cheltenham, and left a family of chil- 
dren. 

He was twice married ; first to Mary 
Morris, and in the second instance to Re- 
becca Austin, widow of Richard Austin. 
His son, John Mather, father of Charles, 
lived near Jenkintown, where he pursued 
the avocation of farmer until 1841, when 



he retired and afterward resided in Jenkin- 
town. He married Martha Potts, daughter 
ofZebulon Potts, the first sheriff of Mont- 
gomery county. To this alliance ten chil- 
dren were born, namely : Isaac, Edward, 
John, Martha, Daniel, Rebecca, Elizabeth, 
Charles, Jane and Ann, of which seven are 
still living. 



TR. HARTZELL, postmaster and 
• general merchant of Colmar, Mont- 
gomery count}', is a young man, who has 
rapidly won his way to solid financial stand- 
ing and prominence in the commercial cir- 
cles of his locality. He has been at the 
head of a large general store for ten years 
and has made of it a great success, and by 
reason of his enterprise and progressiveness 
and reputation for honesty and integrity 
commands the respect and confidence of 
the general public. He was born on March 
11, 1860, and is the son of Henry and Mary 
(Raudenberg) Hartzell. He is of American 
parentage and ancestry, though his fore- 
fathers originally came from Germany. 
His grandfather, Henry Hartzell, was a 
very prominent Democratic politician in 
his day ; in fact was a leader in his neigh- 
borhood and commanded a ,^reat deal of in- 
fluence. 

Henry Hartzell was given a common 
school education. He then took to farming 
and followed that avocation all his life. He 
was very active in Democratic politics, and 
for many years served as a director on the 
local school board. He was also elected to 
one term as county commissioner and filled 
that very important office with honor and 
credit. He was a man very well informed 
on legal matters and settled up many es- 



5/0 



Biographical Sketches. 



tates. An active member of the Reformed 
church, Mr. Hartzell served that congrega- 
tion many years as deacon, trustee and 
elder, and was beloved by all who knew 
him. He was married to Mary Rauden- 
berg, and their union was productive of a 
family of seven children : Hiram ; Irwin ; 
Revier, deceased ; T. R. ; Harriett ; Harry ; 
and Anna. 

T. R. Hartzell attended the common 
schools of his native town and then took a 
two years' course at Sellersville academy. 
On leaving school he secured a position in 
J. E. Frick's general store at Hilltown as 
clerk and remained there for three years. 
He then went into the mercantile business 
on his own account with his brother as 
partner in Bucks county, but only remained 
there one year. At the expiration of that 
year this partnership was dissolved and Mr. 
Hartzell returned to Montgomery county 
and located in Colmar. This was in 1885, 
and he started in the general store business 
and has continued in it ever since, yearly 
increasing his volume of trade and adding 
to his standing in the financial world. He 
carries a large and varied stock of not less 
than $4,500 in value, and employs a num- 
ber of clerks. 

In politics a Democrat, he is very active 
and influential and as a reward for services 
during recent campaigns he was appointed 
postmaster of Colmar by President Cleve- 
land. 

Mr. Hartzell and Sarah, daughter of John 
G. Frick, his old employer, were married, 
and this union has been blessed by four 
children. 

The family belongs to the Reformed 
church of Colmar, and Mr. Hartzell takes a 
lively interest in church work as well as 
all public movements that are calculated to 
advance the town in which he lives. 



WILLIAM H. BUSKIRK, a successful 
carriage manufacturer and dealer at 
Jenkintown, is a sou of Philip and Mary E. 
( Watton) Buskirk, and was born at Willow 
Grove, this county, January 23, 1864. The 
Buskirks are of German origin, as the author- 
ity of the name would indicate. Jacob L. 
Buskirk, grandfather of William H., came 
from Germany at an early period and 
landed at Philadelphia, but soon settled 
near edge Hill, this county. He was a 
carpenter by trade and a Democrat in poli- 
tics. 

Philip Buskirk, father of the subject, was 
born at Willow Grove and resided in that 
vicinity all his life. He was a farmer by 
occupation and a Democrat in political 
make up, and took an active interest in 
political matters, having served two terms 
as supervisor and the same length of time 
as constable of Abington township. He is 
an active member of the Knights of the 
Golden Eagle. He married Mary Walton, 
and to this union were born five children : 
William H., Howard W., Rachel, wife of 
Howard Ervin ; George Walton, Samuel 
W T . Mr. Buskirk received his education 
in the district schools of Abington township, 
and after leaving school, learned the car- 
riage building trade, and after working 
three years for W. J. Dillsworth at Jenkin- 
town, bought out his employer, and in 
partnership with Mr. Donnell, trading 
under the name of Donnell &: Buskirk, con- 
tinued the business for about five years, up 
to 1891. At this time, Mr. Buskirk bought 
his partner's interest and down to the pres- 
ent time has conducted the business alone. 

Mr Buskirk is an active Democrat, hav- 
ing served as judge of the election and as 
inspector a couple of terms. Religiously 
he is a member of the Episcopalian church. 
He is a member of Peace and Love Lodge 



Biographical Sketches. 



57i 



No. 337, Independent ( >rder of * >dd Fellows, 
at Jenkiritown, and a past officer of Arling- 
ton Encampment No. 189. He is a mem- 
ber of Jenkintown Lodge No. 476, 
Knights of Pythias, and grand chancellor 
of the lower district of Montgomery county; 
Samaritan Castle No. 214, Knights of the 
Golden Eagle ; Jenkintown Lodge No. 404, 
Junior Order of United American Me- 
chanics. He is also a member of Indepen- 
dent Fire company, and at one time served 
as foreman. 

In 1890 Mr. Buskirk was united in mar- 
riage with Crissie D. Moyer ; they have one 
child, Albert J. 



EDWIN H. FAUST, of Ambler, is a 
member of the firm of A. D. Faust 
Sons, now operating extensive tanneries in 
Montgomery and Huntingdon counties. 
He is a son of Alvin D. and Catherine 
(Kuhns) Faust, and was born December 20, 
1853, in Upper Dublin township, Mont- 
gomery county, Pennsylvania. He was 
reared in his native township and received 
his education in the common schools and 
Muhlenburg college at Allentown, this 
State. He supplemented his college course 
with a commercial term at Bryant and Strat- 
ton's Business college at Philadelphia, and 
then assisted his father in the tanning busi- 
ness until the death of the latter in 1886, 
when he and his four brothers formed a 
partnership and have run ever since their 
father's two extensive tanneries, the one 
near Ambler, and the other at Mt. Union, 
in Huntingdon county. They do business un- 
der the firm name of A. D. Faust Sons, in 
Montgomery county, and operate as Faust 
Brothers at Mt. Union, where their plant is 



under the personal supervision of Richard 
J. Faust, the eldest brother. 

On November 11, 1876, Edwin H. Faust 
wedded Eliza A. Ranch. Their union has 
been blessed with two children, a son and 
a daughter : William N. ; and Blanche E. 

In politics Mr. P'aust is a Democrat. He 
is an active member of the borough coun- 
cil, and is a school director and the treas- 
urer of the Ambler school board. Mr. 
Faust is an active business man, and has 
been a member of the Lutheran church, of 
which he has served as a trustee for several 
years He is a member of Ft. Washington 
Lodge No. 308, Free and Accepted Masons; 
and Ft. Washington chapter, Royal Arch 
Masons. 

The Faust family is of German lineage 
and in the early part of the present century 
were resident in Lehigh county, where 
John Faust (grandfather) was born and 
reared. John Faust, who died in 1841, was 
a member of the German Reformed church 
and married Sarah Moyer, by whom he 
had three children : Alvin D. ; Owen W. ; 
and Matilda, wife of H. Barringer. Alvin 
D. Faust was born in 1827, in Lehigh 
county, and after receiving an ordinary En- 
glish education learned the trade of tanner 
which opened to him his life vocation in 
the business world. He came in early life 
to Montgomery county, but soon returned 
home where he remained until 1850. In 
that year he purchased the tannery of Jos- 
eph Rudder, with whom he had worked on 
his first visit to this country. This tannery is 
one of the oldest in the county and was for- 
merly known as Rose Valley tannery, and 
was successfully operated by Mr. Faust un- 
til his death, which occurred May 10, 1884. 
In 1873 he purchased an additional tannery 
at Mt. Union in Huntingdon county, which 
he improved and put into successful opera- 



572 



Biographical Sketches. 



tion. A very influential and highly re- 
spected man, he was a consistent member 
of Ruff's Lutheran church, and a strong 
Democrat in politics. He had served for 
several years as church trustee and school 
director, and was a member of the Jarretts- 
town Lodge of Odd Fellows. 

He married Catharine Kuhns, and their 
family consisted of five sons : Richard J. ; 
Edwin H. ; Samuel A. ; Milton D. ; and 
Alvin R. 



WM. C. BLACKBURN, proprietor of 
the Ambler Hotel, is a son of Alex- 
ander and Susannah (Custard) Blackburn, 
and was born in Lower Salford township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, July 7, 
1842. His paternal grandfather came from 
England and settled in Lower Salford 
township, when his son, Alexander Black- 
burn, was but a child Alexander Black- 
burn was principally reared in Lower Sal- 
ford township by David Heckler, a farmer, 
with whom he remained until he attained 
his majority. He then rented Mr. Heckler's 
farm and was engaged in farming up to the 
time of his death, which occurred in 1846, 
when he was in the thirty-second year of 
his age. 

He was a Whig in politics, and a Men- 
uonite in religion. In the year 1826 Alex- 
ander Blackburn married Susanna Custard. 
To their union were born three children, 
two sons and a daughter: David ; William 
C. ; and Catherine, who married John G. 
Tyson. 

William C. Blackburn was reared in 
Lower Salford and Towamencin town- 
ships, and after attending school in the lat- 
ter township from eight to sixteen years of 
age, he learned the trade of blacksmith, 



which he followed steadily for five years. 
He then turned his attention to a different 
line of business — hotel keeping — in which 
he has been successfully engaged ever 
since. He opened his first hotel, the Sor- 
rell house, at Fourth and Vine streets, 
Philadelphia, where he remained for one 
year. He then purchased the Centre Square 
hotel, and five years later disposed of his 
hotel property there to become proprietor 
of the Hartranft house, Norristown, which 
he conducted for five years. At the end of 
that time he went to North Wales and 
bought a hotel, which he disposed of a year 
later to remove to Ambler, where he pur- 
chased the Ambler House and has con- 
ducted it since the spring of 1893. Mr. 
Blackburn is well fitted for his special line 
of business by many years of successful ex- 
perience in providing for the wants and ac- 
commodation of the traveling public. He 
is a Republican in politics and always sup- 
ports the principles and measures of his 
party. 

hi 1861 Mr. Blackburn was united in 
marriage with Catherine Hantzberger 
Their union has been blessed with one 
child, a son, named Irwin H. 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL J. LONG, has 
been successfully engaged in business 
for a number of years at Norristown, was 
born in that borough May 14, 1846, and is 
a sou of Joseph and Jane (Cascaden) Long. 
Having a desire to pursue a business simi- 
lar to that of his father, Samuel J. Long 
became engaged in the manufacture of soap 
and tallow at an early age. Subsequently 
he began dealing in hides, tallow and ground 
bone, and has ever since been so employed. 
Industrious in his pursuits, he has been 



B IOG R A PH IC A I. S K ETC 1 1 ES. 



573 



very successful and at present commands an 

extensive trade. In 1886 lie rebuilt the 
two story brick establishment which he 
now occupies and increased its size to sixty 
feet front and seventy feet in depth. He 
employs a number of men in his business, 
and manufactures the "tankage" fertilizer, 
which he originated. This substance has 
proved itself very valuable as a fertilizer. 

Mr. Long united in marriage with Sallie 
M.March. On April, 1889, Mrs. Long 
passed away at the age of thirty-six years, 
leaving two children : Joseph M., and 
Lenore D. 

Mr. Long is a Democrat in politics. He 
is a member of the Masonic fraternity, be- 
longing to Charity Lodge No. 190; Norris- 
town Chapter No. 190 ; and Hutchinson 
Commandery No. 32. He is also a mem- 
ber of the American Order of United Work- 
men. He enlisted, in 1870, in company H, 
16th regiment, National Guards of Penn- 
sylvania, and was afterwards promoted to 
corporal, sergeant, first lieutenant, and fin- 
ally to captain. He was engaged in the 
military service of the State for seven years, 
from 1870 to 1877. 

The Longs are of Irish lineage and Jos- 
eph Long, father, was a native of Ireland, 
from which country he came to America in 
1840. He located at Norristown. He was 
an ardent Democrat, a member of the 
Methodist Evangelical church, and died at 
the age of fifty-seven years. He married 
Jane Cascaden and reared a family of three 
children : Samuel, Ella J., and one which 
died in infancy. 



DAVID W. SHEARER, a successful 
farmer and business man of Upper 
Merion township, is a son of George and 



Mary (Rex) Shearer, and was born in 
Whitpain township, Montgomery county, 

Pennsylvania, in 1830. His paternal grand- 
father, Captain John Shearer, was a lime 
burner and life long resident of near Flour- 
town. He was in the Revolutionary war 
first as a teamster and later as a captain of 
a company in a regiment of the Pennsj 1- 
vania line. He was a Federalist in politics 
and his son, George Shearer, died in 1877. 
George Shearer was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, and spent his life in Plymouth and 
Whitpain townships, being supervisor of 
highways for four years in the former of 
these townships. He was a Democrat, and 
an active member of the Presbyterian 
church, and served as a director of the 
Benevolent Order then at Broad Axe, but 
now at Fort Washington. In 1812 he 
wedded Mary Rex, who passed away in 
i860. Their family consisted of eight chil- 
dren: William; Elizabeth, wife of Mark 
Jones; Harriet; Charles; Sarah; Hannah, 
wife of C. Greene; David W.; and Susan, 
who wedded Stephen Shard. Mr. Shearer 
after his wife's death wedded, in 1862, 
Barbara Wingate, by whom he had one 
child named George. 

David W. Shearer spent his boyhood 
years in Whitpain and Plymouth town- 
ships, and at fourteen years of age com- 
menced to do for himself. He worked as 
a farm laborer successively in Norriton, 
Whitemarsh, and Whitpain townships, and 
obtained during this time but an ordinary 
education. After attaining his majority 
he went into the reaping and threshing 
business and ran reapers and threshers in 
the central part of the county, cutting and 
threshing grain for a certain price per 
acre. Quitting that line of business, he 
rented a farm in Worcester township, which 
he left two vears later to rent S. K. Stout's 



574 



Biographical Sketches. 



farm in Plymouth township, on which he 
remained five years. He then rented and 
farmed successively the John Fern, the 
James Van Roden, the P. Smith, and the 
Charles Roberts' farms, and left the last 
named farm to remove to Upper Merion 
township, where he immediately purchased 
his present farm. He has been very suc- 
cessful as a farmer, and resides near 
Bridgeport. 

He is independent in political affairs, 
and, yielding allegiance to no party, sup- 
ports men and measures as he thinks best 
for the public welfare. He served as super- 
visor of highways for some time while re- 
siding in Plymouth township, but has 
never been desirous of holding office. 

In i860, Mr. Shearer was united in mar- 
riage with Hannah Roberts, a daughter of 
Charles Roberts. They have two chil- 
dren : Edward ; and Ella, wife of George 
Streeper. 



ISAAC MULLEN, a general merchant 
and the present postmaster at Gulf Mills, 
is a son of Robert and Letitia (Barnwall) 
Mullen, and was born in the city of Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1833. 
Robert Mullen, whose father came from 
Ireland, was born and reared in Phila- 
delphia and learned weaving. He came 
some years later to Gulf Mills, where he 
was foreman of the weaving department of 
McFarland's mills for a long period of time. 
He was a Democrat, and a member of the 
American Protestant association, and mar- 
ried Letitia Barnwall. They reared a fam- 
ily of three children : Isaac, Henry (de- 
ceased), and Alfred. 



Isaac Mullen was brought when but a 



child, by his parents, from Philadelphia to 
Gulf Mills, and received his education in 
the common schools. He commenced life 
for himself as a clerk in a store at Mechan- 
icsville, where he remained until 1861, in 
which year he became book-keeper in a 
Philadelphia mercantile establishment. He 
held that position for ten years and at the 
expiration of that time, returned to Gulf 
Mills, where he engaged in his present gen- 
eral mercantile business His establish- 
ment is well stocked with every thing re- 
quired in a first-class store outside of a city. 
He enjoys a good trade and has a large 
patronage. 

Later, after his returning to Gulf Mills, 
he was appointed in 1873, as postmaster, 
and has held that position continuously 
ever since. He is a Republican in political 
opinion. He has served as a member of the 
school board for ten years, and has held the 
office of township auditor for four years. 
He is a member of Potter Lodge No. 441, 
Free and Accepted Masons. 

In 1862 Mr. Mullen was united in mar- 
riage with Maggie W. Whistler. To their 
union have been born four children, one 
son and three daughters : Clara, Ger- 
trude (Mrs. Samuel Kinkier), Susie and 
Walter. 

Isaac Mullen has closely followed, and 
with success, his chosen line of business, to 
which he has largely devoted his time and 
attention, yet when Lee invaded Pennsyl- 
vania in 1863, he dropped everything and 
joined the Union forces. He enlisted in a 
company of Pennsylvania militia and par- 
ticipated in the battle of Gettysburg, where 
he was taken prisoner by the Confederates, 
but paroled on the battle-field. He was 
sent to West Chester, where he remained 
until he was exchanged and honorably dis- 
charged from the Federal service. 



Biographical Sketches. 



575 



RICHARD HALLOWELL, past State 
president of the Patriotic Order Sons 
of America of the jurisdiction of Pennsyl- 
vania, is a son of Lieutenant Charles and 
Mary (Stewart) Hallowell, and was born 
near Swedesburg, in Upper "Merion town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
September 5, 1849. The Hallowell family 
is of English-Quaker ancestry, and came 
from England to southeastern Pennsyl- 
vania prior to the year 1700. Nathan 
Hallowell, the grandfather of Richard H. 
Hallowell, was reared in the religious faith 
of his American ancestors and was a con- 
sistent member of the Society of Friends. 
He was a farmer by occupation and a Whig 
and Republican in politics, and resided in 
close proximity to the old Swedes' church, 
near Swedesburg. His son, Lieutenant 
Charles Hallowell, was born in Upper 
Merion township, where he obtained a good 
common English education. He then 
learned the trade of millwright, which he 
followed for a life vocation. He worked at 
different places throughout the county, and 
■was employed for some time in a furnace. 
He was a Whig and Republican politically, 
and died in 1887, aged seventy-one years. 
He served as an officer in the old militia 
organization of the State and was elected 
lieutenant of the Montgomery troop of 
cavalry that helped to quell the Kensington 
riot at Philadelphia in 1S47. He married 
in 1844, Mary Stewart. To their union 
were born seven children, four sons and 
three daughters : Eugene, Richard, Nathan, 
Annie, Stewart, Mrs Eliza Templin, and 
Mary. 

Richard H. Hallowell was reared in 
Upper Merion, excepting one year (1851) 
when his parents resided in Plymouth 
township. He attended school at Swede- 
land, and then learned the trade of carpen- 



ter, which he has followed ever since in 
connection with contracting and building. 
He has served as foreman on the erection 
of several large buildings, superintended 
the remodeling of Washington's head- 
quarters at Valley Forge in 1887, and was 
superintendent in 1894 of the construction 
of the Soldiers' Orphan school building in 
Franklin county. Mr. Hallowell is a 
staunch Republican, has been a member of 
the county committee, and is serving on 
his third year as auditor of his township. 
He is an active member and vestryman 
of the old Swedes' Episcopal church, and 
has been a member for some years of Wash- 
ington camp. Patriotic Order Sons of 
America, in which organization he served 
as State president in 1887-88. Mr. Hallo- 
well is a skilled workman, a competent 
builder, and a successful contractor. He is 
active, energetic and patriotic. 

Mr. Hallowell wedded Jennie Eakius, a 
daughter of Augustus Eakins, of Phila- 
delphia. Their union has been blessed 
with one child, a son named Frank. 



JOHN S. BUCHANI >N, a public spirited 
citizen and a successful real estate 
dealer of Ambler, is the eldest son of John 
and Jane (McClay) Buchanon, and was born 
at Rousville, Venango county, Pennsylva- 
nia, March 4, i860. The Buchanon family 
is of Scotch-Irish descent, and the grand- 
father of subject was a resident of Crawford 
and Venango counties, and died in 1879, at 
the age of eighty-seven years. He was a 
Presbyterian and a Republican, and his son 
John Buchanon was the father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. John Buchanon was 
reared near Titusville, this state, and re- 
moved to the vicinity of Oil City, where he 



576 



Biographical Sketches. 



purchased a farm which he first leased and 
afterwards sold to the oil firm of Rouse, 
Mitchell and Co. Some time later he 
bought a farm near Titusville, which he 
also sold in 1864 to come to Montgomery 
county, where he purchased a farm near 
Ambler. He had made preparations to im- 
prove his third and last farm, but was cut 
down suddenly by the hand of death, in 
1865, at the early age of thirty-one years. 
He was one of the first to dip oil from the 
waters of Oil creek, and owned considera- 
ble property at the time of his death. He 
was a quiet and reserved man, but active 
and energetic in whatever he undertook. 
In i860 he married Jane McClay. They 
had two children : John S. and Joseph. 

John S. Buchanon was brought at four 
years of age to Upper Dublin township by 
his parents, and received his education in 
the public schools of that township, which 
he supplemented by a full course in Pierce 
and Crittenden's Business college. Upon 
completing his commercial course he re- 
turned home and worked upon the farm 
until 1884. In that year he married and 
removed to Ambler, where he bought his 
present property on Butler avenue, from 
Henry Jones. Soon after removing to Am- 
bler he was elected teller in the First Na- 
tional bank of that place and served in that 
capacity up to 1889, when he 'embarked in 
his present real estate business. Mr. Bu- 
chanon is a Republican politically. He 
has served as a member of the borough 
council ever since its organization in 1886, 
and was its president for several terms. He 
has served as a notary public since 1889, 
in which year he was appointed by Gover- 
nor Beaver. Mr. Buchanon was largely in- 
strumental in securing the establishment of 
the borough and has been active in its local 
affairs ever since. He is a stockholder in 



the First National bank, and has been 
president and secretary of the Ambler Real 
Estate Improvement company ever since 
its organization. He is a member of Am- 
bler Lodge No. 1045, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows ; and Fort Washington Lodge, 
No 308, Free and Accepted Masons. He 
is a member and trustee of the First Pres- 
byterian church, towards the erection of 
whose present edifice, in 1892, he both 
worked and contributed. Ever alive to the 
progress of his borough he has done his full 
share in its upbuilding and towards its 
present prosperity. 

On September 10, 1884, John S Bu- 
chanon was united marriage with Ellen B. 
Huff. Their union has been blessed with 
three children, two sons and a daughter : 
Joseph H. ; Charles and Helen. 



MORRIS A. GANGAWER, the genial 
proprietor of the Colonial hotel, and 
railroad agent at North Wales, is a son of 
Edwin G. and Mary (Keassler) Gangawer, 
and was born in Saucon township, Lehigh 
county, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1864. The 
Gangawer family is of German descent, and 
was among the earliest settlers at Allentown, 
this State, and Solomon Gangawer, grand- 
father, passed the latter part of his life at 
that place. He was a farmer and lime- 
burner of Northampton county. He was 
one of a family of thirteen children and one 
of three sets of twins born to his parents. 
He was a Democrat, and a member of the 
Reformed church and married Elizabeth 
Gangawer, a member of a branch of the 
family that settled at Tipton, Ohio. They 
had nine children : Filmore, Edwin G., 
Moses, Augustine, Sevilla, Margaret, Emma, 
Cecilia, and a child that died in infancy. 



Biographical Sketches. 



577 



Edwin G. Gangawer, father, was born, 
reared and received his education in his 
native county, and then went to Saucon 
township, in Lehigh count}*, where he fol- 
lowed fanning and lime burning for thirty- 
three years. 

In politics he was an ardent Democrat 
and in religion a Reformed churchman. 
He passed away on June 12, 1892, at fifty- 
eight years of age. He married Mary 
Keassler in 1855, and their children were : 
Eugene, Harvey, William and Morris A., 
whose name heads this sketch. 

Morris A. Gangawer was reared in his 
native county and after receiving his edu- 
cation in the public schools, spent a short 
time in the railroad telegraph office at Long 
Siding, now Saucon. He then worked on 
the farm for a few months and soon there- 
after completed his course as a telegraph 
operator at Hillside. 

Several years after this Mr. Gangawer 
became assistant operator at Hellertown, 
then was transferred as night operator to 
Long Siding, where he remained for five 
years. He then left Long Siding and 
served successively as operator at Heller- 
town and Skellerman, New York. He 
left the last named place in 1889 and came 
to North Wales, where he has been ticket 
and freight agent of the Pennsylvania rail- 
road company ever since. 

On October 6, 1886, Mr. Gangawer mar- 
ried Alice Witiner, and to their union have 
been born two children : Warren and Lloyd, 
who both died in infancy. 

Mr. Gangawer is a Democrat, and a mem- 
ber of the Reformed church. He is a good 
business man, and takes interest in what- 
ever will benefit North Wales or add to its 
material prosperity, being a member of the 
Home Building and Loan association. He 
js a member of the Pennsylvania Railroad 

37 



Relief association, the Knights of the 
Golden Eagle, and the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. 



REMANDUS SCHEETZ, now engaged 
in the wholesale grocery business at 
Norristown, was born in Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, April 28, 1847, and is a son 
of Francis and Catharine (Fortz) Scheetz. 
His paternal grandfather was a native of 
Germany and a man of education. He 
came to this country when a young man, 
and first settled at Germantown, in Phila- 
delphia county, where he followed teaching 
for some time. He afterwards removed to 
Bucks county, where he continued teaching 
for several years and resided until his death. 
He married and reared a familv of eight 
sons and one daughter : William ; Francis ; 
Jacob ; Reuben ; Charles ; Edwin ; Samuel ; 
Albert and Eliza, who married Aaron Ful- 
mer, of Bucks county, and is now deceased. 
Francis Scheetz, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, was born in Bucks county, Jan- 
ary 12, 1814. He was a tailor by trade, but 
at an early age in life turned his attention 
to the general mercantile business and 
finally engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
which he followed until his death. His 
brother Reuben was prothonotary of Bucks 
count}', and another brother, Samuel, served 
for man}- years as a justice of the peace in 
Richhill township, Bucks county, and was 
a director of the Ouakertown bank. Francis 
Scheetz was a Democrat in politics, and a 
member of the German Baptist church. He 
married Catharine Fortz. To their union 
were born two children ; M. F., a merchant 
of Flourtown ; and Remandus, whose name 
heads this sketch. 

Remandus Scheetz was reared on the 



578 



Biographical Sketches. 



farm until the age of six years, when he 
was brought to Montgomery county, where 
he grew to manhood and received his edu- 
cation in the public schools. He followed 
farming until 1868, whien he attained his 
majority and came to Norristown, where he 
entered the employ of Moore & Ramsey, ' 
grocers, of that place. He remained with 
them for two years, and then in may, 1870, 
commenced business for himself as a whole- 
sale and retail grocer, also handling queens- 
ware. In March, 1894' he turned his atten- 
tion entirely to the wholesale grocery busi- 
ness in which he is still engaged. His 
present wholesale grocery house is on the 
corner of Main and Cherry streets, and is a 
large structure 25x240 feet in dimensions, 
conveniently'arranged for the transaction 
of his large and nourishing business. He 
carries a large, complete and assorted stock 
of plain and fancy groceries, and handles 
field and garden seeds, wood and willow 
ware, and every article of merchandise 
usually carried by a first-class house. 

On February 16, 1886, Mr. Scheetz mar- 
ried Miss Harley, of Fairview, this eountv. 
To their union have been born four chil- 
dren, one son and three daughters : Ger- 
trude ; Sara ; Ethel and Francis. 

Mr. Scheetz is a Republican in political 
texture, but gives his time principally to 
his business affairs. 

He is a vigorous, energetic business man 
and has taken no ordinary interest in the 
promotion of enterprises for his commu- 
nity's advancement. His grocery house is 
a substantial and well arranged structure, 
and has probably no peer, outside the cities 
of Pittsburg and Philadelphia in the State. 

Personally Mr. Scheetz is affable, and a 
man of strict integrity, whose efforts have 
met with a large measure of pecuniary suc- 
cess. 



PETER FREDERICK ROTHERMEL. 
Few painters have had a more in- 
teresting life than Peter Frederick Rother- 
mel. He was born on the 8th of July, 1817, 
in the little village of Nescopek, which 
took its name from the creek flowing into 
the Susquehanna river. Here his early boy- 
hood was spent in the usual pursuit of book 
learning, varied with plenty of healthy boy- 
ish sport. 

Talent for art early disclosed itself in the 
usual boyish attempts at drawing, and the 
painter in his old age owned also to the fas- 
cination exercised over his budding genius 
by the village sign painter as his brush 
swept back and forth in its record of a truly 
impressionistic, if primitive, art. One par- 
ticular signboard, a black horse on a yellow 
background, fired the boy's youthful ambi- 
tion, and it was a proud day indeed when 
he painted a signboard which was placed in 
front of his father's hotel. 

While early circumstances indicated the 
bent of his talent, the boy had grown to. be 
a man of twenty-three before he turned to 
serious and progressive study of the tech- 
nique of art in the drawing school of John 
Reuben Smith. It was not long before the 
young painter had absorbed about all that 
his teacher could give, whereupon he en- 
tered upon a period of more advanced study 
with Bass Otis, the portrait painter, who is 
also to be credited with the .invention of. 
the perspective protractor and the produc- 
tion of the first lithograph made in Ame- 
rica. ' 

The ambitious young painter launched 
out for himself as a portrait painter on 
Branch street, between Third and Fourth. 
Here he painted a large number of por- 
traits, among thenrthe Hydes, the Blanch- 
ards and Nathan Beach, who, as a surveyor, 
discovered the Beaver Meadow coal mines 



Biographical Sketches. 



579 



on the Berwick turnpike, near Mauch 
Chunk. 

Afterward he had a studio on Callowhill 
street in what was then well on toward the 
outskirts of the city. Not much farther 
northwestward, where enterprise has now 
left its trail in rows of handsome houses 
and well-kept streets was the open country. 
As he gained in experience the young ar- 
tist essayed more elaborate figure painting, 
illustrating Shakespeare, Coleridge and 
Scott. Colonel Cephas G. Childs brought 
him his first order for a picture, " the Em- 
barkation of Columbus at Palos." 

This picture and the fine " Columbus Be- 
fore the Queen" started the painter on the 
road to fame, and the " De Soto's Discov- 
ery of the Mississippi" placed him securely 
before the public. Just about this time 
Prescott's work on the " Conquest of Mex- 
ico" was making a great noise, and its 
thrilling incidents furnished the painter 
with congenial material. " Cortez address- 
ing His Troops within Sight of the Valley 
of Mexico" was bought by the liberal pa- 
tron of art, Warrington Gillette ; " The 
Surrender of Guatomozin" was painted for 
Professor Mapes ; "Cortez Burning His 
Fleet" resulted to James Robb, of New Or- 
leans, and the " Launch of the Brigan- 
tines" to J. B. H. Latrobe, of Baltimore, the 
son of the architect of the Capitol. 

Mr. Rothermel was closely identified with 
two important movements in the history of 
art in Philadelphia, the growth of the Ar- 
tists' Fund Society and the early develop- 
ment of the schools of the Academy of the 
Fine Arts. The Artists' Fund Society, of 
which he was many years an active mem- 
ber was incorporated in 1835 with John 
Naegle as its first president. Its meetings 
did much to kindle enthusiasm among the 
artists, and almost every painter of dis- 



tinction in Philadelphia was a member. 

In those early days of the middle century 
the present elaborate system of art study 
was not yet devised. Ambitious students 
drew and painted in the studio of an artist, 
there often learning the mechanical pro- 
cesses of grinding colors and stretching can- 
vas, as well as the more complicated princi- 
ples of the grammar of art. It was before 
the time of the printed course of instruc- 
tion. The teaching was conducted rather 
on the Pestalozzian method (adapted) — "we 
learn to paint by painting." 

Not only in the matter of academic train- 
ing, but in what are now recognized and 
accepted facilities for study the painter was 
thrown pretty much on his own resources. 
The artists were compelled frequently to 
pose for each other. This suggested the 
formation of life classes. Mr. Rothennel 
was one of a number who met at Joseph 
Kyle's room at Sixth and Walnut streets. 
Later on they took advantage of the per- 
mission to use a class room of the academy. 
The artists paid for the models, the acad- 
emy, besides the room, providing light and 
fuel. 

At this time the academy was on Chest- 
nut street, where it was destroyed by fire in 
1845. It was rebuilt in 1847, with closer 
reference to the needs of the artistic contin- 
gency accustomed to draw there. Later on 
an organized movement, for which Mr. 
Rothermel worked actively, was inaugura- 
ted, and in 1856 the life class of the Acad- 
emy of the Fine Arts was regularly organ- 
ized. At the suggestion of Mr. Rothermel 
a code of regulations was formulated. It is 
interesting to note among the rules that no 
conversation was allowed between the 
model and any member of the class ; no 
smoking, the strictest order was to be main- 
tained, and no one under the age of twenty- 



5 8o 



Biographical Sketches. 



one years was to be allowed to draw from 
the female model without written permis- 
sion from his parents or guardian. Such 
was the origin of the life class in Philadel- 
phia. 

Previous to his visit to Europe in 1856, 
Mr. Rothermel was a director of the Acad- 
emy of Fine Arts from 1847 to 1855. With 
James Read Lambdin, who was elected in 
1846 and served until 1864, he represented 
for some time the artistic element in the 
board. The names of these artists figure 
prominently on the exhibition committees 
of these years, and are closely identified 
with the material and artistic advancement 
of the institution. 

In 1856 Mr. Rothermel resigned from the 
board of directors to go abroad. 

Paris had not yet become the Mecca of 
art students, nor was there then the usual 
annual exodus of wielders of the palette and 
brush, which has come to be an indication 
of summer as unfailing as the maturity of 
leaf and flower. 

Mr. Rothermel traveled through Europe 
in regulation tourist fashion, studying the 
galleries of England, France and the Neth- 
erlands and visiting the Dusseldorf School. 
Gilbert Stuart, Trumbull, the Peales and 
Sully followed West to study in England, 
but the kaleidoscope of fashion had turned 
and many of the painters were at Dussel- 
dorf. Two years were spent in Rome, the 
summers being passed at one of the charm- 
ing spots not far distant from the city, 
where the artists painted the matchless blue 
Italian skies and hills, some of which land- 
scape studies hang in the dining room of 
his home at Ljnfield, near a fine engraving 
of his picture " Patrick Henry Making His 
Celebrated Speech in the House of Bur- 
gesses." 

While abroad Mr. Rothermel received 



a warm recognition in Franca, Italy and 
Russia. For the Grand Duchess Helena of 
Russia he painted " The Virtuoso," a copy 
of which hangs in his home at Ljnfield. 
The picture represents the old connoisseur, 
grave and intellectual looking, absorbed in 
his books. The picture is also interesting 
from the fact that " The Virtuoso" is a por- 
trait of the father of Mrs. Rothermel. 
While at Rome the picture " St. Agnes" 
was painted for Count Kusheleff and a "Ru- 
bens and Vandyke" for Prince Kotehabey. 
On his return to Philadelphia in 1S59, Mr. 
Rothermel painted a series of pictures illus- 
trating the events in the life of Paul. Of 
these the original study of the large pic- 
ture, " Paul Before Agrippa," was presented 
to the Academy of the Fine Arts by James 
L. Claghorn in 1878; "Paul at Ephesus" 
was presented to the same institution by 
Mrs. Matthew Baird in 1887 ; the Academy 
also owns the " Embarkation of Columbus 
at Palos," given by Joseph Dugan in 1844. 
"Shylock and Portia in the Judgment 
Scene" was sold to the Art Union of New 
Vork; " Cromwell Ordering Hitch Out of 
the Pulpit" was painted for the Art Union 
of Cincinnati; " Murray's Defense" was pur- 
chased by the Art Union of New York. 

The picture of '' King Lear and Cordelia" 
may be seen in Memorial Hall. " The Mas- 
sacre of the Sicilian Vespers," depicting the 
outburst of the massacre just at the mo- 
ment of the insult to the bride, was painted 
for Anthony J. Drexel, and the large pic- 
ture of " King Lear, Gloucester and Edgar" 
is the property of Mrs. Joseph Harrison. 

" The Martyrs in the Coliseum," among 
the best known and most popular of the 
painter's pictures, was loaned to the Art 
Club at the time of the reception tendered 
him March 19, 1890, and still remains 
there, together with "The Bacchantes," a 



Biographical Sketches. 



58i 



gift from the artist to the club, and " The 
Judgment of Solomon," presented by C. 
Stuart Patterson, Theodore Cuyler Patter- 
son, Miss Partersou, and Mrs. Sims. 

But it is the "Battle of Gettysburg," 
which hung for many years in Memorial 
Hall, Fairmount Park, until its removal 
last December to the new State Library at 
Harrisburg, which has shed the brightest 
lustre of fame over the name of Peter Fred- 
erick Rothermel. 

" The Battle of Gettysburg" was painted 
on commission from the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania and was originally intended 
for the library at Harrisburg, but when 
found too large for suitable exhibition there 
was deposited in the large gallery at Me- 
morial Hall, where it became familiar to 
thousands of sight-seers. It is one of the 
largest American pictures ever painted, and 
a year and a half was consumed in its com- 
pletion, the painter receiving $25,000 for 
his work. From the first the picture 
aroused an absorbing public interest. 
Painted while the scorching wounds of 
Gettysburg were as yet unsoothed by the 
healing touch of time, the picture stirred 
the heartstrings of the people as no Ameri- 
can picture may be said to have done be- 
fore or since. 

The " Battle of Gettysburg" was painted 
in the building on the northeast corner of 
Fifteenth and Market streets. Joseph Har- 
rison, one of the well-known older art pat- 
rons of Philadelphia, gave the use of seve- 
ral rooms. Numbers of people crowded 
around the artist as he sat at work, and 
soldiers' mothers, soldiers, widows and or- 
phans, and the boys in blue themselves, 
wept before the pictured struggles which 
were living realities to them. 

Many of the portraits in the picture are 
actual likenesses. General Meade sat per- 



sonally to the artist, and these was no diffi- 
culty in getting soldiers for models. They 
were more than eager. When completed 
the picture was formally exhibited at the 
Academy of Music. General Sherman was 
there and one of the most valued criticisms 
long remembered by the old artist were 
the words of the stern old hero of the march 
to the sea : " I wish that my battles could 
be painted so !" 

The "Battle of Gettysburg" was formally 
exhibited at Tenth and Chestnut streets in 
1 87 1 in a hall erected for that purpose. It 
was about Christmas and thousands of 
people went to see it. It was next sent to 
Boston, after which it was exhibited in Chi- 
cago. While there the great Chicago fire 
broke out. A saving hand cut the picture 
from its frame and so preserved it to Amer- 
ican art. The picture was afterward exhib- 
ited in Pittsburg and finally brought back 
to Philadelphia and placed in a building 
erected in the Park near the Green street 
entrance. At the time of the Centennial 
it was removed to Memorial hall, from 
which it was taken with the four pendants, 
"The Death of General Reynolds," "The 
Charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves," 
" The Repulse of the Louisaua Tigers" and 
" The Repulse of General Johnson's Divi- 
ion," to Harrisburg. 

Personally the artist was striking looking. 
His features were strongly modeled, and a 
mass of silvered hair fell negligently in true 
artistic fashion above his brow. He was 
tall and lithe, and in the old days was not 
infrequently taken for an actor. Although 
his brush had been laid aside for a long 
time prior to his death, he retained to the 
last a strong interest in all that pertained to 
art. It was a pleasure to visit him at his 
home at Linfield, a picturescpie village 
nestling in the bosom of Montgomery 



5 82 



Biographical Sketches. 



county, about thirty-four miles from Phila- 
delphia. It is a quaint house built in 1803, 
with old-fashioned gables and a spacious 
piazza overlooking a garden in which flow- 
ers abloom, trees in the full luxuriance of 
foliage, robins twittering their summer call 
and the blue sky bending over all paint a 
picture instinct with the charm of happy 
home life. 

Mr. Rothermel was one of the now rapidly 
lessening group of older artists of whom 
Russell Smith, America's best known scene 
painter; John Sartain, the engraver, and 
George R. Bonfield, who recently completed 
his ninetieth year, are the few shining links 
that remain to bind us to the days when 
Sully painted social beauties and Naegle 
distinguished men, and Bass Otis and Rem- 
brandt Peale conducted drawing classes. 

It was a pleasure to coax the old painter 
into an easy chair on the shaded piazza of 
his country home on a summer afternoon, 
and there to follow his mellow, deep-toned 
voice down the current of a long life's 
reminiscences. The constant tribute of an 
appreciative public will be paid to his 
merits as an artist, but to those who thus 
came near him in friendship, in personal 
intercourse, many words, many deeds will 
remain to embalm the memory of the painter 
of the " Battle of Gettysburg " through 
future years. 

Mr. Rothermel died on August 15, 1895, 
at his home in Linfield, Montgomery 
county. 



LOUIS M. CHILDS, Esq., a prominent 
and successful attorney of Norristown, 
is a son of Jacob and Lester (Foss) Childs, 
and was born in Norristown, August 19, 
1852. Mr. Childs is of English-Quaker 
lineage, and the old world home of the 



family was at Cale's Hill in Herford 
county, England, from which locality the 
founder of the family in America came in 
1693. One of the original immigrants to 
this country was Henry Childs, who first 
settled in Philadelphia, but later removed 
to Ann Arundel county, Maryland, where 
he died in 1740. He was a well-to-do hus- 
bandman, and purchased from William 
Penn a tract of one thousand acres of land 
in southern Bucks county in what is now 
Plumbstead township. His family con- 
sisted of two sons, Cephas and Henry, and 
five daughters. Cephas married Mary 
Atkinson in 1716, and purchased one-half 
of the one thousand acre tract in Bucks 
county, and through conveyance from his 
father in 1739 became the sole owner of the 
entire tract. He was a devoted and active 
member of the Plumbstead Friends' Meet- 
ing and served for two years as a member 
of the Pennsylvania State legislature. He 
was a man of strong, sturdy character, keen 
of intellect, and wielded a potent influence 
in the community. He died in 1756. He 
was the father of five sons : Abraham, 
Henry, Isaac, John, and Cephas, jr. 

Henry, the second son, was the great- 
great-grandfather of the subject of this 
biographical record. He was born in 1728, 
and in 1750 his father deeded to him one 
hundred and forty-five acres, a part of the 
old homestead in Bucks county. He mar- 
ried Mary Shoemaker, and one of his sons 
was John Childs, great-grandfather, who 
married, at Abington Meeting, Mary Phipps, 
of Abington township. He died in 1816, 
well advanced in years. He wa,s the father 
of ten children, of which John, grandfather, 
was the youngest. The latter was born in 
1796, and died in 1824. He married, in 
1820, Ann, a daughter of Jacob T. and 
Mary Moore, and two children, Jacob and 



Biographical Sketches. 



583 



John, were born of this union. The former 
mentioned of the two children, father of 
Louis M. Childs, was born in 1822, and 
died in 1886. He obtained an elementary 
education in the common schools and then 
attended for a time the Norristown aca- 
demy. His career in after life was credita- 
ble and exemplary and was marked in in- 
dustry and probity. Politically, he was a 
Whig up, to the disruption of that party, 
but upon the formation of the Republican 
party he became a staunch supporter of the 
new party and steadfastly supported it all 
his life. From 1850 until his death he was 
a member of the town council of Norris- 
town and for six years was treasurer of the 
borough. His marriage to Lydia Foss, 
daughter of Joseph Foss, who resided near 
Coatesville, Chester county, this State, 
resulted in the birth of five children, as 
follows : Mary, who died at the age of nine 
years; Louis M., subject; Walter 'F. and 
Emma H., twins; and Lillian. 

Louis M. Childs received his preliminary 
education in the public schools of Norris- 
town, graduating from the high school at 
the early age of twelve years He then 
took a course of special instruction, and 
prepared himself to enter the University of 
Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. From the 
scientific department of this time-honored 
institution of learning he was graduated in 
1872 as a member of the first scientific 
class graduated from the University. After 
leaving college, Mr. Childs assisted his 
father in his factory as clerk and general 
assistant until he arrived at the age of 
twenty-one years, when, having resolved 
upon the law as a life profession, he entered 
upon its study in the office of Gilbert Rod- 
man Fox, Esq., of Norristown, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar of Montgomery county in 
February, 1876. He at once formed a part- 



nership with his preceptor and this busi- 
ness alliance continued until the spring of 
18S8, when he entered into a law partner- 
ship with Montgomery Evans, Esq., under 
the caption of Childs .K: Evans. Mr. Childs 
is a member of the Montgomery County 
Bar association and for one year was solici- 
tor of the borough of Norristown. 

On September 26, 1879, he was united in 
marriage with Alice G. Hibberd, a daugh- 
ter of Norris Hibberd, of Bridgeport. This 
marriage has been blessed in the birth of 
two children : Alice H., and Marjorie. Mr. 
Childs stands in the front rank of the leeal 
profession of Montgomery county. He 
possesses a comprehensive knowledge of 
the law, is careful in the preparation of his 
cases and has won an enviable success in 
his chosen profession. Intellectually, he is 
a man of culture, innate refinement, and 
diversified knowledge. 



THOMAS HOVENDON. At the hour 
of five on the afternoon of August 14, 
1895, Thomas Hovendon met his tragic and 
heroic death. He was instantly killed in 
an attempt to rescue a child of ten years 
from a passing train on the Trenton cut-off 
in Plymouth township, Montgomery county. 
The heroism of the act was a beautiful 
though pathetic finale of a life imbued with 
true nobility and pervaded with a moral 
sense whose efflorescence was like the scent 
of some sweet flower. His death at any 
time would have been a tragedy to art; but 
under the attendant circumstances, it was 
appalling. No one of his time had earned 
a wider popularity or enjoyed to a higher 
degreee the admiration and respect of his 
profession. Ardent American as he was, 
in his feeling as in his work, he was not of 



5»4 



Biographical Sketches. 



native birth, having been born in Ireland, 
at Dimmanway, in County Cork, December 
28, 1840. He began his studies in Dublin, 
but came to this country in the early period 
of the war and entered the schools ot the 
National Academy of Design in New York. 
In 1874 he went to Paris, where he worked 
in the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Cabanel, 
and immediately began to exhibit in the 
Salon, each year's picture attracting in- 
creased attention. These pictures were 
mainly of Breton peasant life. His studies 
in Brittany led to an interest in the heroic 
struggles of the people, and in 1880 he ex- 
hibited the picture of the Vendean peasants 
arming for battle, "In Hoc Signo Vinces," 
which fully established his reputation. 

In this year Hovendou returned to New 
York, where the picture just named was ex- 
hibited at the National Academy. He was 
recognized at once as a leader among the 
young painters who were then coming 
home from Paris and Munich. He was 
elected an associate of the National Acad- 
emy the next spring and an academician in 
18S2. The intense sympathy with the weak 
and humble that was always a dominating 
influence in his character, as well as the 
artist's sense of the picturesque, interested 
him in the negroes, and for several years 
after his return to America his pictures 
were generally of darkey life, of which he 
expressed at once the humor and the pathos. 
About this time he married Miss Corson, of 
the well-known Montgomery county family, 
herself an artist, and one whose home asso- 
ciations with the Quaker Abolitionists of 
the old day accorded well with Hovendon's 
own sympathies. He settled at Plymouth 
Meeting, and he and his wife set up their 
studio in an old barn that had done service 
01; the Underground railway. Here he 
painted some of the best of his negro pic- 



tures and notably the " Last Moments of 
John Brown," one of the most earnest if not 
one of the most interesting of his works. 

The drama of the ordinary rustic life was 
what Hovendon felt as perhaps none of our 
painters had felt it before, in its simple 
dignity and pathos. In the plain Pennsyl- 
vania home he found his material, transfig- 
uring it with a touch of art. It is neces- 
sary to mention only one of his pictures, 
"Breaking Home Ties," to awaken a uni- 
versal sympathy. No picture was ever 
painted in America that reached as deep as 
this into the universal heart of the people, 
and it did so by a direct simplicity of which 
only a master is capable. The " Bringing 
Home the Bride," which followed this, was 
less successful because less universal, and 
last year's picture, "Jerusalem the Golden," 
bordered on the sentimental ; but the pic- 
ture of the Confederate prisoner in a Penn- 
sylvania farmhouse was one of the noblest 
expressions we have had of the domestic 
side of the civil war, and there are many 
other works of this same period that are 
worthy to be named with it. 

Mr. Hovendon was for a time at the head 
of the schools of the Pennsylvania Academy 
of the Fine Arts, but he found the demand 
upon his time too great, though he con- 
tinued to take great interest in the work. 
He was a thorough master of the whole 
technical range of his profession and ex- 
perimented with and mastered every new 
method that came along, though his own 
serious style was already well formed. Only 
last year he played a good natured trick on 
the jury of selection at the Academy by 
sending in anonymously an impressionist 
study that he had painted the night before 
and which was accepted with acclamation. 
He was a man of very positive views of the 
seriousness of art and was always ready to 



Biographical Sketches. 



585 



combat the "art for art's sake" theory, so 
that some of the young painters thought 
him old fashioned, though no artist ever 
was more receptive to new ideas or more 
generous in his appreciation of his fellow 
craftsmen. 

He held his opinions strongly, because 
they were based on knowledge. He painted 
landscape, flowers, portraits, all brilliantly ; 
he was one of the most successful American 
etchers ; he was widely and deeply read, 
and with his Irish impetuosity, he had an 
Irishman's warmth of heart and sincerity of 
affection that made him one of the best- 
loved men in his profession. He was an 
influential member of all the leading art 
societies, including the National Academy 
of Design, the American Society of Aitists, 
the Artist's Fund society, the Etching club, 
the Art club and many others, and in every 
one of these his untimely death will be pro- 
foundly mourned. 

Hovendon stood in the forefront of the 
American painters of the day. The very 
modern critics affected to despise his art 
because it always had something to say, but 
even they acknowledged that he said it with 
consummate skill. And what he had to 
say was always something honest and true, 
something that touched the universal hu- 
man heart and touched it with a noble sen- 
timent. 

It was this that gave Hovendon his wide 
popular fame. He painted not merely for 
other painters, but for the people. Yet 
purely as a painter we have no one who 
is his superior, in the whole range of tech- 
nical achievement, and he employed his 
skill with a breadth of understanding and 
earnestness of purpose that completed the 
character of a great artist. 

The honesty of Hovendon's art was an 
expression of the honesty of the man. The 



earnestness, the manliness, the warm hu- 
manity of his nature had made him a per- 
sonal force in his profession, and to his 
friends the horror of his death is only 
mitigated by the fact that he met it, as he 
would have been glad at any time to meet 
it, in an act of heroic sacrifice. 



THE BROWER FAMILY. — First" 
Generation. — Henry Brower, the 
progenitor, was born February 14, 1720, 
and died October 14, 1784. He settled in 
Coventry township, Chester county, Penn- 
sylvania, near Lawrenceville, upon a farm 
granted to him by his father-in-law, Peter 
De Fraine, in 1741. 

The origin of this family is in Holland, 
though there is some probability that his 
direct ancestry was from Germany, near 
Worms. They were Mennonites, and as is 
well known, man}' of this sect went from 
Holland to Germany, and settled in various 
localities, removing thence to America, 
where they established their religious 
meetings along the Schuylkill, Skippack, 
and Deep Run, in this county. Some of 
them came in the early part of 1700, and a 
few as earl\- as the middle of the seven- 
teenth century. 

The Holland name is Brawer, or Brouwer, 
as spelled by Adrian Brower, the Dutch 
painter who was born in 1608 at Haarlam. 
The latter was an artist of eminence, had 
an admirable eye for color, and much spirit 
in design ; he died in 1640. During the 
war with the Netherlands he went to Ant- 
werp, where he was seized as a spy and 
taken to the citadel. Here to prove him- 
self a painter he executed a sketch of the 
ouards who had him in custodv. This 

o - 

picture was shown to Rubens, who innnc- 



5 86 



Biographical Sketches. 



diately exclaimed : " That's the work of 
Brauwer ! No other artist could treat the 
subject in that style." By the interposi- 
tion of Rubens he was discharged. His 
works are few and rarely met with. The 
largest collection of his masterpieces is in 
the picture gallery at Munich. At the 
Centennial exposition in 1876 the Brauer 
Brothers, woolen manufacturers, of the 
Netherlands, exhibited the very finest 
woolen blankets and other woolen fabrics 
of the finest qualities. 

Contemporaneously with Henry Brower, 
about 1750, Christian Brower and John 
Brower owned large farms in the same 
locality, and about 1765 Enoch Brower and 
wife, Eva, were the owners of a farm. 
The kinship of these four is not known by 
their posterity, but Henry Brower and his 
descendants always claimed to be Hol- 
landers, and letters and other manuscripts 
filling about two bags, passing between 
them and their Dutch correspondents, were 
preserved at the Brower homestead, Coven- 
try, until about the middle of the present 
century, when during a housecleaning, be- 
cause of being cumbersome and producing 
the " silver fish," they were committed to 
the flames, and thus perished an important 
link, no doubt, in this lineage. 

From the middle to the latter part of the 
last century and the beginning of this, the 
Browers of Pennsylvania and of New York 
and New Jersey, visited each other and ex- 
changed notices of deaths and other events 
occurring to their immediate families. It 
was traditionary that one of the New York 
families who rode to the Schuylkill to 
visit the Browers, on his return was struck 
by lightning and killed. A correspond- 
ence with D. B. Brower, an attorney-at- 
law, of Hannibal, New York, under date 
of May 12, 1895, establishes the fact of an 



entry in his family bible taken from his 
father's bible, to wit : " Adolphus Brower, 
born in Holland, killed by lightning near 
Hackensack, N. J." The bible containing 
the original entry is said to be in the pos- 
session of Mr. Wilkes, of Tompkinsville, 
Long Island, N. Y. Adolphus Brower 
had a son Nicholas, who was born March 
8, 1747. Of this ancestry is the said N. B. 
Brower. 

The first known of this family in Amer- 
ica is Adam Brower, who died in New 
York in 1692 ; will recorded in Vol. 4, 
page 278, 1692. The birth of eight sons 
and two daughters and of many of their 
descendants are known and preserved on 
record. In the several litigations which 
were carried on from fifty to sixty years 
ago as regards the Trinity Church, Fulton 
street, and other properties in the city of 
New York by the Brower heirs, being the 
descendants of Auneke Jans, valued at 
many millions of dollars, the descendants 
of Henry Brower were regarded as of kin- 
ship, and were consulted and contributed 
to defray the expenses incurred. Apart 
from these considerations there is a very 
strong resemblance between some of the 
present posterity, and so marked is it that 
Miss Adelaide C Brower, of Doylestown, 
a daughter of Christian and Catharine 
Brower, while on a visit to a sister, was 
mistaken by the physician of a Brower 
family of Brooklyn for the daughter of 
that family, and not until the ensuing con- 
versation became confusing to the doctor 
could he be convinced of his error. The 
descendants are now to be found in man}' 
of the States. One family settled, in the 
middle of the last century, in the Carolinas, 
who corresponded with and visited those 
on the Schuylkill and are of that ancestry. 
And one of the Carolina descendants was a 



Biographical Sketches. 



587 



member of Congress some years ago, and 
some are merchants, planters, and profes- 
sional men in the Carolinas and Tennessee. 
The biographies of those who are the direct 
descendants of Daniel and Frances Brovver 
(of the second generation) are noted upon 
other pages. 

Henry Brower was twice married. His 
first wife was Miss De Fraine. They had 
two children : Salome nee Brower, wife of 
Jacob Bangh ; and Abraham Brower, who 
married Magdalena Buckwalters. The 
second marriage was with Barbara High 
(formerly Hoch), a daughter of Jacob High, 
of New Hanover township. The wife of 
Jacob High was Elizabeth, a daughter of 
Daniel Langenecker (now Longaker), of 
Mingo, who settled there in 1733 on two 
hundred and forty acres of land. To the 
second union were born six children : John 
Brower; Isaac Brower, married May Gabel; 
Daniel Brower, settled in Providence ; 
Jacob Brower, died unmarried ; Elizabeth, 
nee Brower, wife of Jacob Urmy. Of this 
generation there are many descendants. 

As some of the prominent posterity of 
Daniel Brower are sketched in this volume 
it is proposed to narrate more particularly 
the biography of his descendants. 

Daniel Brower married Frances Reiff 
about the beginning of 1779. Their issue 
are: Henry, who was born May 3, 1780, 
and after marriage settled in Canada and 
died in his ninety-third year. There are 
numerous descendants of this family. Bar- 
bara Brower Kurtz, who had a family of 
about eight children ; Frances, who mar- 
ried Nathan Pennypacker (their sou, Doc- 
tor Jacob Pennypacker, was a noted physi- 
cian, who practiced near Phoenixville for 
nearly half a century) ; Joseph, a practical 
farmer; and Ann, who married James A. 
Pennypacker, and from this union there 



was a son, Doctor Nathan, who became 
eminent as a physician and was a member 
of the State legislature. He practiced 
near Phoenixville. His widow and daugh- 
ter survive him, and are now residing at 
Phoenixville. There was also a daughter 
Mary, who married William Williamson, 
at one time part owner and editor of the 
Montgomery Ledger at Pottstown ; his 
wife and several children survive him and 
are living at Pottstown. Eliza, second 
wife of Nathan Pennypacker, and one 
child, Frances, married to Joseph Fitz- 
water, merchant and farmer, residing near 
Mont Clare. Christian Brower, whose 
sketch appears in another part of this work; 
Abraham, see his sketch, on another page; 
Mary, married Abraham Beitler ; their 
grandsons, Abraham M. and Lewis, are 
noticed hereafter; Sarah Brower, died un- 
married; Daniel R., the father of Doctor 
R. R. Brower, whose sketch appears in 
another part ; Catharine, who married the 
Hon. Henry Longaker ; Ann, who married 
Rev. John H. Umstead, who was a promi- 
nent divine in the Dunkard congregations 
in this State and Maryland. He lived on 
a farm of about one hundred acres near the 
Green Tree Meeting house. One of the 
daughters, who married Milton Davis, is 
now residing upon the same farm. 



Christian Brower was born the eleventh 
day of September, 17S4, at B rower's Locks, 
Upper Providence. He died June 22, 1869. 
His true achievement was character-build- 
ing. He was chaste from birth to death ; 
in the 54th anniversary of their marriage 
he called those of his descendants living 
hear to him and told them that he would 
leave the legacy of a good character, and 
said in substance that he had so lived that 
he could return to any neighborhood in 



5 88 



Biographical Sketches. 



which he had resided with a clear con- 
science that he had been an honorable citi- 
zen, and that his descendants could retrace 
his footsteps and that they would find each 
period of his life without shame or blush. 

He early believed Jesus Christ to be the 
son of God, and accepted him as his Lord 
and Savior. Believing the Bible to be the 
revealed will of God, with a faith simple 
and strong, he obeyed its precepts — relying 
on the Holy Spirit for light and guidance. 
He was baptized by triune communion , by 
his wife's uncle, John Price, the " Boy 
Preacher," and united with the Dunkard 
church shortly after his marriage. 

His wedding gift to his wife was a family 
Bible. On the evening of his wedding day, 
upon this Bible — they covenanted before 
God — that its teachings should be the rule 
of conduct for themselves and family, and 
that all individual differences of desire or 
opinion should conform to its teachings. 
This covenant was never broken during the 
fifty-four years of their union, but was re- 
newed and strengthened at the advent of 
each of their trials, and all important events 
in their history. 

In the family government, when disci- 
pline of any child became necessary, that 
Bible was opened — preceded by prayer — 
and the divine teaching suitable to the oc- 
casion and correction of the offence, and 
ending with the suggestive admonition : 
" Spare the rod and spoil the child." was 
read in the impressive German voice of the 
mother, and then followed by the rod, and 
so judiciously administered that the same 
offence was never repeated. The subse- 
quent careers of this family of masterful, 
independent and original children prove the 
justness and good judgment of the exercise 
of this discipline. The children rise up and 
call their parents blessed. The use of the 



rod was delegated to the mother because of 
the impulsiveness of the father, which made 
his great physical strength dangerous to 
the child. He was impulsive but slow of 
speech, and an incident in his early youth 
illustrates his impulsive nature. Journey- 
ing on horse-back across this State and rid- 
ing up to an inn, he saw a half-witted girl 
grossly insulted by two young men. He 
quickly sprang from his horse, seized each 
by the collar and knocked their heads to- 
gether so firmly that one of them was so in- 
jured that he laid at the point of death for 
several days Realizing what had occurred, 
he submitted himself to the legal formali- 
ties of his offence, but was treated with 
great leniency, the witnesses all vindicating 
him, and then he remained and nursed the 
young man while suffering from the injury. 

He subsequently related that his emo- 
tion at that sick bed was intense. He 
realized his impetuosity, his impulse to 
strike under indignation, his great physical 
strength, his inability to control his acts 
aside from Divine aid, and he prayed to 
God "to show him the way to hold him- 
self" After awhile the answer came: 
"Clasp your hands behind your back." 
With him to know was to do, and many 
times the observer saw the mild, brown 
eyes, flash while under indignation at some 
wrong being done by another, and then he 
would quickly clasp his hands behind his 
back and maintain self-control. His habit 
of walking with his hands behind his back 
was acquired from this circumstance. 

He saw a like impulse in his youngest 
child and made her tenth anniversary day 
memorable by telling her this incident, and 
extracted two vows from her, the one to 
clasp her hands behind her under all serious 
emotion ; the other, so long as she bore his 
name never to receive a gift of value from 



Biographical Sketches. 



589 



a stranger. If the necessity seemed to 
arise, some near male relative must decide 
the matter and receive the gift He de- 
sired this because he saw a disposition in 
the child to be influenced unduly through 
gratitude. 

As a Christian his faith was remarkably 
simple and direct. To know the divine 
teaching was to obey it implicitly and with- 
out perversion. 

As a citizen he honored the constitution 
of his State and country, he loved its flag, 
and taught his children to place the consti- 
tution next to the Bible. Politically he 
was an Old Line Whig, and after the deca- 
dence of that party he voted bnt once for 
president — for the son of his old friend, Dr 
McClellan — saying if he is like his father 
it will make little difference what his party 
politics are. 

In his family he was patriarchal. He 
had high ideas of honor. His wife was 
honored, protected and loved. His chil- 
dren were his pride as well as his care. In 
hospitality he excelled. His invitation to 
" pot hick " was genuine, and guest and 
help were treated with dignified respect and 
protection. The widow and orphan in 
need were kindly cared for, and the sick 
and afflicted he was always ready to assist. 

In financial matters he regarded " his 
word as good as his bond," a promise made 
or obligation assumed was strictly kept and 
was promptly performed. His persistence 
in the " narrow way " was the key-note to 
the development of character. 

He was, in turn, merchant, miller, farmer. 
As a miller he was noted for his skill in 
dressing the mill-stones. He built a dam 
across the Perkiomen creek. The old 
dam was faulty and his neighbors said the 
freehets were so strong that the dam could 
not resist their force. In building the new 



dam all the foundation stones were laid bv 
himself, with suitable help assisting. Up 
to the time of his death the dam has not 
burst and has withstood all the freshets. 
This work he considered one of his best 
achievements. The mill is located above 
I Perkiomen vibe, as has lately and for many 
I years, been known as Schneider's mill. 
[ He removed from the mill to Philadelphia 
subsequently. His business relations in- 
troduced him to many merchants, who came 
from the West and South to make their 
purchases of new stock. Some of them 
sent their sons to the medical schools of that 
city, and he was noted for the kind fatherly 
care and advice which he gave to the young 
men thus introduced to him. Some years 
after his death an old physician gave a course 
of lectures before the English and Classical 
seminary of Doylestown. The youngest 
child of Christian Brower attending these 
lectures was greatly annoyed by the puzzled 
manner in which the lecturer gazed at her. 
At the close of the course he came to her 
saying : " Why did you not tell me you 
were the daughter of Christian Brower? 
He was my friend. He saved me when a 
young medical student." He said that 
many other students had proclaimed her 
father their friend and guided them on their 
introduction to city life. He said his apol- 
ogy for gazing at her was that he had seen 
her eyes in some man before he saw her. 

He removed from Philadelphia to Bridge 
Point in Bucks county, and while residing 
here, and some fifteen years before the erec- 
tion of the Baptist church at Doylestown, 
a prayer meeting was held at his home by a 
few Baptists, who agreed that the county 
town should have a Baptist church, and 
they consecrated themselves to that work. 
After the lapse of so much time he fur- 
nished about two-thirds of the cost of the 



59° 



Biographical Sketches. 



ground upon which the church was erected. 
After the erection had commenced his great 
wish was to see it under roof. He felt that 
he would never worship in it, but he did 
want to walk along the peak of the roof. 
He lived to see it under roof and he walked 
the peak without any assistance. He had 
great steadiness in high places. He did 
not live to worship in it. About ten days 
after this he passed in sleep to his reward. 
His prayers and ministrations were ended, 
and the family was left without his loving 
kind presence. The day before his death he 
gave his wife into the care of his youngest 
child, saying: "You must balance 
mother." She was an invalid and he had 
been doing the serious work of " balancing 
her." His daily prayer was that his chil- 
dren and his children's children to the end 
of time may all have their names written in 
the " Lamb's Book of Life," and have part 
in the first resurrection. 

He had a very high ideal of the obliga- 
tions and conduct relating to hospitality. 
" To turn and rend those who had cast the 
great pearl of hospitality in one's way " — 
"to lift up the heel after partaking of the 
loaf," was indicative of character too un- 
worthy to be retained under his roof. 

One who had been spending a whole 
winter in his household, and to whom every 
attention as to comfort was given, while 
visiting some of the neighbors told some 
petty falsehoods in regard to his wife, the 
neighbors not believing what was said, so 
informed him. When he returned home and 
entered the house, he had his hands locked 
behind him, his eyes blazing with indigna- 
tion, he said: "Where is Mrs. ?" 

His wife tried to mollify him. " That 
woman has broken our bread — and now she 
has belied you — not one word this time, 
my dear." * * * The accused came j 



and tried to flatter him and denied the 
charge. In a voice so calm it was terrible, 
he said : " You have broken my loaf and 
lifted up your heel against my wife. Pre- 
pare to leave my house to-morrow morning. 
I'll not turn you out at night. You lied 
about my wife." She winced at the reiter- 
ated charge. " But I always spoke well of 
you." " My wife and I are one. To-mor- 
row morning you will leave my house." 
The trunk was packed and next morning 
she left the house and was driven to the 
station to depart in the cars. 

His. personality. A discriminating artist 
said : "He is an ideal model of a righteous 
man of the Dutch type." He was persist- 
ent in the right, almost inflexible, but not 
stubborn, nor unreasonable, and yielding 
readily if he were made to perceive that he 
was wrong, and withal was most forgiving. 
His temperament was the nervous sanguine 
with a strong trend to the poetic strain. A 
profound Christian, professedly Baptist, 
patriotic, concentered in his family, slow 
of speech, impulsive, quick to strike yet 
self-restraining, intolerant of evil, sympa- 
thetic of suffering, authoritative, always in 
the front, amiable, loving of good, almost 
perfect physique. His hair was jet black, 
face cleanly shaved save before the ears, 
complexion clear and bright, nose short, 
Roman, large broad fronted and slightly 
pinched at the back base. Eyes large, 
dark brown, well set, and usually mild, 
inviting, trustful, but under feeling or pro- 
vocation, blazing, penetrating, masterful 
and fearless before evil or danger. Yoice 
clear, strong and sympathetic. Height 
five feet six inches. Body, thick set, of 
great muscular power, endurance and agil- 
ity. In death his countenance was life- 
like, and placid as if glorified. It is said 
that two who were unbelievers in Christ, 



Biographical Sketches. 



59i 



were made, while looking on his body, to 
doubt their unbelief. The one said : "It 
is death smothered in life." The other: 
"It is more than death; it is triumph." 
And thus, while in physical death, his 
countenance continued to proclaim his 
risen Lord. He was buried at Green Tree 
Dunkard Meeting, Montgomery county, 
but was re-interred at the death of his 
widow in Hope cemetery, now Doylestown 
cemetery. , 



Catharine Brower, wife of Christian 
B rower was a descendant of the Price family 
(born July 23, 1797; died January 3, 1878)7 
Jacob Price, the ancestor, spelled his name 
Preiss; he was born in Witzenstein, Prussia'. 
In the fall of 1719, because of religious perse- 
cution, he came to America, and stayed about 
Germantown until 1721, when he settled at 
Indian Creek, in Lower Salford township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. It is 
traditionary in the family that a brother 
came with him, who settled in Virginia, 
and some of whose descendants now reside 
in Brooklyn, Xew York. Jacob Price was 
of small stature, imperfectly developed, but 
a powerful preacher. It is from this an- 
cestry that Catharine descended, she being 
a daughter of Daniel Price,- of the fifth 
generation, who married Hannah Baugh ; 
her sister Sarah, married Edward Davis, 
.and her brother William married, and was 
the father of Daniel Price, now president of 
the Pottstown bank, Penna. The descen- 
dants of other branches of Jacob Price are 
numerous in Montgomery and Chester 
counties. 

A sketch of the life of this remarkable 
mother is as interesting and instructive as 
that of her husband. She was born in 
Chester county, Penna., nearly opposite to 
Pottstown. She was the eldest child, and 



her father died when she was thirteen years 
old, and her mother became an invalid. 
This defeated the plans of her father to 
have her educated at the Moravian semi- 
nary at Bethlehem, Penna. This - young 
child, with the aid of the bond servants, 
thus became the acting head of the house 
until her marriage in her seventeenth year. 
She was proud, sensitive, imaginative, con- 
servative, mathematical, with marked abil- 
ity to comprehend and memorize many de- 
tails, resourceful under all circumstances, 
and wise in execution. She reverenced her 
husband and obeyed her God. She was 
poetical with chaste taste and great love 
for the beautiful and artistic. In her fifth 
year she painted original designs of flowers 
with pigments made from crushed berries 
and leaves, soft stones and earth of various 
colors. This gift of subduing her sur- 
roundings to meet her needs continued 
through life. When the handsome young 
Dutchman asked her hand in marriage from 
her guardian and uncle, John Price, her 
uncle told her that she was honored above 
all young women ; that Christian Brower 
was a man of unusual character and life. 
He spoke of him as one without guile or 
blemish, truthful, honest and loving. Her 
love for him was intense, and at times she 
feared she would forget her God because of 
her husband. She had a great desire for 
literary knowledge, and self culture seemed 
to be her strongest affection. She saw that 
she would not meet all the demands of the 
headship of the family and read and study. 
This was a severe crisis. She disliked do- 
mestic cares and maternal duties. She laid 
the matter before her God ; she made the 
sacrifice, and turned from herself and her 
ambition, and forbade herself the reading 
of any book except the Bible and the 
almanac. She bothered herself with chil- 



592 



Biographical Sketches. 



dren other than her own, and read her 
Bible with daily zeal, which never left her. 
Not nntil after she was fifty years of age, 
could she be persuaded to read any other 
book ; and after that, for the sake of her 
youngest child, she added the reading of a 
weekly Baptist paper. She believed that 
prayer and spiritual song were the two 
legitimate emotional outlets for those 
"called to be saints," and these were of 
daily observance in the household. 

She was a constant teacher of charity, 
morals and spiritual belief. Chaste in act, 
thought and speech, she permitted only 
orderly acts and sound, refined speech. 
Dialect or slang or perfervid expression was 
severely repressed. Her method of bring- 
ing explanations and teachings to a forceful 
end is typically illustrated by the following. 
Adelaide, a little daughter, asked the 
meaning of "ducking-stool." Her mother 
described it, and the " Scold's Bridle " re- 
marking that if all overburdened and weak 
women would pray and sing spiritual songs, 
there would be no use for ducking stools, 
very little need for insane asylums. Her 
daily habit was to retire at noon for a half 
hour of prayer. This, on one occasion, was i 
omitted by some important events occurr- 
ing, and something happened during the 
afternoon to cause her to become indignant, 
and four words (words of command) were ; 
quickly uttered, but she immediately re- 
covered herself and said to her youngest 
daughter: "Now you see what comes to 
your mother when she does not retire to 
pray." I told you I was impulsive and 
quick of tongue, now 7 you know it." She 
arose early in the morning, usually about i 
four o'clock, to pray for her children, and 
her children's children to the end of time. 
She could not endure the thought that any 
of them should be eternally lost. Ten 



children were born to this marriage, and 
seven of them lived and reached maturity, 
and surived her ; and besides these she 
cared for in her family one niece and two 
nephews, who were instructed and received 
as her own, and other children whose pa- 
rents were unable to support them, were 
likewise cared for. She was almost ex- 
clusively engaged in her household, seldom 
making visits, except in cases of need, giv- 
ing aid in sickness and affliction. 

What seemed to her to be her greatest 
humiliation was the birth of her youngest 
child. She had been and was suffering 
from malarial neuralgia and nervous ex- 
haustion, and she believed that the child 
could not be strong. She had borne nine 
healthy, unblemished children. Now her 
pride and her ambition were crushed. She 
who had always been so strong, and she 
who hated weakness, to be the mother of 
weakness This episode was very pathetic. 
For three years, while the child was a weak- 
ling, she plead with the Lord to take it ; it 
would always have pain ; it never could be 
successful ; but her desire was not God's 
will. The child lived and grew in health, 
and at last she found her joy in a daughter 
so like the father in love and devotion to 
her, that after his loss, she trusted this 
child to care for her, under conditions of 
suffering and loss of memory, that proved 
to her, even in her weakness, that God had 
cared for her in her humiliation. One who 
knows the family well, says: " All that is 
womanly, dutiful, lovely and faithful in pa- 
rental devotion finds its greatest excellence 
in Adelaide C. Brower." 

In her church work she was active in the 
organization of the First Baptist church at 
Doylestown. So long as her health per- 
mitted she led the Women's meeting. Able 
to preside, exhort, pray and sing, or keep 



Biographical Sketches. 



593 



silent, her wisdom was recognized bv all. 
All her daughters were taught to nurse the 
sick and reared to habits of good house- 
wifery. She loved life and was satisfied 

with it, but during the last six months of 
it, she expressed a desire to depart. She 
was satisfied. Her life seeni^ best summed 
up in the life of her children. 

Christian Brower, at the time of his mar- 
riage, June 13, 1814, to Catharine Price, 
lived at Uniontowu, Chester county; thence 
he removed to the Perkiomen mills ; thence 
t) Philadelphia, and thence to Bridge Point, 
Bucks countv. 



Children of Christian and Catha- 
rine Brower. — This sketch would be in- 
complete without some note of the children 
and grandchildren of these remarkable par- 
ents, who have themselves become notable. 
The seven children who arrived at ma- 
turity are : Amelia Douglass, born Feb- 
ruary 26, 1815, and twice married ;_ first, 
June 22, 1834, to William T. De Bree ; 
second time, to Robert Johnson, Novem- 
ber 5, 1857. Nathan Pennypacker 
Brower, born May 21, 1818. Elizabeth 
Pennypacker Brower, born February 22, 
1821, married February, 1848, to Rev. 
Frederick Kitcham. Davis Edward Brower, 
born April ig, 1822. Anne Brower mar- 
ried Jacob Darst, August 1, 1844; her hus- 
band died April 1, 1856, and December 10, 
1 N57, she married Jacob Darst, a cousin of 
her first husband. Sarah, born March 16, 
1829, married the Rev. William H. Wyck- 
off, LL. D., of Brooklyn, New York. 
Adelaide Catherine, born November 20, 
1839, the youngest, living at Doylestown 
with her brother Davis. 

Amelia's first husband was of English 
ancestry (his mother a Taylor, whose fam- 
ily for many generations were employed 

33 



in the Bank of England) and only brother 
of John De Bree, a long-time purser in the 
United States navy. Her first husband 
was improvident and a spendthrift, and 
she and her children were obliged to re- 
turn to the home of her father. Mr. De 
Bree died sometime prior to 1857. In 1857 
she married Robert Johnson, a prosperous 
farmer of Rucks county. There were no 
children by this marriage. She was a 
noble, sensitive woman, of the rarest 
purity, devotion, and faithful attention to 
all details in her life work. She was an 
earnest church worker, and before her 
second marriage spent much time in chari- 
table work, and was very active in organiz- 
ing the Baptist church at Doylestown ; for 
two years she had charge of the infant de- 
partment of its Sunday school. She died 
about twenty-five years after her second 
marriage. 

Nathan De Bree, a child of the first mar- 
riage, deserves more than a passing notice. 
He has been connected with the telegraph 
service since about i860. He entered the 
army as an operator, and at the close of the 
war engaged with the Western Union and 
became manager of the Louisville office. 
During the first great strike, he kept the 
office open and the important business 
moving. After this he was in the Con- 
struction and Engineering Branch, superin- 
tending the work in different States of the 
Union. 

In 1873 he was engaged in the work of 
repairing the interrupted sub-marine cables 
between Cuba and Florida. He made a 
topographical map of the Gulf bottom be- 
tween Cuba and Key West Reef and be- 
tween Bahama and the coast of Florida, 
and laid the new cables by which a double 
line to the coast of Cuba was completed in 
1879. When he undertook this work he 



594 



Biographical Sketches. 



had no practical nautical knowledge. The 
maps were misleading, new surroundings 
had to be made. He was sent out with a 
crew who had never seen a cable The 
old cable was badly worn and eaten so 
that it was difficult to follow, but his great 
ingenuity and untiring energy surmounted 
all difficulties. After the completion of 
this line he was ordered to Baltimore, 
Maryland, to reorganize that office and the 
district within a radius of one hundred 
miles. His predecessor was in feeble 
health and many clerks had become insub- 
ordinate. In three days they realized that 
they had a new manager who could man- 
age. The fourth day he announced an 
order that no employees who came into the 
office intoxicated would be retained. Some 
of the employees seemed inclined to test 
' the new manager. He, like his grand- 
father Brower, whom he greatly resembles, 
is slow of speech, but quick of perception 
and movements. One day a clerk came in 
drunken and he and the whole force in the of- 
fice were insolent. He called the offending 
clerk to the platform, and in the presence of 
the others discharged him, but he refused to 
leave. He was seized by the back of the 
neck and thoroughly shaken, and when re- 
leased from the powerful grip of the man- 
ager he was glad to quickly disappear. 
There was no more insubordination until 
the great strike of the 8o's, and during it 
he managed to keep the important offices 
in his district open by putting his young 
children, who could use the keys more or 
less, in responsible positions. 

Since this time he has been largely in- 
terested in improvements in multiplex tele- 
graphy and underground work, and is now 
engaged to put in operation an under- 
ground system at Toledo, Ohio. 

He, it is thought, is the greatest of the j 



grandsons of Christian Brower. He was 
born in October, 1S3S, and married Ida 
Harlan, a daughter of Dr. Harlan, of Vir- 
ginia. He was an able organizer, with 
large ability to comprehend detail, and 
power for delicate manipulation, energy," 
resistance, and withal persistent and re- 
sourceful. He is a commander of men, a 
disciplinarian, and kindly friend. He 
stands as a marvelous representative of his 
ancestry. He showed the trend of his 
genius in childhood. He would place all 
the playthings in line over the floor and 
send his little aunt, a year younger than 
himself, to listen while he spoke ; and so 
the children played telegraphing when four 
years old, in 1842. 

Nathan P. Brower, now one of the under 
superintendents of the Asylum for the In- 
sane at Norristown, was for many years 
one of the active and prominent business 
men of Doylestown, Pa. He was public- 
spirited, and was one of the active organ- 
izers of the Bucks county Agricultural 
Society, of the Doylestown English and 
Classical seminary, of the Hope cemetery, 
and of the building of the meeting house 
of the Baptist church, and was generally 
interested in the progress and development 
of the town. 

He is the father of a large family of 
children: one of them, Mahlon Lewis, resid- 
ing in Philadelphia, has been a member of 
the State legislature. He is a good busi- 
ness man of fine executive ability. Anna 
Azella Brower Schlect, the oldest daugh- 
ter, was first a school teacher ; next she 
taught in the House of Refuge, and was 
promoted to assistant matron. Thence she 
went to the Preston Retreat, and had the 
position of matron for several years, and 
resigned when she married Mr. Schlect. 
Adelaide was a gifted and careful nurse, 



Biographical Sketches. 



595 



and attended to the sick of the family with 
great fidelity and success. 

Elizabeth P. married the Rev. Keteham. 
She went to the central part of Illinois in 
1850, where her husband engaged in mis- 
sionary work. She was happily married, 
and had two step-daughters whom she 
brought up well, and became the mother 
of four able men. She was the gifted one 
amongst the daughters, of literary abilities, 
highly imaginative, poetic, humorous, ana- 
lytical ; but failed of full development by 
the duties of matrimony at the time she 
was gaining recognition as a writer. 

Anna married Jacob Darst, merchant, of 
Circleville, Ohio, and after his death she 
married his cousin. She was the mother 
of an interesting group of children. She 
was gifted, poetical, and artistic, proud of 
her family, and anxious to fill to the full 
her position as a wife. She was an ardent 
reader of pure fiction. She trained her 
daughter, Lillian, and planted in her the 
seeds of future success. She read to her 
in her very little girlhood Scott and 
Shakespeare and the Bible with such per- 
sistence that at nine years she was able to 
recite largely from Scott's poems and 
Shakespeare and relate many prominent 
narrations of the Bible. She read studi- 
ously to the other children. She was a 
great and delighted reader. For many 
years she has been an invalid ; but the 
family has been kept together by the chil- 
dren showing great devotion to the mother 
and clinging together, helping and caring 
for each other. 

Sarah, the father's pet and his greatest 
happiness amongst his daughters, because 
of her mildness, quietness, dignity, and 
freedom from need of discipline (the only 
child that needed no punishment, no 
prayers, no rod), and who seemed to profit 



by the experience of her elders, has had a 
unique life. She united all her father's abil- 
ity to make friends and keep them with the 
strong conservatism of her mother. At 
school an apt scholar, obedient and rever- 
ential to the teachers, she was a joyous 
cheerful mate to her equals. 

She was met at Dr. Cushman's Select 
School in Washington, D. C, by a gentle- 
man who was a friend of Dr. Wyckoff. 
On his return to New York he reported to 
Dr. Wyekoff, that he had found just the 
lady for him to marry. The doctor was a 
widower with a son eighteen years old. 
By this mutual friend, permission was ob- 
tained from Christian Brower to have Dr. 
W. call at the home, Bridge Point. When 
he came he first saw the mother. He felt 
the matter already decided ; if the daugh- 
ter is like her he wanted her. He saw her, 
and she pleased him then and did so until 
the time of his death. He was her ideal, 
comely in person, pure, high-bred, God- 
fearing, and scholarly. He was one of the 
organizers of the American Bible Union. 
Through all that serious conflict, when 
constantly battling for this great truth, 
her true character shone out brilliantly. 
Her conservatism and tact were remarka- 
ble. He once said of her that she had 
never alienated a friend of the cause or 
hardened an enemy. She met at her own 
house scholars, professional men, friends 
and non-friends of pure business. She was 
her husband's confidant, and she used her 
knowledge to his advantage. She assisted 
in organizing the first Woman's Missionary 
society that was formed. It was a union 
of Protestant denominations. She was one 
of the managers and one of the editors of 
the Missionary Link. When the different 
denominations composing it separated, she 
assisted to organize the Woman's Baptist 



596 



Biographical Sketches. 



Foreign mission, as well as its auxiliary, 
the Long Island branch, and was president 
of the latter. She had great tact in presid- 
ing and modifying factions. She was self- 
possessed, dispatched business rapidly, and 
spoke in a clear, audible, but low voice. 
She was from its organization and for 
twenty years or more one of the board of 
managers of the Home of Aged Baptists of 
Brooklyn. 

After the death of her husband, the set- 
tlement of his estate devolved upon her. 
He had had in hand trust funds and the 
management of the Bible Union and other 
like matters out of which arose many com- 
plications, all of which opened a new field 
to her ; but she was equal to the task, and 
out of some confusion she brought order, 
overcame all difficulties, and successfully 
settled the estate. 

Her musical education was liberal. She 
sang well. Her children aie intellectual, 
devotedly Christian, and loyal to her and 
to each other. Her life from childhood has 
been a beautiful unfolding, without cross 
purposes to hinder or dispel. Her husband, 
children, home, and occupations have all 
been satisfying, and her Christian faith, 
like her father's, was simple and direct, 
without much question, or serious rebel- 
lion. 

Davis Edward Brower was born at the 
Perkiomen Mills, educated at a Westchester 
school, conducted by Joshua Hoopes, then 
entered the hardware trade ; next the book 
trade in Philadelphia ; next went to St. 
Louis, first as assistant editor and then edi- 
tor of the Western WatcJiman, the leading 
Baptist paper of the West. A severe 
attack of typhoid-pneumonia caused his 
return, and he settled upon his father's 
farm, Bridge Point, and for many years 
was a successful and prosperous farmer. 



Leaving the farm, he entered the services 
of the American Bible Union as agent for 
western New York. He had been pre- 
viously licensed to preach the gospel by 
the Eleventh Baptist church of Philadel- 
phia, and was ordained a minister of the 
gospel at the New Britain church. He 
was one of the active organizers of the Bap- 
tist church, of Doylestown, and of the 
Hope cemetery. Simple and pastoral in 
his habits, with great love for his people, 
original in method and patient in reverses, 
tenacious, persistent, and exact, his true 
achievement, like his father, has been his 
character. He is a characteristic descend- 
ant of both families, uniting more clearly 
both branches than any other of the chil- 
dren. 

Adelaide Catharine Brower, a partial 
invalid from birth, has had some trials, 
strong likes and dislikes, a strong natural 
religion in conflict with the humility of 
the religion of Christ, and necessarily turn- 
ing from her natural self and consecrated 
by her mother to the Saviour of God and 
her people, her life has been of service 
and weakness and pain, upheld by the 
peace of God, and greatly beloved by the 
family with a conscience void of offence. 
She was an earnest church member, and 
organized the Morning Star Mission band, 
of Brooklyn, New York. Coming to 
Dovlestown about 1867, she did much 
active work in the First Baptist church, 
also the Doylestown English and Classical 
seminary. The musical department was 
under her charge and instruction for five 
and one-half years. Owing to nervous ex- 
haustion she suspended teaching, but soon 
after her mother's illness changed the cur- 
rent of her life, and devoted her time 
to her mother during her long period of 
infirmity, and since has continued in the 



Biographical Sketches. 



597 



liuu.se of her brother, Davis Edward, as its 
head. Her life has been one of discourage- 
ment on account of ill health, because her 
strength was never equal to the duties 
which she so nobly, lovingly and willingly 
assumed. 

All these children had strong literary 
tastes and all the daughters were more than 
usually gifted in song, rythm and poetry, 
and Elizabeth and Sarah had more than 
ordinary literary gifts, and became highly 
cultured ladies, with aptness to compose 
poetry and especially religious versification. 
Amongst them and the grandchildren are 
found farmers, ministers of the Gospel, 
Evangelical workers, editors, teachers, ma- 
trons, telegraphers, engineers, printers, poli- 
ticians, railroad superintendent, railroad 
engineers, chief railroad dispatcher, insur- 
ance agent, advertising agent, commercial 
business, artists and poets. 

The gift of nursing, inherited from 
mother and father, has been developed in 
all the daughters, and in some of the grand- 
daughters, and distinctively in Adelaide, 
daughter of Nathan. Her devotion and in- 
telligent care of the sick in her own family 
marks her as a true descendant of her pa- 
ternal grandparents. 

The gift of rythm and rhyme, coming 
from the Prices, has been developed in the 
three daughters, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ade- 
laide, the last two writing and composing 
suitable music to their songs. 

Elizabeth and Sarah have published 
works though somewhat fugitive, yet of 
much merit, and this poetic talent is largely 
possessed by Lillie C. Darst, Adelaide E., 
Ellen and Spencer C. Wyckoff. 

Lillie C. Darst, a daughter of Annie and 
Jacob Darst, (by first marriage), deserves a 
special sketch. She was born at Circle- 
ville, O., where she lived and died. She 



was burn Nov. 20, 1846, and died April 11, 
1883. Clipped from the memorial edition 
of the Circleville Herald April 18, 1883, 
(Extract from Cincinnati Enquirer): " She 
graduated from the high school of Circle- 
ville, O., about 1867. Her graduation pa- 
per was a poem which attracted much at- 
tention. She leased from the owner the 
Circleville Herald in 1875. She was the 
first woman to enter the field of journalism 
in Ohio. In 1881 she was elected clerk of 
the Ohio Senate and was re-elected. She 
was the first woman in Pickaway county to 
attract attention beyond its limits by her 
writings." 

From Chicago Inter- Ocean : " Miss Lillie 
C. Darst was in many respects a remarkable 
woman. She was one of the brightest news- 
paper correspondents in the country, and the 
only woman, it is believed, who success- 
fully edited and managed a newspaper 
which was not an organ for some special de- 
partment of woman's work or defending 
woman's rights. = * She entered the 

field of journalism, and asked no favor that 
would not be granted to a man. She took 
and gave blows in the same spirit that a 
man would, and it was not long before 
" Kenneth" was recognized by correspon- 
dents as one not to be despised or over- 
looked. For several years she was associa- 
ted with the Herald, and eight years a°o 
assumed the editorial chair and business 
management of the paper. There were 
many cutting paragraphs in Ohio papers 
about the girl editress, but like the corres- 
pondauts the editors soon learned that to 
keep the new management from taking the 
lead of the county weeklies they must look 
to something else than writing funny para- 
graphs about the new editress. * * For 
over a year she has not been fit for work, 
but by force of will had kept her post, do- 



598 



Biographical Sketches. 



ing both the work of a man in the office, 
and that of a woman looking after house- 
hold duties at her home, where she had for 
twenty years taken the place of a mother as 
well as a sister. When failing health 
warned her that she must stop, she took a 
young brother into the office with her and 
taught him to manage the paper. 
She came to Chicago in 1880 to attend the 
National convention as a correspondent for 
her own, and other papers, and did efficient 
work for Senator Blaine. She, in Cir- 
cleville, Ohio, was the first to name Mr. 
Blaine for president. Whenever she went 
to the headquarters she was treated as one 
whose counsel was wise, and President 
Garfield was her personal friend. The day 
he received the nomination he saw Miss 
Darst approaching, while receiving the con- 
gratulations of many distinguished men, 
and leaving them, he stepped forward to 
meet her, and talked to the little woman, 
while the great Republican leaders waited. 
She was the personal friend of Senators 
Sherman and Blaine, and by them was con- 
sidered an able politician as well as a clever 
writer." 

Extract from Record of the Ohio Senate : 
Resolved, That we learn with great re- 
gret the death of Lillie C. Darst, late en- 
grossing clerk of the Senate, which occur- 
red in Chicago Wednesday morning, that 
the Sergeant at-Arms is hereby directed to 
keep the flag over the Senate at half mast 
on Saturday, the day of the funeral, and 
that the president is hereby authorized to 
appoint a committee of three members to 
attend the funeral." 

The Indianapolis Journal alluding to her 
death says : " Her poems were greatly ad- 
mired for their grace and strength. Her 
prose was exact and able. She made ear- 
nest study of politics, and as the editor of 



the Herald she discussed public affairs fa- 
vorably and uuderstandingly." 

Springfield Republican said : " She was a 
woman of genius and culture, a graceful 
and able writer, and a poet of undoubted 
rank, and her courage and nerve were really 
remarkable " 

She was a member of the Ohio Editorial 
Union, and at one time its secretary. 

Her step-sister, Marion C. (in giving the 
record of the family) said : " Of all the fam- 
ily Lillie is so far superior that I hope you 
will give her the most space, as she is the 
one who made the rest of us able to go for- 
ward and do as we have. ' 

One of her shortest poems is hereby 
given : 

"Crux et Astrcm." 

By Kenneth (Lillie C. Darst.) 

I sit below the vaulted window height 

One spire, one star I view 
Against the splendid azure night 

By a low moon lit through. 

And the star sayeth as a star may, "God !" 

Leading my thoughts afar 
On a dim path by many fancies trod 

Pure as the white rays are. 

But the spire sayeth what no star can, " Christ!" 

And gently leadeth home 
To the dim altar foot in solemn tryst 

The restless thoughts that roam. 

And not for mystic vision is thy creed, 

Oh, Christ, the crucified 
But for divert practice in the daily deed 

By love thus sanctified. 

Of the other children of this interesting 
family are Harvey Johns Darst, a graduate 
of Michigan University, once editor with 
his brother of the Herald, but now practic- 
ing law ; Walter Curtis Darst, now editor 
of the Circleville Herald; Marion Curtis 
Darst, unmarried, educated in art at the 
Columbia art school, now artist and teacher 
of art, having taught in several schools, 



Biographical Sketches. 



599 



but now has her own school aud studio ; 
Christian Brower Darst ; artist and teacher 
of wood carving aud modeling. He com- 
menced bis career as teacher of modeling 
and wood carving at Columbus art school, 
subsequently he organized the department 
of wood carving at the Metropolitan mu- 
seum art school, and remained at its head 
until the industrial features of art work 
were discontinued. He is now teaching in 
several schools in New York city. He 
copied with much spirit the portraits of two 
noted horses, which were sold for high 
prices ; Daniel Price Darst, a printer, lives 
at Dayton, O., and Edward Davis Darst is 
an advertising agent. 

All these children have acted nobly, 
for many years they have provided for an 
invalid mother. They have clung together 
helping each other, and under Lillie's sac- 
rificing example have been loving, helpful 
and energetic, and according to their abili- 
ties and strength they have been success- 
ful. 

Another notable grand-child is Adelaide 
Eliza Wyekoff, a graduate of Packer col- 
legiate institute, a teacher of superior 
ability, svho has taught for three years in 
the public schools in Brooklyn, then in the 
Bracket institute, a very select school. 
While there she was called without appli- 
cation to her alma mater, where she was 
placed in charge of the 3d academic de- 
partment. She has risen steadily, and for 
several years has been teacher of psyschol- 
ogy aud physiology, aud is now in charge of 
the collegiate department. She has taught 
twenty-one years, and is the author of two 
Papers read at the World Congress of Ex- 
perimental Psychology, Columbian Exhi- 
bition, Chicago. She is possessed of high 
intellectuality, gracious and energetic and 
lovingly loval to her mother and the 



younger children, and is the author of some 
beautiful poems. 

Ella Wyekoff, a younger sister and a 
graduate ot Packer, is now making 
the study of Greek a specialty, and she has 
also the gifts of versification. 

A strong family love and care for each 
other have been shown in all branches of 
the families, caring for the sick and weak 
and unfortunate with persistent zeal. Love, 
sacrifice and persisteut labor have been re- 
markably conspicuous, showing itself 
most beautifully in Catharine, a daughter 
of Xathan Weaver Brower, who after the 
death of her father (at the age of fifteen) be- 
gan as a dressmaker, to help support the 
family, and so continued after her marriage 
until the death of her mother, who breathed 
her last in the home of this noble daughter. 

Of the fifty-four descendants of Christian 
and Catharine Brower nearly all have cho- 
sen to retain God in their heart and follow 
the example and precept of their progeni- 
tors, a strong religious sentiment is en- 
tertained by all, and so far none have 
passed beyond who have not gone in the 
faith of Christ, their crucified, risen, and 
coming Lord, aud the praying ones have 
taken up the prayer of the parents. " That 
our children, and our children's children, 
to the end of time may have their names 
in the Lamb's Book of Life, and take part 
in the first resurrection." 



Hon. Daniel Brower Kurtz of San 
Louis Rev, San Diego county, Cal., was 
born March 20, 1820, near Brower Lock, 
on the Schuylkill, Montgomery county, 
Pa. His parents were John and Barbara 
(Brower) Kurtz. When at the age of about 
10 years he was an orphan, bereft of both 
parents. He was taken into the family of 
his uncle, Daniel R. Brower, then living in 



6oo 



Biographical Sketches. 



Philadelphia, with whom he resided 
until he was about sixteen years old. At 
this time his uncle and family going to 
Florida, he went to his uncle, Christian 
Brower, with whom he continued while 
learning the trade of a carpenter. His edu- 
cation was obtained in the public schools 
of Philadelphia. For several years he fol- 
lowed his trade, and December 26, 1849, ne 
sailed from Baltimore on the schooner 
James Franklin for California. He settled 
at San Diego, and in the fall of 1850 he was 
elected mayor of that city. In 1852 he was 
elected a member of the State Senate, serv- 
ing in the sessions of 1853 and 1854. In 
1855 he was elected county judge and 
served until i860, when he resigned be- 
cause he was elected a member of the As- 
sembly, serving the term during the session 
of 1861, and in 1864 he was again elected 
and served in the Assembly during the ses- 
sion of 1865. Since holding these positions 
he has served on the board of school trus- 
tess and justice of the peace. 

He has lived upon his ranch, a tract of 
many acres, at San Luis Rev, about four- 
teen miles from San Diego, during the past 
twenty years, growing principally wheat 
and rearing horses and cattle. As mayor, 
legislator, judge and other positions of 
trust in which lie was honored by the peo- 
ple of his locality and State, he has earned 
a reputation for integrity, honesty and effi- 
ciencv in the discharge of official duties 
which places him amongst the foremost of 
the people of his adopted State. In liberal- 
ity and hospitality he has exercised to its 
full measure the heritage which came to 
him from his maternal ancestry. 

Abraham Merklee Beitler, a son of the 
late Daniel Beitler, and a grandson of Ab- 
raham and Mary Brower Beitler, is deserv- 
ing of more than passing note. He was 



born in Philadelphia, July 8, 1853, 
studied in the public schools, graduated 
from high school class '56 July 1870, studied 
law with C. Stuart Patterson, admitted 
January, 1875, appointed assistant city soli- 
citor in 1879 and by gradual advancements 
became first assistant, and October 18, 1891, 
was appointed director of the Department 
of Public Safety. He married October 16, 
1879, Julia L. Bornemann. The children 
of this marriage are : Harold B., born De- 
cember 30, 1880, Flsie Julia, born Decem- 
ber 6, 1888. 

Louis Eugene Beitler, a brother of the 
director, was born in Philadelphia, October 
4, 1863, graduated from the senior class 
Northwest grammar school, took a course 
in business college in Franklin Institute 
Drawing school, and a complete course in 
stenography and a partial course at the 
University of Pennsylvania Law school. He 
followed commercial pursuits from 1881 to 
1887, then became private secretary to May- 
or Fitler until 1891, and was retained in the 
same position by his successor, Mayor Stu- 
art, which position he resigned in January, 
1895, and became private secretary to Gov- 
ernor Hastings. The 12th of June, 1894, 
he married Miss Clementina Morrillow 
Beck, and has one child, Edwin Fitler 
Beitler, born June 23, 1895. 

Any further biography of these notable 
brothers would seem to be supererogatory. 
They are so well-known in their official 
positions, and the events which have so re- 
cently occurred and are still occurring, that 
their lives are specially a part of the muni- 
cipal history of the city which has so highly 
honored them, and whose citizens they have 
so well and faithfully served. It may be 
safely assumed that they have greater and 
higher honors awaiting them. 

Prof. Oscar C. S. Carter (another notable 



Biographical Sketches. 



60 i 



descendant) is a native of Philadelphia, 
though of Yankee descent. He is a grand- 
son of Daniel R and Anna (Fanner) Brower 
and a nephew of Dr. Brower. He was born 
on the 1st of March, 1857. His mother 
was Louisa Brower and his father the late 
Oscar C. B. Carter, was a book publisher of 
Boston, Mass., and a relative of the present 
firm of T. H. Carter & Son. Prof Carter 
was educated in the public schools and 
graduated first in his class. He then en- 
tered the Polytechnic School of Mines and 
pursued a course in mining engineering 
witli the intention of making that his life 
work, but for two years he taught in the 
public schools. 

He next entered the junior class of the 
University of Pennsylvania, taking a course 
in chemistry and mineralogy under Prof. 
Genth, and geology under State Geologist 
Lesley. After two years study he passed 
the second best examination in chemistry 
in the class of 1879. He became immedi- 
ately thereafter the chief chemist of the 
Midvale Steel works, which is engaged in 
making guns and armor plate for the gov- 
ernment. 

In 1880 he was elected professor of chem- 
istry at the Central high school and was the 
first to teach the subject of qualitative 
analysis in the high school. In 1881 he 
was elected drug master in general and 
analytical chemistry in the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and in 1883 he received a medal from the 
Agricultural society of Pennsylvania for pre- 
senting the best means of freeing water 
from soluble mineral impurities. In the 
year 1887 he was made professor at the 
Spring Garden Institute. He holds at the 
present time the full professorship of geo- 
logy and mineralogy and associate profes- 
sliip of chemistry in the high school. In 



the following year he became a lecturer on 
chemistry for the United Chatauqua Circles 
of Philadelphia. When the history of 
Montgomery county was written he was se- 
lected to write the chapter on "Ores, Min- 
erals and Geology." This received very 
complimentary praise from the press, and 
was subsequently published in pamphlet 
form. His publications are to be found in 
the London " Chemical News," proceedings 
of "American Philosophical Society," 
"Journal of Franklin Institute," " Sanita- 
rian," "American Chemical Journal " of 
Johns Hopkins University, "Pennsylvania 
Agricultural Reports and Mineral Resources 
of the United States" His more 'recent 
work has been the subject of artesian wells, 
to which he has given much time and col- 
lected and published four papers on the 
complete records of more than twenty-seven 
wells in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Ches- 
ter and Delaware counties. He was of- 
fered a position on the staff of chemists at 
the Philadelphia mint and chief chemist of 
the largest steel plant west of the Missis- 
ippi, at South Pueblo, Col. 

He is little given to show and pretence, 
and by his methods of teaching and kindly 
treatment soon wins the esteem and affec- 
tion of all students with whom he comes in 
contact. We hope that lie may live many 
years to labor in his chosen field. 

The father of the professor was Oscar 
C. B. Carter, who married Mary Louisa 
Brauer, a daughter of Daniel R. and Ann 
Billop Pawling Brower. Their children 
are: Oscar C. S., Gustave Blessner, Mary, 
and Josephine. 

The Carter ancestry come from Garston 
Manor, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, 
England, twenty-one miles north of Lon- 
don, granted by Henry VI II to Richard 
Carter. At that time it was a monastery 



6o2 



Biographical Sketches. 



with four hundred acres of land. Thomas 
Carter, the first to come to this country, 
was educated at University of Cambridge, 
a classmate of Cotton Mather, the preacher, 
in Massachusetts, not far from Lancaster, 
and the father of the professor, is one of the 
descendants of Thomas Carter. 



Hon. Abraham B rower was born May 
22, 1787, on his father's farm of about 200 
acres, located on the east bank of the 
Schuylkill at Brower's Lock, in the canal 
opposite to a point now known as the Per- 
kiomeu Junction with the Reading R. R. 
He married Margaret, a daughter of Joseph 
Crawford. Six children of this marriage 
grew up. Ann married Charles Shephard, 
a very prosperous farmer who lived on the 
Schuylkill (east side of it) about one and 
one-half miles further up the river; Joseph 
Crawford, who lives on an adjoining farm, 
John E., who owns and occupies the home- 
stead, and Francis, who maried Samuel H. 
Umsted. She died soon after her mar- 
riage, leaving one son and her husband, 
both of whom are dead : Abraham Brower, 
who grew to be a young man, and while 
felling timber in the woods was crushed 
under a falling tree and killed, and; Jane, 
who married John W. Tyson, and died 
without issue about two years after mar- 
riage. 

At the death of his father he purchased 
the homestead, and lived upon it to the 
time of his death, which occurred in 1873, 
in his eighty-fifth year. His principal oc- 
cupation was farming and lime burning, 
and conducting a small store at the lock, 
for the accommodation of the boatmen 
chiefly and for a few of his nearest neigh- 
bors. 

His farm became famous for the fine farm 
horses which he reared there, not only for 



his own use in farming and in hauling lime, 
but for the benefit of his neighbors as well 
as for sale to the frequent buyers from other 
localities. The Eclipse stock of horses ac- 
quired a reputation not only in that local- 
ity, but in some parts of New Jersey. He 
always had many more young horses than 
were required to carry on the farming and 
lime business, and so numerous did they 
become at times as to be a serious charge 
upon his finances. His great love for them 
made him loath to sell the favorites. He 
enjoyed life and has delighted to have 
others enjoy it. His great hospitality was 
extended unstintedly and without question 
and those in want never went away without 
aid, and the hungry never departed from 
under his roof unfed. He was endowed 
with great common sense, and his opinion 
was of great weight on public and private 
affairs. At all seasons, and especially in 
the winter there were usually quartered 
with him those of improvident families, 
whose wants he charitably supplied. 

Old Aunt Flora (Harry), as she was called, 
came into his household as an emancipated 
slave of the Crawford family, and she and 
some of her descendents were his pension- 
ers. One of her sons " Blind Cain" so nick- 
named, was of the household most of his 
time. Cain was almost totally blind, though 
he could distinguish daylight from dark- 
ness. He frequently attended vendues, mi- 
litia training and holiday gatherings, and 
being expert to imitate a horse neighing, 
cattle bawling, pigs squealing, sheep bleat- 
ing, dogs barking, cats mewing, the cock 
crowing, the birds singing, and whistling, 
etc., he greatly amused the people and 
thereby liberally replenished his purse, and 
for a period of thirty years he was a fre- 
quent visitor in several families of the 
Brower descendants, traveling by the aid of 



Biographical Sketches. 



603 



a cane only, five and ten miles at a stretch, 
finding his destination without mischance, 
and generally remaining a week or two as 
a single visit. The home of Hon. Henry 
Longaker was one at which he tarried sev- 
eral times yearly to see Catharine (Mrs. 
Longaker) as he familiarly called her. 
During a visit shad, fresh from the Dela- 
ware, had been served several times with 
the tail end of the fish for his portion. 
Tiring of his portion he said " Catharine, 
I smell shad frying ; please keep me the 
head this time, with a good deal of the fish 
to it." 

Mr. Brower was a very popular man and 
in 1840 he was elected a member of the 
State Senate over the Hon. J. B. Sterigere. 
He was the Whig candidate and the county 
usually was decidedly Democratic. He 
had a fine personality, commanding atten- 
tion wherever he went, about six feet tall, 
physically well formed, very amiable coun- 
tenance, eyes sparkling with good humor, 
blond complexion, and withal a very hand- 
some man. 

His home so well presided over by his 
excellent housewife, had a reputation far 
and near, and he seemed to live in a pa- 
triarchal state rather than as an ordinary- 
farmer. About five years preceding his 
death his wife, while preparing a meal, had 
her dress to take fire, and before help could 
come she was so horribly burned as to 
cause death within a day or so after its sad 
occurrence. 

Daniel R. Brower, a brother of the Hon. 
Abraham Brower, and father of Doctor 
Daniel R. Brower, whose sketch appears in 
another part of this volume, was a good 
and versatile business man. He was very 
progressive and a great friend of education, 
and wherever he resided he was foremost in 
establishing good schools. He lived sue- 



cessively in Philadelphia, a year or two in 
Florida, then in Manyunk, next at Phoenix- 
ville, and last at Xorristown. 

His sons and daughters were very pa- 
triotic during the late war, Elizabeth was 
an efficient and distinguished nurse, and 
Rachael Evans, wife of Cadawalader Evans, 
did much good work in the Sanitary De- 
partment of the army. These ladies have 
received well deserved notice by former lo- 
cal historians. 

The daughters of this remarkable family 
were ladies of more than ordinary attain- 
ments in the polite society of their day, 
and were amongst the foremost in the 
handiwork of the household, and many of 
the textiles manufactured for family use 
were made from woolen yarn, or flaxen 
thread spun by them, and this, now almost 
lost art, they taught their daughters, as well 
as other craft in good housekeeping. Nearly 
all of them with their husbands were set- 
tled upon the rich lands bordering on the 
Schuylkill river, and were of the most 
prosperous of the farmers of their locality. 

The mother of Doctor Daniel R. Brower, 
whose sketch appears on page 3S0, was 
Ann Billop Farmer. She was born on the 
east bank of the Schuylkill, on the farm 
known during the Revolutionary war as 
Fatlauds. She was a daughter of Robert 
Adolph Farmer, who was born April 2S, 
1762. He married Margaretta Pawling 
(who was born November 5, 1773) March 
25, 1792. Their children were : Elizabeth 
Mary Farmer, born 1792; John Pawling, 
born 1795; Catharine Louisa, born 17 
Ann Billop, born 1800 ; James Fisher, born 
1802 ; Margaretta, born 1S04. Her next 
preceeding ancestor was Major-General 
Robert Farmer, of the British army. His 
children were: the aforesaid Robert Adolph 
1 Fanner ; Catharine, Elizabeth, and Ann. 



604 



Biographical Sketches. 



These descendants date their ances- 
try from Joseph Farmar, of the county 
of Cork, through a younger son of the 
family of Fermor, of Easton, Weston 
county, Northampton, England, who was 
deprived of his estates in 1641, and forced 
to seek an asylum in England ; he married 
the eldest daughter of Anthony Gamble, 
Esq. Among other children, he had a son 
John, who settled at Youghall, and his son, 
George Farmar, was of the royal navy, and 
while commanding H. M. ship Quebec, off 
Ushant in 1779, came up with and closely 
engaged La Survilante, a French frigate of 
greatly superior force. The contest on both 
sides was desperate, and Captain Farmar 
displayed such gallantry and intrepidity 
that he continued the engagement until his 
ship accidentally took fire, was blown into 
the air together with her brave captain. 
His children were : George, William, John. 
Henry and Charlotte, who married Count 
Emanuel de la Barthe. The son William 
was created a baronet for the meritorious 
services of his father ; George and Richard 
Farmar, second baronet, and Sir Richard 
Henry Kenwick, the fifth and present baro- 
net of Mt. Pleasant county, Sussex. It is 
through this illustrious lineage that the 
maternal ancestry of Dr. Brower, by his • 
mother, Anna Billop Brower, nee Farmer, 
comes. 



PHILIP V. EISENBERG, M. D., one 
of Norristown's leading and well known 
physicians, is a direct descendant of Ger- 
man ancestry, though for the past four 
eenerations the familv antecedents have 
been residents of south-eastern Pennsylva- 
nia. His great-great-grandfather Eisen- 
berg is believed to have emigrated from 



Saxony to America early in the eighteenth 
century. His grandfather, Lawrence Eisen- 
berg, was born and raised a few miles north 
of The Trappe, Montgomery county, and 
lived there all his life upon his farm. At 
his death he was buried in the churchyard 
at Douglassville, Berks county, Pennsyl- 
vania. He married a Miss Jones, and they 
became the parents of a large family of 
children, among whom was Samuel, the 
father of the subject of this sketch. The 
latter (Samuel) was born in May, 1806, and 
upon growing to manhood followed his 
father's occupation. Later in life he be- 
came an extensive dealer in hay, purchas- 
ing it in large quantities and shipping it to 
the city markets. Samuel Eisenberg was 
a thrifty, industrious and broad-minded 
man with excellent judgment, and was 
held in high esteem by all who knew him. 
For many years he was a member of St. 
Luke's German Reformed church at The 
Trappe, but later in life he identified him- 
self with the German Baptist church. In 
1829 ne married Lydia Yerger, daughter of 
David Yerger, a well-to-do farmer in Lime- 
rick township, and was the father of seven 
children : Elizabeth, wife of Frederick 
Baker; Catharine, widow of Jesse Mester ; 
Frederick, now deceased, but formerly a 
prosperous lumber merchant of Bridgeport; 
John and David, both resident of Philadel- 
phia ; Samuel, named after his father, an 
energetic, pushing produce dealer and pro- 
prietor of a creamery in Limerick town- 
ship ; and last, Philip Y., the subject of 
this biographical sketch. Samuel Eisen- 
berg, sr., died August 10, 1861, at the age 
of fifty-five years and was survived by his 
widow and seven children. The latter had 
all attained their majority and married 
except Samuel and Philip at the time of 
their father's death. The completion of 



1 


^rk ^'x 


^^^2 


^dF^^^^> 


'4 E m 






mmmmi 




Biog r aphical Sketches. 



605 



their education and moral training fell 
upon their mother, a most estimable 
woman. She was for many years a mem- 
ber of the St. Augustus Lutheran church, 
Trappe, and lived to the age of seventy 
years and died in April, 1873. 

P. V. Eisenberg, M. I)., was born on his 
father's farm near Fairview, Montgomery 
county, January 21, 1S47. His early edu- 
cation was obtained in the public schools 
until his fifteenth year, when he attended 
.111 academy at North Wales, then known 
as the North Wales Institute, for two 
terms. It was during his attendance at 
this school that General Robert Lee in- 
vaded Pennsylvania. Governor Curtin 
made an urgent call for more troops to 
meet the emergency. The student dropped 
his books and enlisted in one of the first 
emergency regiments organized, com- 
manded by Colonel Charles Albright, of 
Mauch Chunk and Lieutenant-Colonel Ed- 
ward Schall, of Norristown. Having 
served the period of his enlistment, he re- 
turned to his studies, and having taught 
school for four years, Dr. Eisenberg en- 
tered the Pennsylvania State Normal 
school at Millersville, Lancaster county, 
Pennsylvania. At that time Dr. Edward 
Brooks, now superintendent of the schools 
of Philadelphia, was principal of that pop- 
ular and well-known institution. After 
graduating in 1869, he was at once elected 
a member of the faculty. His duties were 
those of professor of vocal music and 
assistant to the chair of Latin language. 
After filling this dual position for two 
years and having in the meantime contem- 
plated and entered upon the study of medi- 
cine, he selected Dr. Louis \Y. Read, sur- 
geon-general of the National Guard of 
Pennsylvania, as his preceptor. After 
diligently pursuing his studies at Bellevue \ 



Hospital Medical college, New York, and 
at the medical department of the I niversitv 
of Pennsylvania, he graduated from the 
latter institution in March, 1873. Dr. 
Eisenberg at once opened an office in 
Norristown, where he has been in active 
practice for the past twenty-two years. He- 
has served as coroner's physician of Mont- 
gomery county for three years, and during 
President Harrison's administration he was 
secretary of the board of examining sur- 
geons for pensions at Norristown. He was 
an active member of the board of health of 
Norristown for five years. He has always 
taken great interest in the County Medical 
society, of which he is a member, and was 
its president in t888. He is likewise a 
member of the State and National Medical 
associations. Though always a very busy 
man in his profession, Dr. Eisenberg has 
found time to demonstrate his public spirit 
and enterprise in his desire that Norristown 
should have facilities for caring for the 
sick and injured. In December, [888, as a 
member of the board of trade, he offered a 
resolution creating a committee to formu- 
late a plan for the establishment of a hospi- 
tal and he himself was made chairman. 
Having able colleagues to assist him in 
this most praiseworthy object, the scheme 
soon assumed tangible shape and the insti- 
tution now known as Charity hospital is 
in a flourishing condition, on a solid finan- 
cial basis, and an honor to the town. Dr. 
Eisenberg is one of the staff of surgeons 
to the hospital, as well as a member of the 
board of directors. The doctor, in all his 
efforts to create a sentiment in favor of this 
noble charity had a zealous and energetic 
supporter in Mrs. Eisenberg, who as presi- 
dent of the Women's Auxiliary, has ren- 
dered valuable service towards the mainte- 
nance of the institution. It was she who 



6o6 



Biographical Sketches. 



suggested and perfected the plan of syste- 
matic contributions by churches each 
month. By this plan each denomination 
has its own particular month of the year 
in which all the churches of that denomi- 
nation are expected to lift contributions 
toward the maintenance of the hospital. 
For a number of years Dr. Eisenberg has 
taken the deepest interest in fraternal soci- 
eties. He has been a member of the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen since 1879. 
As a charter member of Lynvvood Lodge 
and as its medical examiner he aided ma- 
terially in its organization and in the per- 
petuation of the principles of protection on 
the lodge system in Xorristown. In April, 
1893, he was appointed Grand Medical Ex- 
aminer of the Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania 
and West Virginia, and in October follow- 
ing he was elected for a term of two years. 
He has since been elected to another term. 
Dr. Eisenberg is also a member of the 
Independent Order Heptasophs, and for the 
present term is chairman of the board of 
trustees. He is likewise a member of the 
Order of Sparta, the Royal Arcanum, the 
American Legion of Honor, and the Order 
of the American Union. Being a true lover 
of nature, Dr. Eisenberg found diversion for 
a number of years studying the flora of the 
Schuylkill Valley. While on his drives to 
visit the sick he did not fail to gather and 
study each new flower, shrub or tree that 
met his gaze, and the result of his botani- 
cal work is found in Colonel Theodore W. 
Bean's History of Montgomery Count}-. 

On June 11, 1874, Dr. Eisenberg mar- 
ried Harriet Dawes, eldest daughter of the 
late John L. Dawes, of Allegheny, Pa. 

Mrs. Eisenberg's father was born in Not- 
tingham, England, 1820, and was the son 
of a lace manufacturer. Mr. Dawes came 
to this country in 1844 and located in Pitts- 



burg, and soon became a prominent and 
prosperous merchant of that city. 

Mrs. Dr. Eisenberg's mother, Charlotte 
League, is a direct descendant of old Vir- 
ginia families on both sides, dating as far 
back as 1633. The Sanfords on the mater- 
nal and the Stones on the paternal sides 
were all identified with early Colonial and 
Revolutionary times. Mrs. Eisenberg is a 
member of Valley Forge Chapter of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Dr. and Mrs. Eisenberg's family consists 
of two sons, John Lawrence, aged eighteen 
years, and Edward Xorman, aged sixteen 
years. The former, after having completed 
his studies and graduated from the Xorris- 
town High school, entered the biological 
department of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania and took a course there. He has 
now entered upon a four-year course in 
medicine in the same institution. Edward, 
the second son, is a member of the gradu- 
ating class of the Xorristown High school. 



THE LOXGAKER FAMILY.— Jacob 
Longenecker, the progenitor of those 
of Montgomery county, whose sketches are 
noted in this volume, landed in America on 
the 28th day of August, 1733, arriving on 
the ship Hope of London from Rotterdam, 
last from Cowes. In the same vessel came 
Ulrich Longenecker, and Ulrich jr. The 
two latter settled in Rapho township, Lan- 
caster county, and May 1, 1794, the execu- 
tors of Ulrich sr., conveyed to Ulrich Longe- 
necker, a farm of one hundred and seventeen 
acres. Jacob settled near Parker Ford in 
Coventry township, Chester county. From 
1727 to 1733, there came besides these three, 
John, Daniel, Christian and David Longe- 
necker. Daniel was the father of John, and 



Biographical Sketches. 



607 



he settled at Mingo, on the hanks of the 
Schuylkill river, near what is called Black 
Rock, ahove Phoenixville, purchasing two 
hundred and forty acres on May 1, 1733, 
and adjoining this tract in 1735, John 
bought two hundred and fifty acres of land, 
most of which now constitutes the "Poor- 
House Farm," which, at the death of John, 
descended to his son Daniel, who, in 1800, 
conveyed to his uncle Abraham Gotwaltz, 
and Abraham Gotwaltz in 1807, conveyed 
to the directors of the poor, etc., of Mont- 
gomery county. 

Christian settled in Rapho township, Lan- 
caster county, purchasing September 28, 
1746, ninety-four acres of land, and on Feb- 
ruary 23, 1775, in the same township, made 
another purchase of two hundred and four 
acres, and up to 1791, three tracts, together 
being five hundred and sixteen acres in 
Donegal township, and three more tracts in 
Rapho, being two hundred and eight acres, 
were purchased. From this ancestry came 
Hon. J. M. Longenecker, of Chicago. 

David Longenecker, June 8, 1751, pur- 
chased from Christian Naff (or Neave) and 
wife, one hundred and twenty-five acres 
along the Peque creek.; and in 17 711 David 
Longenecker, sr. , granted to David Longe- 
necker, jr., one hundred and fifty acres in 
Lampeter township, and July 23, 177", 
Peter Beller granted to him two hundred 
and fifty acres in Strassburg township, Lan- 
caster county ; and from this ancestry 
comes the Hon. J. H. Longenecker, whose 
sketch is inserted on page 357. These 
families are the progenitors of many de- 
scendants in this and other States found 
under the name of Longenecker, Long- 
necker, Longaker and Longacre. They 
came to America from Switzerland, but, it 
is traditionary in the family of Jacob, that 
they went from France to Switzerland. 



The French name is Longacre, and in 1580, 
owing to the continued persecution of the 
Huguenots, they escaped to Switzerland, 
and living in the Cantons bordering on 
Lake Constance, amongst the Germans. 
The name was Germanized and became 
Lodgenaecker or Longenecker, as now ren- 
dered by some of the descendants of this 
county. The exact kinship of those who 
came to this country from 1727 to 1733 
(and none are known to have come earlier 
or later) is not known ; but as all agree in 
coming from Switzerland, it is probable 
that they were of the same blood. 

Hon. Joel Longenecker, of Chicago. — 
Edwin A. Longenecker, the father of Joel, 
was born April 12, 1807, in Lancaster 
county, Penna., and removed to Crawford 
county, Illinois, in the early part of his 
manhood. He died February 16, 1894. 
There were six sons and two daughters. 
All six were enlisted in the Union army. 
Henry, the oldest was killed in battle, and 
Michael, the youngest, died in the army. 

Joel M. was born in Crawford county, 
Illinois, January 12, 1S47, educated at Rob- 
inson, Illinois ; taught school for two terms; 
read law at Robinson, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1S70. He was elected justice of 
the peace two months after he became of 
aere and while he was reading law. Soon 
after he began practice, settling at < >lney, 
he was elected city attorney, and in 1876, 
State's attorney of Richland county. In 
1881 he removed to Chicago, Cook county, 
and in 1887 he was elected State's attorney 
for that county, to fill an unexpired term. 
In 1888 he was elected again for a term of 
four years. In 1892 he declined a nomi- 
nation for re-election, and went into private 
practice. During his official term, some 
verv important criminal cases were tried, 
attracting attention throughout the country. 



6o8 



Biographical Sketches. 



The prosecution known as the Cronin 
case was tried by him, and the disclosures 
made, caused the people everywhere to take 
great interest in the trial. One hundred 
days were consumed in its actual trial. He 
is one of the leading members of the 
Chicago bar, with a reputation throughout 
the Union for his last and great ability. 
He was married to Florence Fitch in 
1870; and has two boys and two girls living; 
two other children died. 

John (the son of Daniel, who settled at 
Mingo) died in 1 745, leaving to survive him, 
his widow, Susanna ; a son, Daniel ; and 
three daughters . Elizabeth, Catharine and 
Sarah, who with their husbands, joined a 
deed to their brother Daniel, as cited infra. 
Daniel (the first), who settled at Mingo, 
died sometime prior to 1756, as of that 
date his children — Elizabeth, wife of Jacob 
High ; Ann, wife of Philip High ; Mary, 
wife of Valentine Clemen ; Magdalena, wife 
of John Buckwalter ; Jacob, jr. ; and Sus- 
anna, widow of John and then wife of Jacob, 
and the children of John, to wit : Daniel 
and his wife Elizabeth, and daughters, 
Elizabeth, wife of Nicholas Christman ; 
Catharine, wife of Jacob Bechtel ; and 
Sarah, wife of John Cochenour, — granted 
the farm at Mingo to David, the eldest son. 
This David, from about 1750 to 1776, was 
a Mennonite preacher at the Schuylkill 
Meeting. He died in 1776, leaving a son 
David, other sons and daughters, whose de- 
scendants are quite numerous in this and 
adjoining counties. His son John became 
a Mennonite preacher in 1772, and sup- 
plied the congregation called the Rhodes 
Mennonite meeting in Coventry township. 
Mary, a daughter of David, first married 
Mr. Maris, and being left a widow, she mar- 
ried Mathias Pennypacker, the grandfather 
of Judge Pennypacker of Philadelphia, and 



their only child, Sarah, married William 
Walker, of Chester Valley. 

In 1746 Jacob Longenecker married 
Susanna, the widow of John. They were 
the grandparents of the Hon. Henry Long- 
aker : he acquired about four hundred and 
fifty acres of laud in Coventry township, 
and a farm of one hundred and seventv- 
four acres near Pawling's Bridge, on the 
east bank of the Schuylkill, and later on 
known as the George Heilig (now Highley) 
property. During the wintering of the 
army of General George Washington at 
Valley Forge, these farmers plentifully sup- 
plied wood and farm products to the army, 
and flour, provender, etc., were liberally 
furnished by the mill on the farm of Dan- 
iel, at Mingo. 

These pioneers were strong, sturdy and 
hardy people, not only farmers, but arti- 
sans. Some were blacksmiths, carpenters, 
weavers, millers and shoemakers and their 
children of the first generation were me- 
chanics also, but carpentry seemed to be 
the favorite trade. From the third genera- 
tion hence they became merchants, traders, 
doctors, lawyers, clergymen and other pur- 
suits, so that some lines of descent have al- 
most entirely abandoned the farms. From 
their early settlement the} - had well estab- 
lished schools and menonite churches, and 
were progressive educationally wherever 
they settled, and amongst the prosperous 
and leading men of their localities, and in 
the present century many of them were 
prominent and successful in public affairs, 
holding many prominent official positions. 
Jacob and Susanna Longenecker had two 
sons, Jacob and Peter, and five daughters, 
Salome, wife of Jacob Bliem, Mary of Wis- 
ler, Esther of Henry Rhodes, Magdalene of 
Jacob Ruth (now Root), Susanna of John 
Brower. All these had children and their 



Biographical Sketches. 



609 



descendants are numerous in this and ad- 
joining counties. 

Pursuing the lineage of Hon Henry 
Longaker, his father, Jacob, married Catha- 
rine Detwiler, and by this union the chil- 
dren were : John, Jacob, Peter, Hannah, 
wife of James Miller ; Susanna, of Peter 
Wagonseller ; Abraham, Isaac, Henry, Jo- 
seph, Samuel and Catharine, wife of Henry 
Surnehart. The father of these children 
died in 1806. Five of them were in their 
minority, and their mother died in 18 17. 
Of the sons only three married: Peter, 
Henry and Isaac. 

Peter Longaker was born in Chester 
county, Pa., March 14, 1786, and died No- 
vember 1, 1866. He married Hannah, 
daughter of George and Mary Boyer, of 
Churchville, Berks county. She died in 
her 90th year. Their children were : R11- 
fus B., Mary (Mrs Abram Kohl), Louisa 
(Mrs Sebastian Kohl), Erveline, John B., 
and Frances Elmira, who died in childhood. 
Rufus B. was born April 6, 1816. At the 
age of sixteen he became a pupil of the 
Trappe Institute, and completing his 
studies taught in the schools of Berks 
county two years. For ten years he was 
engaged in general merchandizing at a 
store at Crooked Hill until 1S51. Subse- 
quently he formed a co-partnership with 
Lesher Van Buskirk, and was engaged in 
business from 1862 until within a few years 
of his death. He was an influential Demo- 
crat. In 1 85 1 he was elected recorder of 
deeds, in 1863 elected county treasurer, a 
member three years of the council of the 
borough of Pottstown and enjoyed other 
minor offices in private corporations. He 
was a devout member of the Trinity Re- 
formed church of Pottstown. He is the 
father of Hon. Montgomery S. and Louis 
C, whose lives are noted in this volume. | 

39 



His other children are: Hannah E. (Mrs. 
Mathias Geist), Horace S., and Mary (.Mix. 
Williajn H. Thomas). 



Louis Cass Longaker. He is the son 

of Rufus B. He was born at Pottstown, 
February 14, 1856, was educated in the 
public schools of that borough. He is a 
well formed, handsome man, of pleasing 
personal appearance, about five feet, eleven 
inches, well proportioned, weighing about 
165 pounds, brown gray eyes, with hair 
almost black. In the spring of 1877 he 
started business pursuits in the office of I. 
Beam & Son, Parker's Landing, Armstrong 
county, Pa., making gauge tables of oil 
tanks, continuing with them until the win- 
ter of 1878. In the spring of 1S79 he en- 
tered the gauging department of the United 
Pipe Line company (a branch of the Stand- 
ard), measuring and computing oil tanks. 
In the fall of 1880 he went into the leak 
keeping department, taking charge of the 
over and short leaks. In July 1, 1895, he 
was put in charge of the running of oil in 
the Bradford district, and still continues in 
it. September 5, 1883, he married Gert- 
rude P. Robinson, of Brooklyn, X. V. 
(She was born July 1, 1864.) By this mar- 
riage the children are : Elizabeth L. , born 
October 13, 1884, and Harold Robinson, 
born September 25, 1886. 

Henry and Isaac were twin brothers. Isaac 
married Catharine Diehl of Plymouth town- 
ship, and had three children, Daniel, Francis 
and Isaac. Daniel married Elizabeth Boyer, 
a daughter of George Boyer. Their children 
were : Catharine, who died wdien about 
sixteen years old ; Annie, George W., mar- 
ried and living in Norristown ; Ella, wife 
of Rev. L. K. Evans, of Pottstown ; Bertha, 
wife of Rev D. W. Moore ; Eliza, wife 
of C. Howard Harry, a prominent dentist ; 



6io 



Biographical Sketches. 



Clara Bell, wife of Ellwood Rhodes ; Sarah, 
deceased, and unmarried, and Mary and 
Daniel, deceased. Daniel Longaker for a 
period of forty years was one of the promi- 
nent business men of Norristown, carrying 
successfully a large grocery store and build- 
ing many houses to employ his capital. 
His biography appears in the local histories 
of Montgomery, published by the late M. 
Ange and Col. Theodore W. Bean, so that 
further comment would be unnecessary. 

Isaac Longaker was a farmer for many 
\ears in this county, but removed to Phila- 
delphia some ten \ ears before his death. 
He had a large family of children, most of 
whom are married and living in Phila' 
phia. Francis settled in Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, married and has a large family, and 
is -till living. Hon. Henry Longaker mar- 
ried Catharine Rrower. Their children 
are: Price, born October, 1816, died Octo- 
ber, i", 1826; John, born February 9, 1818, 
died November 25, [89a ; Frances, born 
December 7, 1819, unmarried ; Albert, born 
May 4. [821, died February 25, 1805 ; James, 
born March 4, 1823, l ^ cu - August [9, 1846; 
Sarah Ann, born June 23, [825, wife of 
Aaron Fretz ; Abraham Rrower and Kliza- 
beth, born April 21, 1828, and Elizabeth 
died May 7, 1828; Henry D., born July 15, 
1829, l ''°'' October .;, [894; Davis, born 
December 2 and Mary Jane, March 

23, [836, wife of Morris L. Kirk. 

John Longaker left to survive him three 
sons, who are married and living. Albert 
left four children : Frances, wife of William 
Shoemaker; Sarah, wife oi Henry Conrad, 
a prominent, influential and successful law- 
yer of Wilmington, Del., having two chil- 
dren, Edith and Rachael; Louise and Al- 
bert Edwin, a young, prominent and suc- 

isful attoruey-at-law of the Xorristown 



Hon. A. Brower Longaker married, the 

8th of December, A. D. 1859, Mary Moore, 
the second daughter of William H. and 
Mary Kuorr Slingluff. They have three 
children : Leila, wife of H. K. Kurtz, (who 
is a son "i W. Wesley Kurtz, the banker of 
Philadelphia), who, with three children, 
Leila, Wesley W. and Henry, reside 
at Coatesville, Pa., interested in and con- 
ducting the Valley Iron works ; Rosalie 
and Xorris S. The biography of A. Brower 
Longaker is fully noted on pa^ t seq. 

Doctor Henry D. Longaker was for many 
years a prominent physician in Phi! 
phia, some ten years at Allentown and the 
last ten years of his life at Seattle, Wash- 
ington. He married Mary A. Young 
Bethlehem, Pa., who was a doctor of skill 
and prominence. Doctor Longaker's pro- 
fessional life was chiefly devoted to the 
treatment of chronic diseases, his great 
specialty being cancers and tumors. In 
1S84 he established a hospital for special 
treatment of chronic cases at Seattle, and 
ably assisted by his wife, as many as thirty 
to fifty patients were under treatment at one 
time. Ten years of his early professional 
life, from 1856 to 1866, were spent upon the 
Pacific slope, generally as physician to the 
gold mining camps. He was along the 
Columbia river, the Snake river in the 
Xez-Perges at Seattle and other parts of 
Washington, ami during that time he 
located and purchased a few lots of land in 
the projected town of Seattle, which in 
be improved to great advantage by 
erecting his hospital thereon. His death 
occurred in October, 1894, that ot his wife 
preceding his some five years. Two minor 
children, Frances and Mary A., survive 
their parents, and are at school at Kent, 
near Seattle, cared for by Mrs. H. B. Jef- 
fries, an intimate friend of the family. 



Biographical Sketches. 



6ii 



Davis Longaker is married and has a large 
family of children. He is and has been for 
the last twenty-five years one of the promi- 
nent and prosperous business men of Lans- 
dale. The married daughters of Henry 
Longaker have children. Some of whom 
are married and others residing with their 
parents. Four of the sons, Janu 
Brower, Henry D. and Davis, are stalwart, 
well-developed men, in height about six 
feet and, true types in this respect of their 
paternal uncles. Peter and Susanna Wagon- 
seller lived upon a farm of about ioo acres 
in Lower Providence township, Montgom- 
ery county, Pa., adjoining or near to his 
father-in-law, Jacob Longaker. The wife sur- 
vived the husband many years, and both are 
buried in the graveyard of the Old Luth- 
eran Church at the Trappe. The wife died 
in her eighty-second year. She was a 
lady of uncommon information, and espe- 
cially of the events which had occurred in 
her own family and ancestors, and her con- 
temporary "Aunt Susie" Schantz, who was 
a daughter of Esther ( Longaker I Rhodes, 
would tell of the hardships their ancestry 
had endured during the Revolutionary war. 
and how the armv lying at Valley Forge 
were supplied with farm produce, flour 
mill feed, provender, etc., and how this an- 
cestry had suffered as Huguenots before 
they emigrated to Switzerland. Mr. Schantz. 
in the beginning of this century, rode alone 
on horseback on three different oceask 
going from The Trappe to visit relatives in 
Lower Canada and returning. They would 
also relate how their mothers and they, 
later on, rode on horseback to market their 
products in Philadelphia, going one day 
and returning the next. The children and 
the posterity of the Wagonseller family 
form an interesting group. The sons were 
Jacob, Benjamin, Joshua, John, Peter and 



William P., and the daughters Catharine 
and Hannah. The daughters married Chain 
brothers, Matthew and Hamilton, who re- 
moved to Ohio, and died there, leaving 
descendants. Jacob was a celebrated doc- 
tor, he settled at Selin . Union 
county, Pa., and married Mary Richter. 
He was a member of the State Senate in 

and died while serving his first term. 
He had a large family, two of his sons, Dr. 
Peter Richter and Dr. Benjamin F. became 
notable physicians. The former was a very 
eminent physician and was murdered in 
1873 by a drunken worthless fellow, from 
whose stabs he died in twenty-three hours 
from the time of their infliction. His death 
was a great loss to the community, which 
was outraged bv his murder. Doctor P.. I". 
is in full practice, and is a physician and 
surgeon of high rank. He served as a sur- 
geon in the Union army, in 139th Pennsyl- 
vania regiment, three years' service ; was 
promoted February 13, 1S63, to be surgeon 
of 158th regiment, nine months' service, 
and September 1, 1864, was mustered in 
again as surgeon of the 201st regiment, one 

service. 
Benjamin and John settled near Colum- 

>.. where some of their posterity are 
still living. Joshua became a merchant at 
Pekin, 111., and did a very large busine- 
married Harriet Rupert, where some of 
their descendants now reside. William F. 
married Amelia Bergstresser, of Selin's 
Grove, and for many years and up to the 
time of his death he was largely engaged in 
merchandizing. He was for two terms a 
member of the House of Representatives of 
Pennsylvania, in the years 1S59 and i v 
He died on Auf >, on his return 

from a visit to the "Centennial." A num- 
ber of children survive him. Martin L.. 
' promoted from sergeant January 1, 1873. to 



6l2 



Biographical Sketches. 



Second Lieutent, Company F, 131st Penn- 
sylvania regiment, nine months' service. 
He is an active, leading and efficient Grand 
Army member, and very popularly known 
throughout the State. 

James and (Hannah Longaker) Miller, 
after theii marriage, May 13, 1810, lived at 
the Trappe. He was a tailor and was 
born near Evansbnrg August 25, 1784. Two 
children, Abraham and Hannah, were of 
this marriage, and the wife died after the 
birth of this daughter. Mr. Miller married 
twice after this. Some time before his 
death he lived in Philadelphia, and was 
buried at The Trappe with his wife. He 
was a life long member of the Lutheran 
Church. His daughter Hannah married 
Abraham B. Landis, a son of John and 
Mary Beitler Landis, born October 26, 1808, 
died July 3, 1890.. His wife was born Feb- 
ruary 1, 1816, died July 29, 1851. Mr. 
Landis carried on farming in Upper Provi- 
dence, near Royersford, from about 1843 to 
1866, when he removed to Pottstown and 
retired from business. In 1879 he had his 
home with his cousin, Hannah Beitler, near 
Howelville, Chester county. 



James M. Landis is a son of this an- 
cestry. He was born Nov. 19, 1842, near 
Gratersford, his father removing soon there- 
after to Royersford. In boyhood he ob- 
tained a common school education, and 
had one year's schooling at Washington 
Hall, Trappe ; was employed as station 
agent at Royersford from i860 to 1864, in 
the latter year the freight claim office of 
the Reading Railroad company in Reading ; 
in 1868 he became traveling auditor, and 
iu 1871 chief clerk in the general manager's 
office and the vice president's office at the 
central offices of the Reading company. 



September 21, 1868, he was married to 
Emma Good in Reading. She was born in 
Lebanon county. The children were Bertha, 
Herbert, Charles, Edward, Arthur and 
George, but only Bertha, Edward and 
George are living, the others dying in in- 
fancy. Mr. Landis is the true type of his an- 
cestry, and by sheer force of will, pluck, per- 
sistency, and above all unswerving fidelity 
and integrity has gradually risen to a high 
rank in the corporation which he has served 
so well. 

Henry and Catharine (Longaker) Swine- 
hart soon after their marriage settled in the 
eastern part of Ohio, near the Pennsylvania 
border, and almost directly west of Mer- 
cer count)-. They are dead, but leave chil- 
dren and grandchildren in that locality to 
survive them. 

None of the remaining sons of Jacob 
and Catharine (Detwiler) Longaker mar- 
ried, but one by one, within a few years 
after attaining their majority, travelled to 
other parts of this union. Abraham was a 
doctor, and settled at Natchez, where he 
died while a young man. Jacob had trav- 
elled south and southwest, and after awhile, 
returning, went to Canada and soon after 
died there. 

John, Samuel and Joseph going south 
and west, after a few years of absence 
ceased all correspondence with the other 
members of the family, and long since have 
departed this life unknown to their kindred. 
They were stalwart, athletic, vigorous men, 
of great vitality and activity, ranging from 
five feet ten inches to six feet in height, 
with no superfluous flesh, but the pastoral 
life of their ancestry had no charm for 
them. Some were excellent artisans, and 
others were born travellers seeking new 
fields of occupation. Those who married 
and lived within the knowledge of their 



Biographical Sketches. 



613 



people have left an illustrous posterity sur- 
passed, if at all, only by a few of their day 
and generation. 



FRANKLIN T. BEERER, a popular 
Democrat of Norristown, and who has 
served continuously over thirty years 
in appointive and elective county official 
positions, is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth 
(Klein) Beerer, and was born in Upper 
Hanover township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, May 21, 1836. He received 
his education in Treemouut seminary, con- 
ducted by the celebrated Rev. Samuel 
Aaron, and Elmwood institute, taught by 
Rev. J. R. Kooken and Rev. G. Deering 
Wolf at Norristown, Pa., and then went to 
Philadelphia where he spent eight years in 
the drug business, (two years thereof as 
proprietor of the drug store at Buttonwood, 
1 1 tli and Ridge Road). At the end of that 
time he was appointed an inspector in 
the United States custom house at Phila- 
delphia, and detailed as licpior inspector, 
and served from 1857 to 1861. On May 18, 
1861 he enlisted in Company C, Ninteenth 
Pennsylvania Volunteers at Philadelphia 
until its term expired, August 29, 1S61. 
He then re-enlisted as a corporal of Com- 
pany B, Nineteenth Pennsylvania Infantry 
Volunteers, Col. Peter Lyle commanding 
regiment, and served until December 10, 
1862, when he was discharged for disability 
from wonnds at Convalescent camp, Fort 
McHeury, Baltimore, Md. He participated 
in the engagements of Cedar Mountain, 
Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare Gap, 
Second Bull Run, Chantilley, South 
Mountain and Antietam, in which last 
fierce contest he was shot through the left 
knee, left elbow, contused wound . in left 



shoulder by a piece of shell and nine other 
slight flesh wounds. Returning from the 
army to Norristown, Pa., Mr Beerer was 
engaged for several years in the 
manufacture of cigars extensively with ex- 
Judge A. Brower Longaker, and then 
turned his attention to conveyancing, 
which he still follows to some extent. He 
became a pension attorney in 1889 and lias 
had good success in prosecuting claims be- 
fore the bureau of pensions at Washington, 
D. C, being thoroughly conversant with all 
the details ot his line of work. Mr Beerer 
is a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, 
and being popular has always had a large 
personal following which has often secured 
him an election when his party was in the 
minority. 

On October 1, 1854, Mr Beerer married 
Clara Clymer, a daughter of Joseph Clynier, 
of Washington township, Berks county, Pa. 
Three children were born to their union. 
Mary died in infancy; Edward Theodore 
Knox died at the age of three years; and 
Thomas Henry died January i, 1882, aged 
twenty-three years. His said wife died Au- 
gust 8, 1S60, aged 25 years, and on January 
16, 1866, Mr Peerer wedded Mary Louise 
Greger, a daughter of Col. Charles Greger, 
ex-county commissioner of Montgomery 
county, by which marriage he has two 
children, Charles Montgomery, employed 
by the Williamsport Sun, and Flora Eliza- 
beth, intermarried with William D. Lu- 
keus, a carpenter and builder of Whitpain 
township. 

Franklin T. Beerer connected himself 
with the Trinity Lutheran church at Nor- 
ristown, Pa.; is a member of Charity lodge, 
No. 190, F. and A. M. ; Norristown chap- 
ter, No. 190, R. A. M., and Hutchinson 
commandery, Knights Templar, of which 
he is a past-eminent commander ; P. C. of 



614 



Biographical Sketches. 



Pocahontas tribe of the Independent Order 
of Red Men (German), Zook post, No. n, 
G. A. R., Encampment No. 96, U. V. Le- 
gion, and Lynwood lodge, No. 154, A. O. 
U. Workmen. 

Mr. Beerer's official life began in 1865 
as deputy county treasurer, afterwards serv- 
ing as deputy register of wills, deputy sher- 
iff, deputy recorder, deputy prothonotary, 
prison inspector and secretary of board, 
elected as clerk of the courts of Montgomery 
county in 1875, justice of the peace in 1879, 
and is now serving his third term as one of 
the county auditors of Montgomery county. 
He is regarded as the best acquainted man 
in the county with the routine of business 
in the different county offices. 

Joseph Beerer's name, originally spelled 
Buhrer, was born near Strasburg, Septem- 
ber 17, 1806, in what was then the French 
province of Alsace. He came with his par- 
ents and family to Philadelphia in 1812 
and was indentured to one Matthias Ritter, 
of Oley, Berks county, Pa, with whom he 
stayed until he was twenty years of age 
and learned the trade of tanner. He then 
took charge of the tannery of Charles Hille- 
gas at Gerysville, Bucks county, Pa. In 
1836 he purchased a farm from his father- 
in-law in Upper Hanover township, which 
he tilled in connection with the tannery for 
some years. He then sold the farm to en- 
gage in the general mercantile business at 
a place which he named Tylersport in honor 
of President Tyler. In 1850 he sold out 
his store at Tylersport and removed to Nor- 
riton township, Montgomery county, where 
he purchased a farm from Robert Stinson, 
which he disposed of four years later in 
order to become a resident of Norristown, 
where he engaged in the coal business, and 
in 1857 purchased the Pennsylvania Farm- 
ers hotel in Norristown, now known as the 



Hartranft house, which he conducted to 
April 17, 1872. He then sold the hotel and 
purchased a residence at the corner of Main 
and Stanbridge streets, now owned by the 
Hon. Irving P. Wanger. He died on the 
22nd day of May 1893, at the residence of 
his sou, Alfred, on Noble street, Norris- 
town. Joseph Beerer was a Jackson Demo- 
crat and served as the first postmaster at 
Tylersport. He was commissioned as cap- 
tain of the United Rifle Rangers, a volun- 
teer company attached to the Jackson Vol- 
unteer battallion by Governor Porter on 
June 6, 1840, and offered the services of the 
company during the Buckshot war and the 
Philadelphia riots in 1844, but they were 
not needed. He was elected as a justice of 
the peace of Upper Salford township in 
1845, but did not take out his commission. 
He was elected jury commissioner in 1863 
and county treasurer in 1865. He also- 
served for a number of years as one of the 
prison inspectors and also as school director 
of Upper Salford township. 

On December 1, 1833, he was married to 
Elizabeth Klein, a daughter of Michael 
Klein, of Upper Hanover township. He 
was the father of ten children, four sons 
and six daughters, all of whom, but two, 
Louis Klein and Dianna M., who was inter- 
married with Hon M. S. Longaker, sur- 
vive him. His wife died February 29, 
1888. They are both buried in the Mont- 
gomery cemetery at Norristown, Pa. 

Capt. Beerer was a very active business 
man and an efficient and resolute public 
official. 



EDWARD S. MURRAY, proprietor of 
the extensive Merion Roller Process 
Flouring mills, is a son of Patrick and 
Elizabeth (Smith) Murray, and was born 




'/xJ^Los-u- 



Biographical Sketches. 



615 



in Upper Merion township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, < >ctober 31, 1866. 
Patrick Murray is a native of Longford, 

Ireland, and at fourteen years of age came 
near to Swedeland, in Upper Merion town- 
ship, where he worked for some time in 
the iron mills of Swedesburg. He pur- 
chased land there which he sold in 1870 to 
buy the Morgan Egbert property in 
Lower Merion township, on which he still 
resides. He has a large dairy and is a very 
successful farmer. He is a Democrat and 
Catholic, and when the late Civil war com- 
menced he enlisted and served with credit. 
He married Elizabeth Smith, and to them 
were born five children, three sons and two 
daughters : Thomas E., assisting his father 
on the farm and in the dairy ; Margaret T.; 
John J., a farmer; Edward S.; and Eliza- 
beth F. 

Edward S. Murray was reared in Upper 
and Lower Merion townships, and after 
receiving his education in the Gladwyn 
public schools, entered Bryant ec Stratton's 
business college, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1884. He then entered the employ 
of William Simpson 6c Son as a clerk in 
their Norristown Wyoming woolen and 
cotton mills, of which he soon became 
assistant manager. At the end of five 
years he left the mills to purchase his pres- 
ent Merion roller process flouring mills on 
Mill creek from Evan G. Jones. He imme- 
diately enlarged, remodeled and rebuilt 
these mills, which he has ecpiipped with 
the latest and most improved machinery. 
His flour has attained quite a reputation, 
and he supplies Ardmore, Haverford, and 
Bryn Mawr, and other towns with his best 
brands, besides having a steady demand 
from the leading families of the surround- 
ing country. Mr. Murray also deals largely 
in western grain, and is an extensive ship- 



per in flour, grain and feed. In March, 
1895, he bought a woolen mill, but soon 
disposed of it to Samuel L Robinson, 
who immediately thereafter sold it to 
Thomas H. Clegg and W. T. Tilden. 

In his special line of manufacturing, Mr. 
Murray has met with unusual success. His 
mill, in which he takes a most justifiable 
pride, has a large capacity. His business 
is extensive and lucrative, and to its every 
detail he gives the closest attention, thereby 
giving assurance of future prosperity. Mr. 
Murray is a Republican in politics, and has 
for several years been a member of the 
Catholic church. 



TAMES R. CARE, M. D., who has been 
J in the active practice of his profession 
at Worcester, Pennsylvania, since 1886, is a 
son of Henry and Margaret (Roberts) Care, 
and was born in Union township, Berks 
county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1865. 
Henry Care was also a native of Berks 
county, and died in April, 1892. He was a 
railroad engineer in early life, and subse- 
quently engaged in farming, which latter 
occupation he pursued in his native county 
up to the time of his death. He was twice 
married, and by his first wife had three 
children, one son and two daughters: 
Anna, wife of John Hart ; Catharine ; and 
David. After the death of his first wife, 
Mr. Care wedded Margaret Roberts, daugh- 
ter of James Roberts, of the same place. 
By this second marriage two children were 
born, both sons: Dr. James R. and Thomas. 
Dr. James R. Care attended the public 
schools of his native township and then en- 
tered Amityville seminary, located at Am- 
ity, Berks county, from which institution 
he was graduated in the class of 1880. 



6i6 



Biographical Sketches. 



During his vacations while attending the 
seminary, he employed his time in teach- 
ing and so continued until the completion 
of his academic course. After leaving the 
seminary he was variously engaged until 
1883, when he commenced reading medi- 
cine under the preceptorship of Dr. B. F. 
Bunn, of Birdsboro, Berks county, in whose 
office he remained until 1884. In the last 
named year he entered Jefferson Medical 
college, Philadelphia, and was duly gradu- 
ated in 1886. After graduation he removed 
to Center Point, Montgomery county, and 
formed a professional partnership with Dr. 
G. K. Meschter, which remained in force 
until 1S92, when, Dr. Meschter retiring, 
he succeeded to their combined practice. 
He then continued an individual practice 
for two years. At the end of this time his 
practice had increased to such an extent, 
and the professional demands made upon 
him were so great that he admitted Dr. 
Elmer G. Kriebel into a new partnership 
under the firm name of Drs. Care & 
Kriebel. Dr. Care, while a general practi- 
tioner from the nature of his location, is 
yet a skilled specialist in diseases of the 
eye, ear and throat. He stands in the front 
rank of his profession in the county and is 
a valued citizen, as well as a man of high 
professional attainments. Dr. Care is a 
member of the Montgomery County Medi- 
cal society, the Lehigh Valley, and the 
Pennsylvania State Medical association. 
Politically, he is a supporter of the Repub- 
lican party and has been for some years a 
member of the Schweukfelder church at 
Worcester. He is a man of attainment 
and usefulness beyond the field of his pro- 
fession and takes a marked interest in civic 
problems and the complex relations of labor 
and capital. He is a member of the Acad- 
emy of Political and Social Sciences, the 



Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and 
other learned associations. 

On April 24, 1888, Dr. Care was united 
in marriage with Ella Knabb, whose father, 
Captain George W. Knabb, is a native and 
resident of Birdsborough, Berks county, this 
State. To Dr. and Mrs. Care have been 
born three children : Virginia ; Catharine, 
deceased ; and Margaret. 



PROF. SAMUEL, U. BRUNNER, the 
founder and principal of North Wales 
academy and school of business, is a son of 
Frederick and Lydia (Umstead) Brunner, 
and was born in Worcester township, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 
6, 1842. (For ancestral history see sketch 
of Henry U. Brunner, page 527 of this 
work). He was reared in Worcester town- 
ship, where he attended the public schools 
and then taught some time, after which he 
entered Washington Hall Collegiate insti- 
tute at Trappe, and took the course of that 
educational institution. Leaving Trappe, 
he entered Eastman's Business college at 
Poughkeepsie, New York, from which well 
known commercial institution he was grad- 
uated at the end of only thirteen weeks' 
study. He then became book-keeper in 
the Philadelphia office of the Grover & 
Baker Sewing Machine company, and re- 
mained there up to 1866. In that year he 
concluded to resume teaching, in which he 
has been successful and in which he had 
always taken a deep interest. He therefore 
taught one year at Jenkintowu, and then 
concluded to put in operation his long 
cherished design of opening a first class 
academy and connecting it with a practical 
and efficient business school. In 1867 he 
organized such an institution at Kulpsville, 




^O ■ Zo . VyJ4sc<^r7s^-iJZSi^; 



Biographical Sketches. 



617 



and soon demonstrated the feasibilty of the 
idea and its practical value as a factor in a 
valuable home education. After four years 
of successful teaching, he removed in April, 
1871, to North Wales as a more favorable 
center for the full development of his idea, 
and founded the North Wales academy and 
school of business. Each succeeding year 
has added to its efficiency and the number 
of pupils in attendance, until to-day it 
stands as one of the foremost institutions of 
its kind in the State. Professor Brunner 
also publishes a paper in connection with 
his institution called The Academy Acorn, 
which is devoted to school life and the gen- 
eral improvement of the pupils. He is a 
Democrat, and a member and elder of the 
Lutheran church, in which he has served 
for several years as secretary of the church 
council. He is also a member of Washing- 
ton Camp, Patriotic Order Sons of Amer- 
ica. 

On October 19, 1869, Professor Brunner 
w.as united in marriage with Anna Mary 
Reiff. Their union has been blessed with 
two children, a son and a daughter : Mary 
R., and J. Reiff. 



JOHN WOOD, Jr., a large iron worker 
of Conshohocken, this county, was born 
May 24, 1847, at Conshohocken, this county, 
and is the son of Hon. John and Elizabeth 
K. (Wells) Wood. His mental training and 
discipline was obtained in Treeinount semi- 
nary of Norristown, and Gregory academy 
of Philadelphia. Having determined upon 
pursuing a business career, he entered his 
father's iron mills at Conshohocken, where 
he remained until 1867, gaining, during 
this time, much useful practical knowledge 
of the iron-working art. That he was a 



young man of spirit and enterprise is evi- 
denced by the fact that at the early age of 
twenty, or on May 1, 1867, he founded his 
present foundry, machine and boiler works. 
Not that the works as founded are to be 
compared with them as they now exist as 
to size and work turned out, but that from 
them, through expansion and the progress 
of the times, we have the present large and 
well equipped works. The factory is one 
hundred and twenty-five feet front by four 
hundred and fifty feet deep, and comprises 
the following departments, each under the 
supervision and direction of skilled special- 
ists: machine department, pattern-making 
department, drafting department, boiler 
department, blacksmithing department and 
foundry department, all fitted up with the 
most improved machinery and well equipped 
to turn out the best product along these 
different lines. This mammoth establish- 
ment gives employment to not less than 
two hundred and fifty hands and is an en- 
terprise that contributes much to the ma- 
terial prosperity of Conshohocken. 

Mr. Wood is a Republican and a staunch 
believer in the great political policy of a 
protective tariff, and whilst he has always 
taken a commendable interest in the suc- 
cess of his party, yet has never aspired to 
office. He is always interested in any move 
which has for its object the promotion of 
the welfare of the borough of his nativity. 
He was one of the most active promoters of 
the Fidelity Building and L,oan association 
of Conshohocken. This association is one 
of the most prosperous of its kind in the 
county and has done much to aid the labor- 
ing men of Conshohocken to secure homes, 
and in this way has contributed much to the 
substantial wealth of the community. He 
is one of the largest stockholders of the as- 
sociation. 



6i8 



Biographical Sketches. 



Fraternally he is a member of the Union 
Republican club, and the Merchants' club 
of Philadelphia. Mr. Wood was appointed 
by Governor Hartranft, major in the Na- 
tional Guard of Pennsylvania, on the staff 
of General Batton and served in the rail- 
road riots at Pittsburg in 1877, and in the 
Philadelphia railroad riots subsequently. 

John Wood, jr., early manifested an un- 
usual skill for mechanical pursuits, along 
which lines he has achieved an enviable 
success. Of quick perception, close ob- 
servation and great executive ability, he 
gives that personal supervision to the dif- 
ferent departments of the factory that has 
long since given it a reputation second to 
none of its class in this part of the State. 



REV CLEMENT Z. WEISER, D. D. 
the only survivor of three sons, was 
born in Union (now Snyder) county, Penn- 
sylvania, which was also the native place 
of his father, the late Dr. Daniel Weiser. 
He is the fourth in descent from the re- 
nowned Conrad Weiser. After the usual 
preparation he entered Franklin and Mar- 
shall college, from which he was graduated 
in 1850. Subsequent to his graduation he 
became tutor in German in his alma mater, 
and later became principal of the prepara- 
tory department, over which he presided for 
two years, the time of the removal of the 
college to Lancaster, Penna. Just twenty- 
five years after his graduation his college 
conferred upon him the degree of D. D. 
After the completion of his theological 
training, Mr. Weiser accepted a pastorate 
at his native place, of which church his 
father had formerly been pastor. He main- 
tained his connection with this church up to 



the year 1855, when he was called to assist 
his father at the old Goshenhoppen church, 
Montgomery county, Pa., where he con- 
tinued for a period of seventeen years, fol- 
lowing in the footsteps of his father. Dr. 
Weiser has made few pastoral changes but 
has concentrated his efforts and consecrated 
his will to the upbuilding of the cause in 
but two localities. During his lifework he 
received frequent calls to other churches of 
prominence and vigor, but uniformly de- 
clined them in order to devote himself more 
potently to the charges already under his 
care. Apart from his zeal and earnestness 
in the direct work of the church, he has 
also been conspicuously identified with lit- 
terary and scholastic pursuits; he has been 
a valued contributor to various papers and 
magazines and has also published several 
books. Among the latter is his well known 
"Life of Conrad Weiser." He has also 
been a frequent lecturer and has in this way 
supported and extended the cause of the 
church and its auxiliary agencies. Dr. 
Weiser stands deservedly high in the coun- 
cils of his church and by reason of his va- 
ried attainments, his broad scholarship and 
his undoubted devotion, is one of the leaders 
of his denomination. He is a member of 
the Montgomery County Historical society, 
and upon the occasion of the centennial 
anniversary of the county, was selected to 
deliver the chief oration. He was also for- 
merly chaplain of the 6th regiment, National 
Guard of Pennsylvania. 

In 1859 Dr. Weiser was joined in mar- 
riage with Louisa C, daughter of Judge I. 
Gutelius, of Mifflinburg, Union county, Pa. 
Their children consisted of three sons and 
one daughter, all of whom are now deceased. 

At the present time Dr. Weiser is living 
in a well earned retirement at East Green- 
ville, this county. He is a highly esteemed 







c.z 




^-v^^v.. 



Biographical Sketches. 



619 



citizen, an eloquent speaker, imbued with 
true Christian charity, and reflects upon all 
with whom he comes in contact, the light 
of a pious and conscientious life. 



REV. HENRY T. SPANGLER, D. 1)., 
the recently elected president ot Ur- 
sinus college, Collegeville, Montgomery 
county, was born November 14, 1853, an( ' 
is yet a young man. He was born at 
Myerstown, Lebanon county, Pennsylva- 
nia. He prepared for college, and carried 
his studies to the end of the Sophomore 
year at Palatinate college, Myerstown, and 
was graduated from Ursinus college in 
June, 1873, at the head of his class, the 
first sent out from the institution. After 
taking the course in theology at Ursinus, 
he was licensed as a minister of the Re- 
formed church in June, 1875. The first 
two years of active life was spent by him 
in the editorial office of the Christian 
World, at Cincinnati, Ohio. He subse- 
quently filled pastorates at Lancaster and 
Columbia, Ohio, and Landisburg, Pennsyl- 
vania. He was finally called to St. Luke's 
Reformed church, Trappe, Pennsylvania, 
in April, 1884, as the successor of the late 
Dr. Bomberger in the pastorate of that 
church. In June of the same year he was 
elected a member of the board of directors 
of Ursinus college, and did his first finan- 
cial work for the college in the summer of 
1885. In 1888 he relinquished the Trappe 
church and devoted all his time to the 
college. In June, 1891, he became a mem- 
ber of the faculty, and during the year 
1892-93 taught psychology. Since Presi- 
dent Spangler first gave attention to the 
finances of Ursinus almost $100,000 has 
been raised for the institution, besides the 



late bequest of Mr. Patterson of $160,000. 
In addition to his duties as president he 
teaches psychology, ethics, and homiletics. 
He is a man of fine intellectual attainments 
and recognized executive ability, and the 
college already feels the good effects of his 
elevation to the presidency. 



HEDLEV FRANKLIN SLIFER, M.D., 
one of the best educated physicians in 
Montgomery county, and the leading practi- 
tioner of North Wales, is a son of John B. 
and Lucy Mohr Slifer, and was born at Zion- 
ville, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, June 
15, 1852. 

His grandfather, Joseph Slifer, was a busi- 
ness man residing near Ouakertown, in 
Montgomery county, up to the time of his 
death, in 1877, at seventy-eight years of 
age. He was a man of considerable promi- 
nence in his community, and a useful and 
influential citizen. He married Miss Beid- 
ler and had a family of twelve children. 

John B. Slifer, father of Dr. Slifer, was 
born at Zionville, Lehigh county, where he 
spent his boyhood days and resided until 
after marriage, when out of desire to in- 
crease his opportunities he was induced to 
try the fortunes of the west, and accordingly 
located near Warren, in Trumbell county, 
Ohio, but soon established himself in an 
extensive lumber business near Prankford, 
in Clinton county, Indiana, where he re- 
mained in profitable business up to his pre- 
mature death in 1869, at the aye of forty- 
two years. 

He was a staunch Republican in his 
political affiliation. In 1850 he married 
Lucy Mohr; this martial relation was 
blessed with five children. 

Dr. H. Franklin Slifer received his pre- 



620 



Biographical Sketches. 



liminary educational training in public and 
private schools of Zionville, this count)', 
Trumbell county, Ohio, and Clinton county, 
Indiana. After obtaining a proficient 
knowledge of the subjects of an academic 
curriculum, he conceived the idea of medi- 
cine for his future life vocation. He came 
to Philadelphia and resided for a short time 
with an uncle, but soon entered the 
medical department of the University of 
Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated 
in the class of 1876 with the degree of 
M. D. Immediately upon graduation he 
located in the practice of his profession at 
Colmar, this county, where he practiced for 
two years, when in 1878 he came to North 
Wales, where he purchased the drug store 
and succeeded to the practice of Dr. Sibbal, 
and has here since built up one of the most 
extensive practices in Montgomery county. 
In 1880 Dr. Slifer was elected professor of 
physiology in North Wales academy, in 
which position he has served ever since. 

In 1883 he went to Germany and took a 
course of pathology under the celebrated 
specialist, Professor Virchow, of the Univer- 
sity of Berlin, and a course in surgery and 
diseases of children under Professor Barden- 
loben and Henoch, very celebrated special- 
ists in these subjects. After spending some 
time in European travel he returned home 
and resumed his practice, but owing to ill- 
health was unable to carry on his extensive 
practice, and in the hope of restoring his 
health, in 1887-8 he made a grand tour 
around the world, and since his return has 
delivered many entertaining and instructive 
lectures on Egypt, China, Japan, Rome and 
other places and countries of interest visited 
by him. 

In 1890 Dr. Slifer was elected an instruc- 
tor in physiology in the Medico-Chirurgical 
college of Philadelphia, in which position 



he served two years, and at the end of this 
time was elected to the full chair of pro- 
fessor of physiology with a seat in the fac- 
ulty, and remained two years. Since that 
time he has been devoting his energies to 
the practice of his profession in North 
Wales. 

Dr. Slifer is a member of the alumni as- 
sociation of the University of Pennsylvania 
and the Medico-Chirurgical college of 
Philadelphia, the Montgomery County Med- 
ical Society, the State Medical Society, the 
American Medical Association and the 
Pathological Association of Philadelphia. 

He is medical examiner for the Provident 
Life Trust Company, the New York Mutual, 
the Equitable, the National of Vermont 
and the Massachusetts Benefit Life Associa- 
tion, and he is also treasurer of the public 
library of North Wales. 

On May 20, 1891, Dr. Slifer married 
Emma Schlotterer. Their marriage has 
been blessed with one son, Victor Galen. 

Dr. Slifer as an instructor and lecturer, 
is exact, clear and eloquent, investing the 
dryest subject with life and color, rendering 
it entertaining and instructive ; as a phy- 
sician he is progressive and regards his 
profession in its true light . progressive in 
character, he would keep it abreast the 
wonderful advance of the present age. He 
knows no grander or nobler field for human 
effort than that of medicine, which justly 
stands in the van of the world's great pro- 
fessions. 



THE BLIEM FAMILY.— Mr. Christian 
Bliem, sr., was born on the banks of 
the Rhine, New Manheim, Germany, De- 
cember 25, 1711, and died in his ninety- 
eighth year, 1809. He was of Huguenot 



Biographical Sketches. 



621 



extraction, his ancestry going from France 
to Germany about 1570 on account of re- 
ligious persecution. He came to America 
about 1735, and bought and settled upon a 
tract of one hundred and fifty acres of laud 
in Hanover township, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania (then part of Philadelphia 
county), near Pottstown, which he occupied 
nearly seventy-five years. Soon after his 
death, Christian, jr., his son, bought two 
hundred and fifty more acres, making the 
whole tract four hundred acres, and which 
in turn, the son occupied until his death 
in 1816. 

The father and son each made their 
own wills, which are registered at Norris- 
town. The deeds to these properties also 
appear on record at the same place. Before 
the Revolutionary war, Christian, sr., had 
loaned a neighbor $800 in gold and silver, 
which was repaid in the Continental money 
and which became worthless after the close 
of the war. He begged his neighbor to 
give him at least a cow to partly cover his 
loss, but his request was not granted. He 
rode to Philadelphia, carrying his produce 
to market on a pack-horse, a single market- 
ing amounting to about ten dollars. He 
prospered and died a rich man for one of 
his day, and bought in his lifetime a farm 
for his sons, Daniel and Christian. 

Christian Bliem jr., (or the second) was 
born February 25, 1746, (died February 20, 
1816). He married, in 1768, Salome, eldest 
child of Jacob and Susanna Laugenecker. 
She was born January, 1746, and died 1810. 
Their children were: Salome, born 1770, 
married Samuel Moyer, of Perkasie, Bucks 
county, died 1812 ; Christian L., born 1773, 
and died 1831 ; Philip L., born 1775, and 
died 1847; Daniel L,., born 1777, and died 
1844; Mary, married Jacob Latshaw, born 
1782, and died 1816 ; John L., born 1784, 



and died 1858; and Jacob L. , born 1788, 
and died 1864. 

Christian L. Bliem married Magdalena 
Hoch (now High), a daughter of the Men- 
nonite preacher, John High. Their chil- 
dren were: Salome, born December 15, 
1796, was married May 2, 1819, to Joseph 
Lerch, died April 24, 1847 ; Magdalena, 
born January 25, 1798, married Jacob Dreis- 
bach (children : Matilda, Sarah and Susan), 
died November 2, 1847 ; Elizabeth born 
May 3, 1800, married Peter Anevolt (chil- 
dren were Stephen, Eliza, Lucy, John, 
George, Samuel and William), died October 
11, 1856; Daniel born August 30,1806, 
married Susan Boyer (children were : J. 
Christman, Calvin, Amanda, Catharine, 
Mary and Ellen) ; Catharine, born in July, 
1809, married Rev. David Kemmerer (chil- 
dren were David C, Amelia, Theodore, 
Ellen and Tillie.) The children of Joseph' 
and Salome Lerch were: Stephen C, David, 
Joseph, Catharine, Sarah, John, Mandes and 
Benneville. Joseph Lerch was born .De- 
cember 21, 1786, and died September 4, 
1856. 

Christian Bliem (the second, named 
above) was from 1814 a Mennonite preacher 
until the time of his death in 1831. His 
first wife, Magdalena Hoch, died twenty- 
three years after their marriage. His sec- 
ond marriage was with Anna Heistand. 
They had three children: one died in youth, 
one daughter married Mr. Fretz, and the 
other married Mr. Sell. He was born in 
Montgomery county, moved to East Nant- 
meal, Chester county, and, in 1805 pur- 
chased a farm from Thomas Hower, in 
Allen township, known as the Irish settle- 
ment, containing two hundred and eighteen 
acres, paying therefor $22,800. It is said 
he made as much as $1000 yearly during 
some of the best years of his farming. In 



622 



Biographical Sketches. 



r845 he removed to Milford Square, Bucks 
county, and died October 14, 1831, and is 
buried at the Milford Square Mennonite 
church. J. Christian Bliem, son of the said 
David, is a preacher of the Evangelical as- 
sociation, South Bethlehem, Pa. 

Rev. Daniel Kemmerer was born near 
Eastou, Pa., September 15, 1802 ; died at 
Wooster, Ohio, May 6, 1893. in his ninety- 
first year. His great-grandfather emigrated 
from Zwei-briicken, Germany, in 1730. Rev. 
Kemmerer prepared for the ministry. The 
descendants of this ancestry are so numer- 
ous in this and adjoining counties that the 
scope of this volume cannot follow the long 
line of lineage, but there remain incidents 
of the earlier ones deserving of note. 

In the family of Jacob L. Bliem, for a 
period of about thirty years, lived Mrs. 
Susanna Schantz, wife of Peter Schantz, 
during her widow-hood. She was the 
daughter of Henry and Esther (Lange- 
necker) Rhoads. Her husband and she 
lived at Parkersford, and he died there 
while yet a young man. She had many 
cousins living in Chester, Montgomery and 
Lancaster counties, and a few in Philadel- 
phia, many of whom she visited. She was 
very intelligent and knew much of the his- 
tory of the generations which preceded 
her, and had the traditionary sufferings of 
the Longakers, Bleims, Bertolettes and 
other families on account of being Hugue- 
nots. She had features so strongly resem- 
bling her paternal ancestry that Jacob H. 
Bliem, who is now 75 years old, and resid- 
ing at Hobbie, Luzerne county, Pa., says : 
Many years ago while in Norristown he 
met aud recognized Daniel Longaker, 
whom he had not known before from the 
strong resemblance which he had to her 
and the other kindred. She was of the 
third aud he of the fourth generations from 



their progenitor, Jacob Longenecker. She 
was always apprehensive that the persecu- 
tions suffered by her forefathers might be 
repeated in this country. For many years 
she was the bosom companion of her cousin, 
Susanna Longaker Wagenseller, the widow " 
of Peter Wagenseller. Governor Francis 
R. Shunk when a young man was her school 
teacher. She read the German fluently 
and preferred it rather than English. In 
her early life she was a faithful Mennonite, 
but later she worshipped with the Metho- 
dists. Her father's farm, the Rhoads home- 
stead of several hundred acres, was at 
Phcenixville; upon the high ground above 
the old cotton factory stood the dwelling 
house, and the long stretch of fertile meadow 
extended along French creek. 

Christian Bliem, Jr., after the battle of 
Brandywine, served in the army, using his 
farm teams on the march towards Easton, 
and while the army of Washington was 
encamped near Fegleysville. General 
Washington lodged during his stay in that 
locality at the Bertolette mansion, two 
miles east of Fegleysville. (Esther, a 
daughter of Mr Bertolette, was the wife of 
Jacob H. Bleim.) The Longeneckers also 
assisted with their teams. The Bertolettes 
were Huegenots, and have in their family 
a Bible printed in French with the date 
1567. In the summer of 1802 Jacob L. 
Bliem, then fifteen years old, helped his 
grandfather, Christian Bliem, Sr., then in 
his 91st year, to thresh the seed rye which 
was sown that season. There are many of 
the Schantz, Bleim and Henry Brower de- 
scendants living near Prescott and the ad- 
jacant country in Canada, their ancestry 
settling there the beginning of the present 
century. 

Elizabeth, a daughter of Christian and 
Magdalena Bliem, married Peter Anewalt. 




Os'&mA <<P . Afl<rur0b, t 




Biographical Sketches. 



623 



Two of the sons, John and Samuel Ane- 
walt, are prosperous merchants at Allen- 
town. Another daughter married Joseph 
Lerch. Maudes herch and Frank J. Lerch 
of Bethlehem are descendants of him. The 
latter is a popular and successful merchant 
at Bethlehem. Jacob H. Blierri, of Hobbie, 
Pa., has furnished data for many of these 
incidents, also the lineage of the family. 

Many branches comprising the present 
generations living about Pottstown — the 
Lessigs, Boettners and the Bechtels in Berks 
county, and the Movers and Oberholtzers 
at Perkasie, Bucks, have a large posterity, 
many of whom are prominent, popular and 
well-to-do people in their respective locali- 
ties. 



SAMUEL L. COWDEN, of the firm of 
Cowden & Zimmerman, one of the 
largest and most prosperous plumbing, gas 
and steam-fitting establishments of Mont- 
gomery county, is also one of the leading 
citizens and most enterprising business men 
of Norristown. He is the only surviving 
child of John and Charlotte (Zimmerman) 
Cowden, and was born on the 4th of March, 
1848, on his father's farm in Plymouth town- 
ship. Of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the Cowden 
family has been in America since a few years 
before the breaking out of the war for Inde- 
pendence. The original ancestor in this 
country was Samuel Cowden, who located 
near Norristown, in Montgomery county, 
and proceeded to earn a living for his wife 
and little family. When the youthful Re- 
public needed men to bare their breasts for 
her safety, Samuel Cowden bade farewell to 
his wife and children and shouldered a flint- 
lock for his country. When the British 
came through Montgomery county they 
sacked his house and destroyed every vestige 



of his household goods, and his family were 
thrown upon the mercies of the kind people 
of the neighborhood. Samuel Cowden lived 
only a few years after the war, and was 
buried at Providence Presbyterian cemeterv. 
He was the father of three children : Hester, 
Thomas and .Samuel. 

Thomas Cowden, grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, and son of Samuel Cow- 
den, the soldier, was born near Norristown 
on the 6th of February, 1775. He was 
brought up in this section, and was appren- 
ticed to John Miller, of Norristown, to learn 
the trade of blacksmith. He also mastered 
the art of gun-making, and followed that 
business until about 1798, when he married 
Hannah Couch, of Upper Providence, and 
located at Hickorytown, Plymouth town- 
ship, and followed his trade on his own 
account. Some years later, being surrounded 
with a numerous family, grandfather Cow- 
den bought a farm near his blacksmith shop, 
and combined farming with his regular 
business. Here he reared a family of eight 
1 children : Samuel, William, Hester, Ellen, 
who died young, Charles George, John, 
Mary and Ann. He prospered in his busi- 
ness ventures, and died at the age of 73 
years. After his death his widow went 
to live with a daughter at Norristown, where 
she lived to the age of 73 years, dying Sep- 
tember, 1850. 

John Cowden, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, was the youngest son of Thomas 
Cowden. He was brought up on his father's 
farm, and assisted in working it until 1836, 
when he married Charlotte, daughter of 
Jacob and Mary Zimmerman, of Whitpain 
township. This marriage was fruitful in 
bringing them five children : Mary J., born 
December 14, 1837; Charles Henry, born 
September 27, 1839; John F. was born July 
16, 1841, and died in infancy ; Hannah, born 



624 



Biographical Sketches. 



January 25, 1843, and Samuel L., born 
March 4, 1S4S. He continued to work the 
farm until 1847, when he purchased a small 
tract of land and erected buildings thereon, 
where he lived until 1855. 

He was a prominent Democrat, and in 
1853, was elected County Commissioner. 
New public buildings were being erected at 
the county seat, Norristown, about this 
time, and as he wanted to give the work all 
his time he removed his family to the scene 
of operations. Here he was kept very busy 
during his whole term of office. When he 
retired from office he located at Airy and De 
Kalb streets, where he fitted up a grocery 
store, which he conducted with the help of his 
eldest son Charles. About this time he was 
appointed Street and Road Commissioner 
by the Town Council and served two years 
in that capacity. In the meanwhile he was 
made executor of the will of Jacob Teany, 
a prominent and wealthy citizen of Norris- 
town, who was an elder in the Central Pres- 
byterian Church. This estate and other 
trusts kept him well occupied for several 
years. When his son Charles died at the 
tender age of 26 years, he closed out the 
grocery store. In 1868 he was appointed 
warden of the county prison by the County 
Commissioners, and held that responsible 
post two years. Disease contracted while 
serving in this office resulted in his death 
on September 3, 1 876, at the age of 62 years. 
His widow survived him until June 7, 1882. 
He was a member of the Norristown Presby- 
terian Church from childhood, and his wife 
was a member of the Oak Street Methodist 
Church, and all of the deceased members 
of the family are buried in the family lot in 
the Montgomery Cemetery. 

Samuel L. Cowden, the subject of this 
sketch, is therefore the only survivor. He 
was sent to the public schools of Norristown, 



and then to Treemont Seminary. At the 
age of 15 years he entered his father's 
grocery store as a clerk, and one year later 
was apprenticed to learn the plumbing 
trade. He served an apprenticeship of four 
years, and on April 1, 1869, he engaged in 
business on his own account on a small 
scale on Airy street above De Kalb, Norris- 
town, where he continued and built up a 
good trade until 1873. His father purchased 
the lot 316 De Kalb street, and built a store- 
room on it, and Samuel formed a partner- 
ship with S. S. Jones and occupied the new 
building. In 1879 this partnership was 
dissolved, Mr. Cowden continuing it for 
himself. His business kept growing rapidly, 
and he soon found his building too small 
for his trade. In 1886 he purchased an 
addition to his lot and enlarged his build- 
ing to a three-story mansard. The first 
story is a large and complete storeroom 
filled with a splendid stock of goods. The 
upper floors are fitted up as workshops and 
are supplied with all the latest improved 
machinery, making it the most complete 
and largest plumbing establishment in the 
county. On March 1, 1890, Mr. Cowden 
formed a co-partnership with W. I. Zimmer- 
man, who had been faithful in his employ 
for seventeen years, under the firm name of 
Cowden & Zimmerman, and this firm is 
still intact, doing a splendid business in 
general plumbing and gas and steam fitting 
and employing a force of fifteen hands and 
occupying a three-story brick building 20 x 
50 feet in dimensions. Mr. Cowden resides 
at No. 19 East Airy street. He was married 
on March 9, 1871, to Miss Lydia A., daugh- 
ter of William and Hannah A. Keiger, of 
Bridgeport, and they have two children: 
Charlotte G. and C. Harry. Mrs. Cowden, 
like her husband, is also descended from 
Revolutionary stock, her great-grandfather, 



graphical Sketches. 



625 



George Keiger, being of German birth and 
coming to this country in time to help fight 
for its freedom. The Cowden family were 
all Presbyterians, though Mrs. Cowden is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Mr. Cowden has been a member of the 
Humane Fire Company for the last twenty- 
five years, and from 1870 to 1875, he served 
as a member of the State Militia, enlisting 
as sergeant and being promoted later on to 
second lieutenant of Co. A., 16th Regiment. 
He is a man of fine business tact and highly 
esteemed in the commuuitv. 



WILLIAM W. RAMSEY, who has 
been engaged in farming near 
Abrams for many years, is the eldest son 
and second child of Samuel and Sarah G. 

(Terrell) Ramsey, and was born , 1847, 

on a farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
near the point where the Pennsylvania, 
Delaware and Maryland State lines join. 
His paternal grandfather, Isaac Ramsey, 
was a man of good education for his day, 
and followed teaching in the old private 
and subscription schools of his section of 
the State. He resided at Bridgeport, was a 
Democrat, and married and reared a family. 
One of his sons was Samuel Ramsey, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, and who 
was born and reared at Bridgeport. He left 
Bridgeport before he was of age, resided for 
a time in Upper Merion township, and then 
removed to the southeastern part of Chester 



Count\', where he followed fanning for some 
time. He then went to Philadelphia, and 
was there engaged in butchering up to his 

death, which occurred , 18 — , when 

he was in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 
He married Sarah G. Terrell, a daughter of 

Terrell, and their family consisted of 

five children, four sons and one daughter: 
Martha (Mrs. Richard F. Wood), William 
W., Matthew, Samuel G., and George W. 

William W. Ramsey passed the first six 
years of his childhood in Chester County, 
then lived in Philadelphia until he was 
eighteen years of age, and then came to 
Upper Merion township, where he has re- 
sided ever since. He attended a private 
school in Chester County, the Philadelphia 
city schools, and the common schools of 
Upper Merion township, and then was en- 
gaged in farming with Moses Walker until 
the death of the latter. He then assumed 
the management of the Walker farm for the 
widow and heirs, and has continued therein 
up to the present time. 

On , 1877, Mr. Ramsey married 



Ellen D. Walker, a daughter of 

Walker, and has a family of three children : 
Joseph D., Harold A., and Charles X. 

William Walker is a stanch Republican, 
and served as a member of the school board, 
while he is now serving in his third con- 
secutive term as auditor of Upper Merion 
township. He is a member of Lynwood 
Lodge, Ancient Order of United Work- 
men. 



APPENDIX 



40 



APPENDIX 



GEN. WINFIELD S. HANCOCK, 
who with Generals Anthony Wayne 
and Philip Henry Sheridan constitute the 
great trio of American military chieftains 
distinguished above all others for "fearless 
courage and desperate energy," was a son 
of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth Hancock, 
and was born in Montgomery comity, 
Pennsylvania, February 14, 1824. He re- 
ceived his education at Norristown in the 
academies conducted by Eliphalet Roberts 
and the celebrated Rev. Samuel Aaron. 
Leaving school, he received his appoint- 
ment to the United States Military acad- 
emy at West Point on July 1, 1840, through 
Hon. Joseph Fornance, then a member of 
Congress. He was a cadet with Grant, 
McClellan, Reynolds, Franklin, Burnside, 
Reno, and William M. Smith. He was 
graduated June 30, 1844, and appointed the 
next day as a second lieutenant in the sixth 
infantry. He served on the western fron- 
tier and then went to Mexico. In the bat- 
tles of San Antonio, Cherubusco, Contre- 
ras, Molino del Rev, and the assault on the 
city of Mexico, he displayed conspicuous 
courage and ability and received his first 
promotion. From 1848 to 1855 he served 
with his regiment in the west. He was 
engaged against the Seminoles, in Florida, 
and served in Kansas during a portion of 
the quasi-civil war there. At the outbreak 
of the late Civil war in 1861, he was at 
Los Angelos, California, as chief quarter- 
master of the Southern district. Relieved 
from duty there, at his own request, he 
went to Washington and applied for active 



duty in the field. He was assigned to the 
position of chief quartermaster under Gen- 
eral Anderson in Kentucky, but before he 
entered upon his duties he received the 
commission (September 23, 1861) of a 
brigadier-general of volunteers. He after- 
ward joined the Army of the Potomac, and 
from that time until the close of the war 
his career forms a notable part of the his- 
tory of that army. During the winter of 
1861-62 he commanded a brigade in Vir- 
ginia. In the spring of 1862 he accompa- 
nied General McClellan to the Virginia 
peninsula, and took an important part in 
the Seven Days' battle near Richmond. 
For his services there he received several 
brevets and was recommended by McClel- 
lan for promotion to major-general, which 
was made in November, 1862. In the bat- 
tles of South Mountain, Antietam, Frede- 
ricksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettys- 
burg, General Hancock's services were 
conspicuous; so, also, were his services in 
Grant's campaigns against Richmond, 
which resulted in the surrender of Lee at 
Appomattox. For his services at Gettys- 
burg (where he was severely wounded) 
General Hancock received the thanks of 
Congress. In the winter of 1863-64 he was 
engaged in the recruiting service in the 
north, where his great popularity made 
him very successful. While engaged in 
the operations against Richmond, he was 
commissioned a brigadier-general in the 
regular army on the 12th of August, 1864. 
In November he was selected to organize 
the first army corps of veterans. In Febru- 



628 



Neckoi.ockai. Record. 



arv, 1865, he was assigned to the command 
of the Middle military division, and in July 
to that of the Middle department. In 
August, 1866, he was transferred to the 
command of the department of Missouri. 
lie had relinquished his volunteer commis- 
sion and been promoted to major-general of 
the regular army. From September, 1867, 
until March, 1S68, he was in command of 
the department of the Gulf. From March, 
1868, to March, 1869, he commanded the 
Military division of the Atlantic. From 
1869 to 1879 he was the supreme com- 
mander of the Military division of Dakota, 
and was then again placed in command of 
the division of the Atlantic, with his head- 
quarters at Governor's island in the harbor 
of New York, which position he held until 
his death, which occurred on the 29th of 
October, 1885. General Hancock declined 
the Democratic nomination for governor of 
Pennsylvania in 1S69, but accepted from 
the same party the nomination for presi- 
dent of the United States in 1880, and was 
defeated at the election in the fall. Gene- 
ral Hancock was a large, well-proportioned 
and handsome man. His last conspicuous 
appearance in public was as marshal at 
the funeral services at New York city in 
honor of General Grant. 

The brief account recited but barely 
sketches an official record of General Han- 
cock, and space in a work of this nature 
allows but little more to be added, yet 
some of the salient points of his character 
will be noticed and reference made to some 
of his brilliant battles and their great im- 
portance in crushing the Confederate army 
of Northern Yirginia and preserving the 
imperilled union. General Hancock pos- 
sessed a wonderful personal magnetism 
like Sheridan, and like Sheridan could 
hold his men to an attack where other gen- 



erals would have ordered a retreat to have 
prevented a disastrous rout. He knew no 
fear, but carefully planned his movements, 
and with equal numbers was never defeated 
or driven back. In the Wilderness cam- 
paign he commanded as high as fifty thous- 
and men at a time, and his magnificent 
storming of the Confederate works at 
Spottsylvania was the most brilliant 
achievement of the Army of the Potomac 
during the year 1864. His prudence, fore- 
sight, judgment and fearlessness indicated 
his ability for military leadership, and 
made him equal to any emergency. His 
personal bravery on a score of battle fields 
made him popular with the army and the 
nation and his splendid generalship was 
shown at Gettysburg on the first day when 
he rallied the flying Union troops and in 
the very face of a fierce attack made such 
dispositions as to bring success on the two 
ensuing days. He was also modest and 
declined to oppose Meade for the command 
of the Army of the Potomac. 

General Hancock won the first battle in 
the Peninsular campaign, and selected the 
ground for the battle field of Gettysburg, 
where the rebellion reached high-water 
mark. The dangerous wound he received 
there prevented him from joining in pur- 
suit of the Confederate army, and from his 
usual energy and foresight it is generally 
believed that he would have given such a 
vigor to that pursuit that Lee would have 
found his Appomattox in one of the early- 
July days of 1S64, upon the banks of the 
Potomac. At Spottsylvania court house 
he pierced almost to the heart of Lee's 
position, and if he had been properly sup- 
ported, ruin only could have been the fate 
of the army of Northern Yirginia. From 
Spottsvlvania to Petersburg he commanded 
in several desperate charges and repelled 



Necrological Record. 



629 



various fierce attacks. After that he won 
the battles of Deep Bottom, Ream's .Sta- 
tion and Boydtown Road, and then, of all 
the brave Union generals beneath ('.rant, 
Sherman, and Sheridan, he was the one 
chosen by President Lincoln to organize 
and command an army of fifty thousand 
veterans and to succeed Sheridan in the 
Valley. He soon recruited his army, re- 
lieved Sheridan, and was preparing to deal 
a heavy blow, when the golden opportu- 
nity slipped from his grasp by the deepen- 
ing of the shadows of Gettysburg into the 
night of Appomattox. 

From the close of the war until his death 
in 1885, he was in command of different 
important military departments of the 
United States, and everywhere and at all 
times displayed prudence and discretion, 
although never lacking firmness in any 
emergency. Whatever may be said of his 
celebrated general order No. 40, issued at 
New Orleans, and however much depre- 
cated by any one, on account of his refer- 
ing crimes and offences to the civil tribu- 
nals then in existence in Louisiana, yet it 
must be borne in mind that that much dis- 
cussed document emphatically declared 
that " armed insurrection or forcible resist- 
ance to the law will be instantly suppressed 
by arms." His life is ended and his work 
is done, but his glory is full-orbed and will 
never wane while heroism and patriotism 
are cherished in the land he fought to pre- 
serve. 

On every page of the history of the Army 
of the Potomac from the Peninsular cam- 
paign to the seige of Petersburg, the name 
of Winfield Scott Hancock appears legible 
and bright. Soldier, patriot and hero, he 
occupies a high niche in the American 
temple of fame, and for energy, bravery, 
and military ability would have towered 



among the marshals of the mighty Napo- 
leon or the generals of Alexander the 

Great. 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE PORTER, 

a very distinguished citizen of Montgom- 
ery county, was one of the ablest public 
men of Pennsylvania during the period 
between 1S25 and [840. He was a son of 
General Andrew Porter, an able and gal- 
lant officer of Revolutionary fame, and was 
born in the family mansion near Xorris- 
town, October 31, 1788. He received his 
education at the old Norristown academy, 
and although intended by his father for 
the bar, a want of health and a desire for a 
more active and stirring life caused him to 
remove to Huntingdon county and embark 
in the iron business. He gained in health, 
became prominent in business life and was 
sent in 1821 to the assembly by the Demo- 
crats of that count}-. In his new sphere of 
life the qualities that made him prominent 
in business secured him leadership in poli- 
tics. At the end of his term he was sent 
to the State senate and there increased his 
already marked influence so much that in 
1838 his party turned to him as the best 
qualified and most available man to lead 
them to victory in the gubernatorial con- 
test. He was elected and at the close of 
his term re-elected by a majority nearly 
four times as large as at his first election. 
No public man ever made a bolder and 
more judicious fight and won a more de- 
cided victory against inveterate foes and 
the gravest of charges than David R. Por- 
ter. His administration was able and wise 
and completely refuted the serious cam- 
paign accusations brought against him. Re- 
tiring from the gubernatorial chair he re- 
• sumed the iron business and was among 



630 



Necrological Record. 



the first to start anthracite furnaces. He 
suffered in the financial storm of 1857, but 
bore his losses manfully. 

Governor Porter left his impress upon 
the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 
good during a period when a man of bold 
action and shrewd observation — such as he 
was — could only have been successful as 
chief executive. During the late Civil war 
he was an ardent supporter of the Union 
cause, for which his son, General Horace 
Porter, fought so bravely. Governor Por- 
ter passed to rest on August 6, 1867, and 
his remains lie beneath a beautiful monu- 
ment in the Harrisburg cemetery. 



GENERAL ANDREW PORTER, a 
Revolutionary hero and surveyor general 
of Pennsylvania, was a son of Robert 
Porter, who came from Ireland in early 
life and settled in Worcester township. 
General Porter was born September 24, 
1743, received a good education and became 
principal of a mathematical school in Phil- 
delphia, which he left in 1776 to offer his 
services to Congress. He was commissioned 
captain and served in the navy a short time, 
and then joined Washington's army, being 
in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and 
Brandywine. He was promoted major at 
Valley Forge, and then became colonel of 
the Fourth Pennsylvania artillerv at the 
close of the Revolution. He afterwards as- 
sisted Rittenhouse to ascertain the bound- 
ary line between Virginia and Pennsylva- 
nia, and in 1787 ran the boundary line be- 
tween Pennsylvania and New Vork. These 
services so ably performed secured him the 
appointment of surveyor-general of Penn- 
sylvania, which office he filled from 1809 
until his death, which occurred in 1813. 
He served as a brigadier-general and after- 



wards as a major-general in the state mili- 
tia, and it is said refused the secretaryship 
of war once tendered him by President 
Madison. He was the father of Governor 
David Porter, and his other sons, James M. 
and George B., became judges and the lat- 
ter was subsequently governor of Michigan. 



COLONEL ROBERT LOLLER, a 
prominent citizen of Montgomery county, 
was born in 1740. He was of Scotch-Irish 
origin, received a superior education for 
that day and taught school for some time 
at Chestnut Hill. He then engaged in 
surveying and resided at Hatboro until the 
commencement of the Revolution, and soon 
afterwards was a member of the conven- 
tion that framed the constitution of Penn- 
sylvania. He joined the army under 
Washington in 1777 and was in the battles 
of Trenton, Princeton, and Germantowu. 
He was employed as a paymaster and sur- 
veyor during the latter part of the Revolu- 
tion and afterwards served as a member of 
the assembly, besides holding numerous 
county offices. He married Mary McClean, 
a daughter of Richard McClean, and died 
October 21, 1808. He was a man of some 
means and made a generous use of his 
w-ealth. By his will he gave money to 
Norristown academy, Abingtou Presbyte- 
rian church and Hatboro library, while 
$11,000 went to build Loller academy, 
which received an annual endowment of 
$283. Hon. N. B. Boileau wrote the epi- 
taph which was placed on his tombstone 
and read as follows : " To the memory of 
Robert Loller, Esq., this stone is dedi- 
cated. He departed this life October 21st, 
1808, aged sixty-eight years. In the Amer- 
ican Revolution he took an early and active 
part in defending the rights of his country. 



Necrological Record. 



631 



As a patriot, soldier, and statesmen he acted 
with honor and usefulness, and in the prac- 
tice of every domestic and social virtue was 
highly exemplary. A literary institution, 
called by his name, was erected and en- 
dowed in the village of Hatboro." 



COLONEL THEODORE W. BEAN, 
an active lawyer and the author of the 
Montgomery county history, published in 
1884, was a son of Hon. William and Mary 
(Weber) Bean, and was born in Norriton 
township May 14, 1833. James and Mary 
Bean came from Wales about 1700. Their 
son John Bean, was the father of Hon. 
Jesse Bean, who married Hannah Lane and 
died in 1847. The eldest son of the last 
named couple was Hon. William Bean, who 
died in 1855, aged sixty-seven years. He 
married Mary Weber, whose family went 
from Bavaria to Holland in the fifteenth 
century. From Holland in 1697 came 
Christian Weber, who settled in Worcester 
township, where his son Christian was 
born. This Christian, the younger, was 
the father of John Weber and the grand- 
father of Mrs. Bean, who lived to be over 
' ninety years of age. 

Theodore W. Bean received a common 
school education, and worked at black- 
smithing until 1862, when he enlisted in 
the 17th Pennsylvania cavalry and served 
in the army of the Potomac until the close 
of the war, being breveted lieutenant-colo- 
nel for gallant and distinguished service. 
He afterwards read law, was admitted to 
the bar in 1869, and practiced at Norris. 
town until his death. He was a good law- 
yer, but had a peculiar taste for historical 
matters, and the history of this county 
which he edited in 1S84, is a lasting monu- 
ment to his memory. 



HON. NATHAN B. BOILEAU, one of 

the most brilliant men that Montgomery 
county ever produced, and who out- 
lived the earthly dream of greatness, 
was a son of Isaac and Rachel (Brittain) 
Boileau, and was born two miles north of 
Hatboro, in 1763. Isaac Boileau was the 
son of a French Huguenot who was driven 
from France by the revocation of the edict 
of Nantes. 

N. B. Boileau was a graduate of Princeton 
college, and for .some ten years afterwards 
managed his farm, helped Fitch to build 
one of his model steamboats, and studied 
closely the political writings of the foun- 
ders of the Republic. He entered political 
life in 1797, being elected to the general 
assembly in that year. He was re-elected 
seven times and during his last session in 
1808, was made speaker of the assembly. 
Leaving the speaker's chair he resigned 
and was appointed as secretary of the com- 
monwealth, which office he held for nine 
years. His name was now brought for- 
ward as a Democratic candidate for gov- 
ernor. The legislative caucus chose Find- 
ley instead of Boileau, and the latter 
charged Findley with securing the nomi- 
nation by corrupt means. Following this 
ill conceived move by openly supporting 
Findley's opponent, he caused his party to 
break with him and he was relegated to 
private life. During his seventeen years of 
public life, he did much for his county and 
State, and was on the very highway to na- 
tional position and national honors, when 
one impolitic act cut short a splendid po- 
litical career. His integrity, his honor, his 
honesty were never questioned. He was 
patriotic, benevolent and unselfish. " His 
want of rigid care of property in his old 
daws was perhaps a weakness, but an ami- 
cable one, for his wealth lasted nearly as 



632 



Xfxrological Record. 



long as he had use for it, and when the 
summons came he had no idol to bind him 
to earth as many have." The last public 
office that he held was that of register of 
wills, which he held from 1836 to 1839, and 
it was received by appointment from Gov- 
ernor Ritner. Mr. Boileau was as singu- 
larly unfortunate in private as in public 
life. He was engaged to Charlotte Leech, 
who died, then married her sister Hester, 
who lived but two years, and afterwards 
married the third sister, Ann Leech, who 
died in 1834. Nathan Brittain Boileau, 
talented, educated, wealthy and upright, 
failed at the very threshold of grasping the 
prize of his life's ambition, but lived for a 
quarter of a century afterward and passed 
away March 16, 1850, at eighty-eight years 
of age. 



HON. JACOB FRY, jr., who served two 
terms in Congress and modestly earned the 
title of "honest," was a son of Jacob and 
Elizabeth Fry, and was born at Trappe, 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, June 
10, 1802. He was a pupil of Francis R. 
Shunk, afterwards governor of the State, 
and after receiving a good education, fol- 
lowed teaching until 1830, when he was 
appointed prothonotary. Four years later 
he was nominated and elected to Congress, 
and was re-elected in 1836. He was popu- 
lar with his party and respected by the 
other side of the house, in which he sup- 
ported the Van Buren idea of no slavery 
agitation in Congress. From 1838 to 1853 
he was in the general mercantile business, 
and then was elected and re-elected to the 
general assembly, serving two terms. He 
then, in 1856, was elected auditor-general 
of Pennsylvania, and served one term. 
This ended his political career, and six 



years later he died on November 28, 1S66. 
He was an ardent Lutheran, an upright 
and honest man, and as a public official, 
was courteous yet firm, and discharged 
every duty with scrupulous care. He mar- 
ried Man - Gross, only daughter of Hon. 
Samuel Gross, an ex-member of Congress. 
Mr. Fry, while possessing a vein of dry 
humor, yet was never sarcastic or bitter. 



REV. JOHN PHILIP BOEHM, the 
first Reformed minister in the province of 
Pennsylvania, was a schoolmaster and fore- 
singer, of the city of Worms, Germany, and 
came about 1720 to Philadelphia, where he 
first acted as a reader for the members of 
the Reformed church living there. He 
then preached without license or church 
authority until 1729 when on November 
29 he was ordained by authority of the 
Classis of Amsterdam. He labored through- 
out a large region, and laid the foundation 
of many Reformed churches. He settled in 
Whitpain township before 1734, organized 
the congregation there now T known as 
Boehm's church, and became very wealthy, 
owning a large tract of land, slaves and a 
distillery. He died suddenly on May 1, 
1749, and his remains lie under a wall of 
the present Boehm church. 



REV. HENRY E. MUHLENBERG, a 
German Lutheran minister of talent, 
piety and extensive literary and scientific 
acquirements, was a son of Rev. Henry 
Melchoir and Anna Maria (YVeiser) Muhlen- 
berg, aud was born at Trappe, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1753. 
He received his education at the University 
of Halle, in Germany, was ordained to the 
Lutheran ministry at twenty years of age, 



Nrcro logical Rhcord. 



633 



and served as pastor of a Lutheran church 
at Lancaster, this State, from 1780 until 
his death in 1815, at sixty-two years of 
age. He was an authority on botany, 
mineralogy and kindred sciences and wrote 
in Latin several valuable botanical and 
<reolotrical works. 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE, whose name 
is world wide as a mathematician and astro- 
nomer, was a resident of Norriton township 
from eight years of age until 1770. " Near 
the banks of the beautiful Wissahickon, in 
the vicinity of Germautown, four miles 
from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a 
century and a half ago ; and near their hid- 
ing-places from the world's ken, a mile 
from the old village where the good Count 
Zinzendorf, the Moravian, labored and re- 
posed, was the birth-place of one whose 
name is co-extensive with scientific knowl- 
edge. It was David Rittenhouse, the emi- 
nent mathematician, who was born in Rox- 
borough township, on the 8th of April, 
1732. His father (Matthias) was a humble 
farmer, and David was his chief assistant 
when his life approached young manhood. 
The geometrical diagrams which disfigured 
his implements of labor, the barn doors, 
and the pig-sty, attested the peculiar work- 
ings of his brain while jet a mere lad. 
These indications of genius would doubt- 
less have been disregarded, and his aspira- 
tion remained unsatisfied had not a feeble 
body made the abandonment of field labor 
a stern necessity. David was apprenticed 
to a clock and mathematical instrument 
maker, and the pursuit being consonant 
with his taste, he was eminently successful. 
Rittenhouse was a sincere student, but on 
account of his pecuniary wants, he was de- 
prived, in a great degree, of the most valua- 



ble sources of information, especially con- 
cerning the progress of science in Europe. 
While Newton and Liebnitz were warmly 
disputing for the honor of first discoverer 
of Fluxions, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant 
of what they had clone, became the inventor 
of that remarkable feature in algebraical 
analysis." He had his observatory on the 
eminence above Presbyterian church, where 
Franklin frequently visited him. About 
1766, although only known as a clock 
maker, he constructed for Princeton college, 
the first orrery ever made in America. In 
1769 he observed the transit of Venus, and 
in 1795 he was elected a member of the 
Royal Society of London. 

On February 20, 1766, David Rittenhouse 
married Eleanor Coulston, a daughter of 
Bernard Coulston. 

When Dr. Franklin died, Rittenhouse 
was chosen president of the American 
Philosophical society, to fill his place ; and 
from his own earnings he gave the institu- 
tion fifteen hundred dollars, on the day of 
his inauguration. His fame was now world- 
wide, and many official honors awaited his 
acceptance. He held the office of treasurer 
of the State of Pennsylvania, for many 
years; and in 1792, he was appointed the 
first director of the Mint. Failing health 
compelled him to resign that trust in 1795 ; 
and on the 6th of June, the following year, 
he died the death of a Christian, at the age 
of sixty-four years. 



DANIEL H. MULVANY, a distin- 
guished lawyer and a man of fine intellec- 
tual endowments and a quick perception of 
the ideal, was born in Upper Merion town- 
ship, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
November 12, 1809, and died May 18, 1873. 
He was a son of Thomas and Mary (Hitner) 



- 



: 



Mmh-any. and a gmalsnu of P. Muh-^ 

- 

some ~dmt 

• ~:t~ :v.~-. 
r : . - 

-. _zi : ■:: — :.: 
- jp? in - ::^ _ . - 
'.'. . _: 

: 
: . _ - r _ :ir~:. ; m. 

- 

- - 



:-: 

-- ■ - - - 

■ - ' . ' 

■ - " . 

- 
- ~--y : 

': rrm£ „: " : " ' B E "" .. 

: 

- - ■ ---■ : ' 

- - - 

rvey - : : - - 

- - 

- 

■.---..- 



sal 

-' :~ :: — :-.r- _: :. -r;:;::. - .: :h; : :: - 

::";_;: Ir. z - i; t _^ i;-;i::r: 

: . - -- _ r ~: - : : 

r . . " - 

:.;r:rr:. :~ i r--: : :: n: r. ir: rt-elrrr. :- 

- - - 

■ - _ - . " 

?r— ±ttr- t- ;'; haf r.trtr t: r.:._>r: :; 
-v :-~r - . _ 

: - - 

- - 

sx: 

■ ~ rz : - 
V : - - - — _ ~: ■_- 

; 

oer 7 Atip -hc:- 

i ■ - :i: 
- 
: 



■■HUM 



-; - ? -: ---' _: ..: 



H 

- 

Fxant ' - :mk mas 

- :. 7 

- - e -was 



Xecrological Record. 






that the halo of the Muhlenbergs, who used 
to breathe patriotism and piety combined 
in the old Trappe church, was not lost on 
young Frantz Shunk as he sat in that classic 
sanctuary. 

Annually, while he lived at Harrisburg, 
he paid a visit to the scenes of his child- 
hood, generally being the guest of his life- 
long friend, Hon. Jacob Fry, Jr. At snch 
times he loved to visit among his old ac- 
quaintances, without any regard to rank or 
par: gentleman, who was a small boy 

then, gives the following characterization, 
showing his utter lowliness of mind and en- 
during friendship for old acquaintances. He 
says : "I was but a mere lad at that time, 
but well remember his tall and noble form 
and pleasant face. His child-like simpl: c 
and goodness of heart were conspicuous. 
His delight was to visit the older abodes of 
the older villagers of Trappe, no ma: 
how humble their lot, and talk with them 
of 've olden time.' " 



University of Pennsylvania, and was a law- 
yer of ability and success. He 
Xorristov. -5. was general agent for 

>h claims in America for several years 
under the sixth article of Jay's treaty and 
died at his mar. _ar Philadelphia, 

March 12, 1821. His remains rest t 
side of those of his father in Laure" 
eemetery. Two sons survived him. Wil- 
liam R. and Richard Penn, the forr 
historian of Wisconsin, and the latter, a 

By man of note at the commencement 
of the present century. 



WILLIAM MOORE SMITH, who has 
the honor of first laying on: 
the town of " Xorris" into streets and 1 
was a son of Rev. Dr. William Smith, of 
the University of Pennsylvania, and was 
born in Philadelphia June 1, 1759 Dr. 
Smith was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and 
graduated from the L'niversity of Aberdeen. 
He came to Philadelphia in 175 And was 
provost of the L'niversity of Pennsylvania 
and pastor of an Episcopal church for many 
He was one of the finest scholars in 
erica, and married Rebecca Moore, a 
daughter of William Moore 
in Chester county, and a descendan: 
John Moore, of England. 

William Moore Smith, the eldest child of 
this marriage, received his education in the 



from 1818 to : Congress and voted 

against the admission uri as a - 

State, was born Xovember 10, 1774, and 
died March 19, 1S44. He lived in L'pper 
Providence township, was a Democrat of 
great influence and served as a member of 
-~sembly from 1805 to 1S10 ; as a mem- 
ber o: - :e Senate from 1811 to 1814 
and as a member of Congress from 18 18 to 
• : : He voted against the admission of 
Missouri.: S iteunde- 
and advice of the Per. 
as did Jonathan Roberts in the Senate. 



X. JOHN B. STERIGER: 
man of marked chan 

life was earnest and time was precious. 
He was a son of \ 

- born in ::>wn- 

ship October He rose from ob- 

prominence by his own nr: 

:he truest 
the word. He serve! 
of the peace, was a member of 1 mbly 

ed two terms in Con- 
Democrat. I 



6 3 6 



Necrological Record. 



ing Congress he entered upon the practice 
of law which he pursued ever afterwards. 
He was a born political leader, served three 
terms in the State Senate, and failed to se- 
cure the governorship or a seat in the 
United States Senate, both of which offices 
he sought at different times. He was ever 
faithful to his friends, urged Buehauon's 
claims to the presidency at all times and in 
seasons, and was responsible for the inser- 
tion of the " white voter " in the State con- 
stitution. No man in Norristown ever did 
more for the improvement of that place 
than Mr. Sterigere. His private life was 
above reproach and public career was clean 
and honorable. His final summons came 
on October 13, 1852, and his remains were 
entombed in Puff's church-yard, where his 
parents sleep. 



HON. DAVID KRAUSE, LL. D., was 
the youngest son of Judge David and 
Regina Krause, and was born at Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania, November 2, 1800. Judge 
Krause had served as a captain in the Revo- 
lution and as a colonel in the War of 1812, 
was a member of the legislature and after- 
wards became an associate judge of his na- 
tive county. He designed his son, David, 
the subject of this brief sketch, for a farmer, 
but Rev. Earnest, the boy's tutor, fitted him 
for another field of labor. David Krause 
secured an appointment to West Point, but 
was induced by his parents to resign. He 
afterwards read law, was admitted to the 
bar and practiced at Lebanon until 1824. 
He afterwards served as private secretary to 
Governor Shulze, was associate State prin- 
ter with Simon Cameron and served two 
terms as a member of the assembly from 
Dauphin county, voting for free schools, 
public improvements and a State bank. In 



1845, without solicitation on his part, he 
was appointed as judge of Bucks and Mont- 
gomery counties, which position he held 
until 1851. He was popular but declined 
an election, and when Lee invaded Penn- 
sylvania in 1862, served as a private in 
an emergency company. Respected, hon- 
ored and esteemed, he died at Norristown 
June 13, 1S71, and his remains were intened 
in Montgomery cemetery. 



GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR, 
a citizen, property holder and temporary 
resident of Pottstowu from 1779 to 1797, 
was a conspicuous character in the Revo- 
lutionary history of the American republic, 
and although a brave military leader, 
failed in winning that fame to which 
his talents and courage entitled him. 
General Arthur St. Clair, president of the 
Continental Congress in 1787, commander- 
in-chief of the armies of the United States 
in 1 791 and governor of the Northwestern 
Territory from 1788 to 1802, was born at 
Thurso Castle, County Caithness, Scotland, 
in 1734. He was a son of Willam St. Clair, 
who was of the same stock as the then Earl 
of Caithness, from a common ancestry. The 
St.Clairs of Scotland are descended from 
Walderne de St. Clair, a Norman knight 
who married Margaret, daughter of Richard, 
Duke of Normandy. Their second son, 
William de St. Clair, settled in Scotland. 
Of his descendants, one became Earl of 
Orkney, which title the St. Clairs ex- 
changed in 147 1 for the earldom of Caith- 
ness, which they still hold under the An- 
glicised name of Sinclair. 

Gen. St. Clair was educated at the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh and removed to Lon- 
don to study medicine under the celebrated 
Dr. William Hunter. War breaking out 



Nkcrological Record. 



6 37 



between England and France, he purchased 
an ensign's commission and served under 
Wolfe in his campaign against Quebec in 
1759. After peace he resigned his com- 
mission as lieutenant, resided for some time 
at Boston and Philadelphia and in 1765 was 
placed in command of Fort Eigonier in 
western Pennsylvania, by General Gage, to 
whom he was related. He took up large 
bodies of land in the Ligonier valley, was 
made prothonotary of Bedford county, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1781, and two years later was 
largely instrumental in securing the erec- 
tion of Westmoreland county. As pro- 
thonotary and justice of the peace of the 
new county, he successfully resisted the 
claims of Virginia to the territory. When 
the Revolution came he cast in his fortunes 
with the colonies. He inspired the Hanas- 
town Declaration of Independence in 1775, 
perfected the Associators and was commis- 
sioned colonel by congress. He raised a 
regiment, fought in Canada under Mont- 
gomery and Arnold and was promoted to 
brigadier-general. At Trenton and Prince- 
ton he behaved with great skill and bravery 
and was commissioned a major-general. He 
was placed in command of Ticonderoga in 
1777 but was compelled to abandon it and 
retreat with a disastrous loss of men and 
munitions. A military court of inquiry ac- 
quitted him of all blame. While suspended 
from command he fought as a volunteer at 
Brandywine and was with the army at Val- 
ley Forge. He succeeded Arnold in com- 
mand of West Point, and was a member of 
the commission which sentenced Major 
Andre to death. After the capture of York- 
town he proceeded with a body of troops to 
join General Greene in the South, and on 
his way he drove the British from Wilming- 
ton, North Carolina. In 1783 he became a 
member of the Executive Council of Penn- 



sylvania, was elected to congress and served 
as president of that body during 1 787. Upon 
the erection of the Northwestern Territory 
in 1788 he was appointed governor and 
faithfully served as such for fourteen years. 
In 1790 he ran as the Federal candidate for 
governor of Pennsylvania and received 
two thousand eight hundred and two votes, 
while his successful Democratic opponent, 
Thomas Mifflin had twenty-seven thousand 
seven hundred and twenty-five votes.. 

General St. Clair commanded an army of 
two thousand men which was sent against 
the Miami Indians in 1791, and on No- 
vember 4th of that year he was defeated 
with a loss of nearly seven hundred men. 
He was suffering from a fever, yet bore him- 
self bravely in the thickest of the battle. 
The public was severe and unjust in its cen- 
sure, but a committee appointed by congress 
acquitted him of all blame. When he re- 
tired from public life in 1802, he was an old 
man and almost ruined in fortune. He re- 
turned about that time to his farm, two 
miles northwest of Ljgnonier, Westmore- 
land county. He owned ten thousand 
eight hundred and eighty-one acres of land 
in western Pennsylvania. General St. Clair 
advanced several thousand dollars to pay 
the expenses of the Pennsylvania line in 
the Revolutionary war, which sum the gov- 
ernment refused to pay him because he al- 
lowed the statute of limitations to cut out 
his claim. He also advanced $8,000 to pay 
Indian claims against the government and 
furnished $7,042 to help to fit out the ex- 
pedition of 1791. These sums which he 
had borrowed the United States also refused 
to pay and his property was taken at half 
its value by his greedy creditors who also 
attached every dollar of the pitiful pension 
granted him by congress in 1818. His last 
days were ones of penury and want and he 



6 3 8 



Necrological Record. 



kept a tavern in a log cabin on the summit 
of Chestnut ridge until his death on August 
31, 1818. He was a Mason and his remains 
were interred at Greensburg, this State, by 
the Masonic fraternity, who erected in 1832, 
a monument over his dust, on which is 
inscribed this appropriate inscription, "The 
earthly remains of General Arthur St. Clair 
are deposited beneath this humble monu- 
ment, which is erected to supply the place 
of a nobler one due from his country. He 
died August 31, 1818, in the eighty-fourth 
year of his age." 



JAMES WINNARD SHRACK, was a 
son of Lewis and Phoebe (Griffith) Shrack, 
and was born in Norristown, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1813. 
Lewis Shrack was descended from Jacob 
Shrack, who came in 1717 from Germany, 
and bought and settled on a two hundred 
and fifty acre tract of land at Trappe, and 
died in 1742, at sixty-three years of age. 
Lewis Shrack was the well-known proprie- 
tor of the Norristown and Philadelphia 
stage line in early times, and his wife was 
of Welsh parentage and descent. 

James W. Shrack attended the Norris- 
town academy, and was trained to mercan- 
tile life in the store of his brother-in-law, 
John Bean. In 1836 he became the junior 
member in the firm of Bean & Shrack, and 
nine years later commenced the dry goods 
business alone at the northwest corner of 
Main and DeKalb streets, which he con- 
ducted up to 1854, when he associated A. 
A. Yeakle wtth him under the firm name 
of Shrack & Yeakle. This last firm con- 
tinued until Mr. Shrack's death in 1876. 

On January 13, 1835, Mr. Shrack married 
Lydia Setzler, a daughter of Frederick 
Setzler, of Lawrenceville, Chester county, 



and to their union were born eight chil- 
dren. 

James W. Shrack was a man of great 
business energy and activity, and at the 
time of his death was the oldest merchant 
of Norristown. He was a member and 
senior warden of St. John's Episcopal church 
and as deputy, represented the parish in 
the diocesan convention. He often in- 
dulged his kindness of heart and generosity 
beyond his financial means. He was quick 
to observe and condemn wrong, but as 
ready to forgive. He was devoted to his 
home and family. He was of medium 
height, light complexion and of good per- 
sonal appearance. He died at his hand- 
some residence on Airy street, opposite St. 
John's church, on March 22, 1876, and his 
remains were interred in Montgomery 
cemetery. One who knew him well wrote 
in the Episcopal Recorder : "We have lost 
a friend and supporter of every good work 
and enterprise having for its object the 
preservation and spread of the true gospel of 
the word of God. As a member of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, Mr. Shrack 
was earnest, zealous and heartilv in sym- 
pathy with the movements which the Evan- 
gelical portion made to preserve it from in- 
novations and teachings not in hannonv 
with its traditions as a Protestant body." 



HON. BIRD WILSON, D. D., LL. D., 

whose kindness of heart induced him to 
resign his seat on the bench before he 
would sentence a murderer to death, was a 
son of Hon. James Wilson, and was born at 
Carlisle, this State, January 8, 1777. Hon. 
James Wilson was born near St Andrews, 
Scotland, in 1742, and came to Philadel- 
phia in 1766. He was a lawyer and was 
one of the signers of the immortal Declara- 



Necrological Record. 



639 



tion of Independence. His son, Hon. Bird 
Wilson, received his education at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, read law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1797. He was ap- 
pointed president judge of the seventh judi- 
cial circuit in 1806, and served until 1818, 
when he resigned. He then studied for the 
ministry of the Episcopal church and served 
as a rector until 182 1 of St John's and St 
Thomas' churches. In 1821 he removed to 
New York where he was a professor for 
many years in the General Theological 
seminary. He never married, and died 
April 14, 1859. Dr. Wilson was very kind 
of heart and provided for several years for 
his younger brothers and sisters. 



HON. JONATHAN ROBERTS, the 
most distinguished man in political life 
that Montgomery county ever produced, 
was a son of Jonathan Roberts, and was 
born at Swamp Vrass farm, Upper Merion 
township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- 
vania, August 16, 1771. John Roberts, a 
millwright, from North Wales, settled in 
Lower Merion township, in 1682. At sixty 
years of age he married Elizabeth Owen, a 
girl of eighteen years, and Matthew, the 
youngest of their three children, was a 
blacksmith and the owner of Swamp Vrass, 
and wedded Sarah Walter, by whom he 
had five children. Jonathan Roberts, the 
eldest of these children, received a good 
education and served as a member of the 
Colonial Assembly from 1771 to 1775, but 
being a Quaker when the Revolution came 
he retired from public service. He took a 
prominent part in organizing Montgomery 
county, served as a member of Congress 
and died at eighty-two years of age. 

Hon. Jonathan Roberts left school at six- 
teen years of age and learned the trade of 



wheelwright, which he never followed, but 
gave his time for several years to farming, 
reading and self study. He served with 
credit in the Assembly and ability in the 
State Senate, and in 1810 was elected to 
Congress, where he served with distinction 
for two terms. At the end of that time, in 
18 14, he was elected to the United States 
Senate, in which he served from 1815 to 
1821 with marked ability, and opposed the 
introduction of slavery in Missouri, made a 
speech still quoted for its eloquence and 
logic and clear exposition of the slavery 
question. While in Congress he supported 
Madison in his war policy and thus lost his 
membership in the Society of Friends. In 
1823 he was elected to the Pennsylvania 
legislature, where almost single handed he 
opposed Jackson's endorsement for Presi- 
dent by the legislation. After that he 
served on the canal board for a time, and 
in 1839 was instrumental in nominating 
John Tyler for Vice President, who, after 
becoming President, appointed Senator 
Roberts as collector of customs for the port 
of Philadelphia, and then removed him be- 
cause he would not allow the custom house 
force to be corruptly manipulated in the 
interests of Tyler's efforts for a presidential 
nomination. He then retired from public 
life and died July 21, i s 55, aged seventy- 
one years. He married Eliza H. P.ushby, 
ot Washington city, who survived him for 
nearly eleven years. He was a close stu- 
dent and hard worker during his entire life- 
time, believing that habits of industry con- 
stituted the foundation of personal and po- 
litical independence. He advocated inter- 
nal improvements, believed in protection 
for home industries and opposed the insti- 
tution of slavery. He lived a life worthy 
of imitation, and passed from the cradle to 
the grave without a blot on his name. 



640 



Necrologicae Record. 



REV. GEORGE MICHAEL WEISS, 
one of the four ministers who organized on 
October 12, 1746, the First Reformed Synod 
(German) in America, was a native of the 
Palatinate, on the Rhine, in Germany, 
and was sent to this country by the upper 
consistory or classis of the Palatinate. He 
came with a number of people as their pas- 
tor, and settled at Skippack, this county, 
where they built a wooden church and or- 
ganized one of the first regular German con- 
gregations in Pennsylvania. Rev. Weiss 
was a fine Latin scholar, and a man of 
energy and did much to build up the Re- 
formed church. He served churches in 
New York and Pennsylvania, and died at 
Goshenhoppen in 1763. He had acquired 
considerable wealth, owning Green Lane 
iron works, a large tract of land and twenty 
slaves at the time of his death. 



REV. SAMUEL AARON, A. M., was 
the most distinguished teacher and min- 
ister of Montgomery county. On his 
tombstone his parishioners inscribed the 
sentence : " Honored as a minister, be- 
loved as a friend, revered as a teacher of 
youth, he is mourned as the guide and com- 
fort of many." He was a son of Moses and 
Hannah Aaron, and was born in New Brit- 
ain township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 
October 19, 1800. He was of Welsh-Irish 
descent, received his education in Dubois' 
Doylestown academy and Gummere's Math- 
ematical school, and then engaged in teach- 
ing. He was ordained to the Baptist min- 
istry in 1829, and spent the remainder of 
his life as a minister and teacher. His 
ministerial career was three years at New 
Britain, five at Burlington, New Jersey, 
three at Norristown, and six at Mt. Holly, 
New Jersey. He taught for forty-five years 



and most of the time was principal of Tree- 
mount seminary, of which he was principal 
from 1851 to 1857, and from whose walls 
during that period went forth General Han- 
cock and Hartranft and scores of those who 
afterwards became distinguished in military 
and civil life Endorsing for friends who 
failed in the panic of 1857, he was com- 
pelled to leave Norristown and remove to 
Mt. Holly, New Jersey, where he followed 
preaching and teaching nearly up to the 
time of his death, on April 11, 1865. 

In 1824 Mr. Aaron married Emilia Du- 
bois, eldest daughter of Rev. Uriah Dubois, 
of Doylestown, this State. 

As a minister Samuel Aaron was able 
and eloquent, and after convincing the 
judgment made impassioned appeals to the 
feelings. He held non-resistent views, was 
a champion of temperance and anti -slavery, 
and took part in the Republican convention 
that nominated Fremont for President. He 
received his degree of A. M. from Brown 
University, and through Treemount semi- 
nary, made a lasting impression on the his- 
tory of Montgomery county and the eastern 
part of the State. Rev. Samuel Aaron was 
of average height, stout build, florid com- 
plexion, and light hair, with a small eye 
but prodigious forehead, indicative of his 
great intellectual force and strength. After 
his death, John G. Whittier, Wendell 
Phillips and others of national reputation 
wrote sympathizing letters to his bereaved 
family. 



FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG, 
eminent as the first speaker of the house 
of representatives of the United States, 
was the second son of Rev. Henry 
Melchoirand Anna Maria (Weiser) Muhlen- 
berg, and was born at Trappe, Montgomery 



Necrological Record. 



641 



county, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1750. He- 
was educated at the University of Halle, and 
settled over a Lutheran church in New 
York city, but left it when the British en- 
tered the place and like his brother, Gen- 
eral Peter, never returned to the ministry. 
He served in the State assembly in 1779, 
was one of the first judges of Montgomery 
county, which he also served as register and 
recorder from 1 7S4 to 1 7X0. and served four 
terms as a member of congress. He had 
also been a member of the Continental con- 
gress for two terms, and ran for governor in 
1793 and again in 1796, but was defeated 
each time. He died in 1802, when holding 
the office of receiver general of the Penn- 
sylvania land office. 



LUCRETIA (COFFIN) MOTT, who 
for several years was a resident of Chel- 
tenham township, Montgomery county, 
was one of the most remarkable women 
this country ever produced. " Truth for 
authority, not authority for truth " was the 
form of a favorite aphorism which Lucretia 
Mott wrote in a fair, round hand on the 
back of a photographed portrait when she- 
was eighty-six years of age. By the prin- 
ciple formulated in this aphorism the 
career of this noble woman was always 
governed. It was a predominating ele- 
ment in her character. It was the light 
she followed : the inspirer of her courage 
to walk fearlessly in the path of duty pre- 
scribed by the light within — the con- 
science — Emmanuel, God with us. Her 
name was a synonym for a rare combina- 
tion of Christian graces. Hers was a 
strong, sweet, and noble soul, ever guided 
by unswerving loyalty to truth and right- 
eousness. Lucretia Mott was a descendant 
of one of the earliest settlers on Nantucket, 

41 



where she was born on the 3d of January, 
1793. Her parents removed to Boston, 
and when she was thirteen years oJ age, 
she was sent to the " Nine Partners " 
boarding school, an institution established 
by the Friends, in Duchess county, New 
York, a few years before. There she was 
under the instruction of Deborah Rodgers 
(afterwards Mrs. Jacob Willetts), who died 
in 1879 at tnc a S e "'" ; ibovc ninety years. 
During her absence at that time her par- 
ents removed to Philadelphia. She re- 
turned home and two years later, in 1812, 
married James Mott, a young merchant 
and a Ouake-r. At twenty-five years of age- 
she became a minister and extended her 
labors from Virginia to Massachusetts. She- 
battled against war, intemperance and 
slavery, and in 1827 joined the Hicksite 
branch of her church. She took an active 
part in the organization of the American 
Anti-Slavery society at Philadelphia in 
1833, and was sent in 1840 to the World's 
Anti-Slavery convention at London, where 
she was refused a seat because she was a 
woman, but astonished many of the dele- 
gates by speaking at a breakfast to which 
they were invited. She believed in 
woman's right to the ballot. As a minis- 
ter or speaker, she spoke- to the heart and 
judgment, and was a model of purity, ele- 
gance and force. 

Mrs. Mott died on November n, 1880, 
at her home in Philadelphia. Husband 
and children had departed before, but no 
funeral gloom shadowed her spirit, for she- 
was in sympathy with all sufferers, and a 
bright, beckoning hope always made her 
cheerful. The atmosphere of her home 
was almost ideal in its peace and harmony. 
She leaned trustingly upon her husband as 
the stronger being. His was a nature sim- 
ilar to her own, but he- was a very silent 



642 



Nkcro logical Record. 



man. She was fond of bright things, and 
had a piano, paintings, and warm colors in 
the carpets and curtains of her home. Mrs. 
Mott was of small stature and figure, and 
her face had the charm of delicate and reg- 
ular features, combined with great strength 
of character. Her eyes were very bright, 
and expressive of great intelligence, ap- 
pearing gray ordinarily, but when ani- 
mated in conversation or by some strong 
emotion, their color deepened and appeared 
almost black. 



CHARLES THOMSON, who was so 
prominent as secretary of the Continental 
Congress during its entire existence, was a 
resident of Montgomery count) - for many 
years. Of him Lossing says : 

" Of all the patriots of the Revolution, 
no man was better acquainted with the men 
and events of that struggle, than Charles 
Thomson, who was the permanent secre- 
tary of the Continental Congress for more 
than fifteen years. He was born in Ireland 
in 1730, and at the age of eleven years was 
brought to America in company with three 
older brothers. Their father died from the 
effects of sea-sickness, when within sight of 
the capes of the Delaware. They landed at 
New Castle, in Delaware, and had no other 
capital with which to commence life in the 
new world, than strong and willing hands, 
and honest hearts. Charles was educated 
at New London, in Pennsylvania, by Dr. 
Allison, and became a teacher in the 
Friends' academy, at New Castle. He went 
to Philadelphia, where he enjoyed the 
friendship of Dr. Franklin and other emi- 
nent men. In 1756 he was secretary for 
the Delaware Indians, at a great council 
held with the white people, at Easton ; and 
that tribe adopted him as. a son, according 



to an ancient custom. With all the zeal of 
an ardent nature, Thomson espoused the 
republican cause ; and when the first Con- 
tinental Congress met, in Philadelphia, in 
September, 1774, he was called to the re- 
sponsible duty of secretary to that body. 
At about that time he married Hannah 
Harrison (the aunt of President Harrison), 
whose brother, Benjamin, was one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
Year after year, Mr. Thomson kept the rec- 
ords of the proceedings of Congress, until 
the new organization of the government 
under the Federal Constitution, in 1789. 
But the demands of public business did not 
wean him from books, of which he was a 
great lover. He had a passion for the study 
of Greek authors, and actually translated 
the Septuagint from the original into the 
English. He made copious notes of the 
progress of the Revolution, and after retir- 
ing from public life, in 1789, he prepared a 
history of his own times. But his sense of 
justice and goodness of heart, would not 
permit him to publish it ; and a short time 
before he died, he destroyed the manuscript. 
He gave as a reason, that he was unwilling 
to blast the reputation of families rising 
into repute, whose progenitors were proved 
to be unworthy of the friendship of good 
men, because of their bad conduct during 
the war. So the world has lost the most 
authentic civil history of the struggle for 
independence, ever produced. Mr. Thom- 
son died on the 16th of August, 1824, when 
in the ninety-fifth year of his age. He then 
resided at Lower Merion, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, where he was buried. 
In 1838, his nephew removed his remains 
to Laurel Hill cemetery, over which is a 
handsome monument, bearing an appropri- 
ate inscription, composed by John F. Wat- 
son, Esq., the annalist." 



Necrological Record. 



643 



REV. HENRY M. MUHLENBERG, 

who is known as the founder of the Evan- 
gelical church in America, was born at 
Eimbeek, in Hanover, Germany, in Sep 
tember, 171 1. He received his education 
in the famous universities of Gottingen and 
Halle, was graduated from the theological 
school of the former in 1735, and after being 
ordained, felt the necessity of there being 
a regularly educated Lutheran ministry in 
America. He came to Philadelphia in 
1743, and commenced organizing churches 
and building houses of worship for existing 
congregations. The next year he came to 
Trappe, where he died October 6, 1787, after 
having broken the bread of life to the Ger- 
man Lutherans of Pennsylvania in their 
mother tongue for nearly half a century. 
He succeeded in placing the American 
Lutheran church on a firm foundation and 
giving to her a regularly educated min- 
istry. 

Rev. Muhlenberg married Anna Maria 
Weiser, a daughter of the celebrated Indian 
interpreter, Conrad Weiser. Their children 
were : General Peter, Hon. Frederick A., 
Rev. Henry E., Mary, wife of General 
Francis Swayne ; one daughter that mar- 
ried Rev. John Shultz, was the mother of 
Governor Shultz ; and two other daughters 
whose names cannot be secured at this 
writing. 



MAJ.-GENERAL THOMAS CRAIG, 
of the Seventh division of Pennsylvania, 
was the first associate judge of Montgom- 
ery county. He was a sou of Thomas 
Craig, who came to Ireland in 1728, and 
was born in 1740, in the Irish or Craig 
settlement, which was four miles from 
Path. He served in the Revolutionary 
war, was promoted from captain to colonel, 



and commanded the Third Pennsylvania 
regiment from 1777 n> 17S1. He served 
under St. Clair and afterwards with Wash- 
ington. He resided in Montgomery county 

for several years, and held different county 
offices. He afterwards returned to North- 
ampton county, was elected major-general 
of the Seventh division of Pennsylvania 
militia, and died in 1832, at the ripe age of 
ninety-two vears. 



NICHOLAS SCULL, surveyor general 
of the province of Pennsylvania, from June 
14, 1748, to the time of his death in No- 
vember, 1 761, was the eldest son of Nicho- 
las and May Scull, who settled in White- 
marsh township in 1685. Nicholas Scull, 
the younger, was born in Whitemarsh 
township, and became one of the best sur- 
veyers of his day. He received a good 
education, was a fine Indian interpreter, 
and in 1708 married Abigail Heap, who 
died in 1753 at sixty-five years of age. He 
served as sheriff of Philadelphia county 
and as surveyor general, and his maps of 
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land surpassed all previous ones for correct- 
ness and neatness. 



GENERAL PETER MUHLENBERG, 
one of the two distinguished Pennsylva- 
nians who were awarded statues in the 
Federal capitol at Washington city, is elo- 
quently described by the historian, Lossing, 
as follows: " Spiritual and temporal war- 
fare was the lot of many gospel ministers 
during the War for Independence. Of 
those who wielded weapons manfully in 
both fields of conflict, was John Peter 
Gabriel Muhlenberg, who generally wrote 
his name with the John and Gabriel 



6 4 4 



Necrological Rkcord. 



omitted. He was a native of Trappe, a 
village in Montgomery county, Pennsylva- 
nia, where he was born on the ist of Octo- 
ber, 1746. He was the son of Dr. Melchoir 
Muhlenberg (the founder of the Lutheran 
church in America) and the daughter of 
Conrad Weiser, the great Pennsylvania 
Indian agent. Peter was educated for the 
ministry, partly in this country, and partly 
in Europe. He was ordained in 1768, and 
commenced his pastoral labors in western 
New Jersey the following year. He was 
called to the charge of a congregation in 
Virginia in 1771, and it being necessary to 
obtain ordination from an English bishop, 
before he could enter upon his duties there, 
he went to London for the purpose at the 
beginning of the following year. He and 
Mr. (afterward Bishop) White were ordained 
at the same time. On his return, he be- 
came minister of the parish of Woodstock, 
Virginia, and was soon an acknowledged 
leading spirit of that section among those 
who opposed British aggressions. He was 
chairman of the committee of safety in 
that county in 1774, and was elected to a 
seat in the House of Burgesses. At the 
close of 1775, he was appointed colonel of 
a Virginia regiment, and relinquished his 
pastoral duties. In concluding his fare- 
well sermon, he cpioted the language of 
Holy Writ which declares that there is a 
"time for all things," and added, with a 
trumpet voice, " there is a time to fight, 
and that time has now come ! " Then lay- 
ing aside his gown, he stood before his 
flock in the full uniform of a Virginia 
colonel. He then ordered the drums to be 



beaten at the church door for recruits, and 
almost three hundred men, chiefly of his 
congregation, were enrolled under his ban- 
ner that day. He joined the army and was 
in the battle at Charleston in June, 1776. 
Congress commissioned him a brigadier in 
February, 1777, and he was ordered to take 
charge of all the Virginia Continental 
troops. He joined the army under Wash- 
ington at Middlebrook in May, and was 
with the chief in all his movements from 
that time until 1779 — Brandywine, Ger- 
mantown, White Marsh, Valley Forge, and 
Monmouth. He was with Wayne at the 
capture ot Stony Point, in July, 1779, and 
was very active afterward in Virginia until 
the capture of Cornwallis in the autumn 
of 1 781. He was a brave participator in 
that last great battle of the Revolution. 
At the close of the war he was promoted 
to major-general, and removed to Pennsyl- 
vania. He never resumed his ministerial 
labors, but served his native State in several 
civil offices. He was a member of the first 
and third Congress after the organization 
of the Federal government, and was also a 
United States Senator in 1801. He was 
appointed supervisor of the revenue of 
Pennsylvania the same year ; and in 1802 
he was made collector of the port of Phila- 
delphia. In that office he remained until 
his death, which occurred at his country 
seat, near Philadelphia, on the ist of Octo- 
ber, 1807, when he was precisely sixty-one 
years of age. His remains lie buried in 
the burial ground at Trappe, near the 
church wherein he was baptized." 



INDEX 



I'll face •? 

Historical Sketch 5 

CHAPTER I. 

Boundaries and Area 5 

Topography and Geology 6 

Mineralogy 7 

Botany 8 

Zoology 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Pre-Historic Inhabitation 10 

Mound Builders 11 

Indian Tribes 11 

Indian Purchases 11 

Pioneer Races 12 

Development Periods 14 

CHAPTER III. 

Iron Manufacture iS 

Textile Fabrics 18 

Paper and Minor Industries . 19 

CHAPTER IV. 

Schools and Colleges 20 

CHAPTER V. 

Judicial Districts, etc 21 

CHAPTER VI. 

Medical Profession 25 

CHAPTER VII. 

Religious Denominations 29 



646 



Index. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Newspapers 31 

Political Statistics . . . 32 

CHAPTER IX. 
Military History 38 

CHAPTER X. 

Miscellany 43 

Biographical Sketches 49 



Abraham, Benjamin T> 235 

Adle, Thaddeus S 222 

Anders, Rev. William S 77 

Alberlson, Amos L 146 

Abraham, James 302 

Alderfer, George D 307 

Autenrieth, George Adam 332 

Ancheubach, William 93 

Adams, B. Brook 42S 

Althonse, Daniel S 433 

Arnold, Herbert A., M. D 480 

Abraham, Thomas D 4S3 

Auchv, Lewis 494 

Allcbach, J. R 498 

Anders, Samuel K 513 



B 

Beeber, Rev. Thomas R, D. D 55 

Becker, John James . 105 

Borneman, Noah S 104 

Bickel, Ephraim B 120 

Brandt, Harvey Schaffer 137 

Boyer, J. Frank 163 

Bier, Dr. John R 1S3 

Britt, Edward F 201 

Burr, J. Rufns 205 

Brown, Hon. Henry Richie 207 

Buck, William 11 215 

Bromer, William ... 413 

Butcher, Thomas J 2S6 



Bobb, Dr. Henry 2S7 

Bardman, Irvin H 294 

Bean, John F ^30 

Barili, Eurico 334 

Binder, William J, 377 

Brower, Daniel Roberts, M. D 3S0 

Boyer, Hon. Henry K 89 

Brandt, Joseph Henry 403 

Bickhart, James 411 

Brown, Ezra H. . . 427 

Beidler, Jacob H 432 

Brownback, Henry M 436 

Bcchtel, Joseph Y., M. D 441 

Boyd, Hon. James 3S7 

Bair, Christian G 477 

Boyd, Howard 485 

Biddle, Henry C 4S5 

Bate, Richard H 505 

Booth, John 507 

Burgess, Warren S 510 

Bigouy, F. G., M. D 522 

Brunuer, Henry U 527 

Boorse, Ephraim C 532 

Breen, John 535 

Brownback, James 538 

Barker, Thomas II 537 

Buskirk, William II 570 

Blackburn, William C 572 

Buchanon, John S 575 

Brower Family, The 5S5 

Beerer, Franklin T 613 

Brunuer, Prof. Samuel V 616 

Bliem Family, The 620 



Ix mix. 



64; 



c 

Cook, Edgar S 98 

Christman, Minard L 111 

Crabtree, Dr. George H 119 

Cressmao, Jesse S 147 

Coleman, George P. ■ 147 

Cooper, William A 171 

Cressman, M. T 1S2 

Coats, Samuel . . . • ■ . . . 200 

Curren, Patrick 212 

Caine, Edward J 21S 

Crankshaw, John H 224 

Childs, S. Powell 261 

Cassel, Abraham Harley 29S 

Craft, J. Watson 334 

Cleaver, Jonathan 339 

Cleaver, William 346 

Clark, William J 359 

Caley, Cyrus H 426- 

Christman, Charles Ira 430 

Chain, B. Percy 442 

Clemmer, James K 385 

Corson, Dr. Hiram . . 392 

Clevenger, William II 469 

Cripps, Ellis C 496 

Cassel, Jonas U 500 

Christian, Henry G. . 531 

Comlv, Hon. F. A 533 

Chillis, Louis M 5S2 

Care, James R., M. D. 615 



D 

Dickinson, II, D , 104 

Davis, Thomas, M. D., 114 

Dresher, Samuel 141 

Davidheiser, Dr. Allen K 157 

DeHaven, J. Rambo 165 

Davis, John, M. I)., iyo 

Dettre, Ambrose, 219 

1 1 anuehower. Win. Franklin, . 232 

Dimmig, A.J 354 

Dodd, Robert J, M. D., 375 

Drake, Howard Henry, M. D 3S5 



Davis, Lewis H., . . 
Davis, George W., 

Dyer. John T 

I lanibly, Eugene, . . . 
Detwiler, Dr. Charles II 
Dreslin, Daniel I)., 



404 
415 
435 
(43 
504 

567 



I'.rk, William II., M. D 72 

Erb, Milton G ... no 

Evans, Thomas B 180 

Kvans, William Aims 226 

Evans, Jesse Worth 216 

Egolf, Gustavus 245 

Elseuhaus, Edward 290 

Evans, Oliver M 325 

Everhart, Dr. Charles \V 416 

Ellis, William S 510 

Evans, Montgomery 550 

Egolf, G. W 560 

Eisenberg, Philip Y., MI) 604 



Fegeley, Jacob 62 

Finley, William A 107 

Fry, John 191 

Fox, Rev. William B 203 

Finley, John E. . 210 

Fearnside, John 221 

Fisher, John Bisson . 229 

France, Edward William . ■•.... 242 

Fisher, Samuel R . 257 

Fornance, Joseph 2N1 

Famous, James P 2R4 

Fetterolf, Captain Henry II .... 309 

Fritz, Ephraim 322 

Faust, Dr. Jonathan 352 

Eox, Gilbert Rodman . . 87 

Pox, Aaron ... 150 

Faust, Jacob II 344 

Faust, HOD. Samuel 345 

r. iiton, William P. . 471 

Finley, A. V 473 

Faust, Edwin A 571 



64 S 



Index. 



Gilbert, Solomon 113 

Gresh, William K .129 

Guldin, Cyrus Q 210 

Griffith, Alexander F 237 

Gable, Jacob H 256 

Gotwals, Professor Joseph K 306 

GrofF, Henry G., M. I) 326 

Graul, Henry W 329 

Griflilh, Joseph K 337 

Geist, Mathias 376 

Gable, Percival K 405 

Gotwalts, Jacob V 440 

Gable, Henry R . . 446 

Gery, Benjamin 194 

Gillingham, Joseph E 4S4 

Griffith, John H 493 

Gerhart, Mahlou J 521 

Gilbert, Elwood G., V. S 556 

Garrett, Philip S . 565 

Gangawer, Morris A 576 

H 

Hoover, Hon. Hiram C ... 63 

Holland, James B., 67 

Hobson, Erank M. 70 

Hunter, Rev. James P., 71 

Heebner, Hon. William P., 73 

Hallman, Albertus 106 

Hurst, James Appleby, 130 

Hillegas, Pr. Jesse Ziegler 135 

Hoover, William A 135 

Hunter, Perry Franklin 13S 

Humbert, George J., 158 

Hendricks, Rev.Joseph H., 1). II 175 

Hides, Joseph M., 1S7 

Hartzell, Samuel J., .... 193 

Haines, Empson K . . . 204 

Hillegas, C. Q., D. P. S 214 

Highley, George N., M. 1> 223 

Harley, Mathias 230 

Hillegas, Mahlou .231 

Hall, Pr. William M., .... . . . 237 

Hiltebeitel, Mark 240 

Hillegas, Pr. John G. 244 



Harley, Professor John K 274 

Houpt, Francis 277 

Herman, Pr Ambrose C 291 

Himmelwrighl, William K 304 

Hillegas, John P., M. P 315 

Harry, James Wood 316 

Helffenstein, Albert 324 

Hamburger, Hon. Herman 355 

Hauck, Samuel 356 

Hillegas Family, The 361 

Hunter, Ashley Pecuin 367 

Hunsicker, Hon. Charles 382 

Haguer, Mark R 410 

Hallowed, Richard T. S 414 

Holsteiu, George W, M. P . . .- -.423 

Hobson, Freeland G 437 

Houghton, John J 449 

Harley, Lewis R., M. A , Ph. D 462 

Haldemau, Isaiah R 46S 

Hunsberger, J. Nefwton, M. I) 478 

Hughes, John J 48S 

Hunsberger, William H, M. P , 492 

Hallowed, Horace G. J 494 

Hoopman, Arthur A., M. P 497 

Hartzell, Prof. Henry E 516 

Hunsicker, Hon. John S 520 

Hersh, John G.. M. P 539 

Hampton, Jchn 541 

Hathaway, John C 553 

Hunsicker, John G 554 

Hough, Charles I!., M. P 55 S 

Humphrey, Charles W 562 

Harmer, Pavid 563 

Hartzell, T. R 569 

Hallowell, Richard 575 

Hovenden, Thomas 583 

J 

Jones, William Potts 318 

Jones, Horace C 320 

Johnson, I. H 323 

Jarrclt, Samuel F 95 

Jenkins, Charles S 412 

Johnson, Wilmer H 426 

Jones, Joseph C 434 



Index. 



649 



Jenkins, J. P. Hale 3S9 

Johnson, Elmer E., MI) 512 

Johnston, [ssachar 515 

K 

Keys, George W 115 

Knctz, Jacob Moll 168 

Kratz, Hon. Henry W. • 179 

Kern, David S 195 

Kneule, Albrecht 199 

Kneule, Charles A 206 

Kite, George R 243 

Knox, Charles C • 273 

Keeler. Dr. V. Z 314 

Kreible, William Z 331 

Keely, Nathaniel Beidemaii . 347 

Kittson, Louis 364 

Kriiler, William H 431 

Kneule, Henry A 156 

Kinzie, Daniel 469 

Keyser, John 476 

Kurtz, Milton R 501 

Kriebel, Elmer G.. M. D. 502 

L 

Latshaw, Samuel B 117 

Long, Edward Everett 166 

Lewin, J. Milton 171 

Leidy, Benjamin F 1S4 

I.andis, Isaac 196 

Leedom, Andrew S 211 

Lubbe, Francis H 213 

Lukins, Lewis A 234 

Light, Frederick 236 

Lukens, Charles 238 

Loughin, Daniel 24S 

Lees, Joseph 250 

Little, William 254 

Lukens, Jawood 255 

Lee, John Kllwood 27S 

Latshaw, John H 333 

Larzelere, Nicholas Henry 340 

Longenecker, Hon. J. II 357 

Lawson, Bellelt, jr 384 

Landis, J. Horace, A.M. 40S 



Litzeuberg, Henry 250 

Longaker, Hon. Henry 397 

Lougaker, Hon. A. Brower 43,, 

Larzelere, Jeremiah B 460 

Leidy, Ephraim K 495 

Lohb, Kber Heston 507 

Leister, Jacob H 519 

Longaker, Hon. M. S 543 

Long, Captain Samuel J 572 

Longaker Family, The 606 

M 

Mintzer, General William M 60 

McDermott, William 6S 

Moore, Dr. Charles 79 

Morgan, George C 103 

McCoy, Capt. Robert 121 

McKinzie, William, A. M., M. I) 193 

McMichael, Abner 247 

Mattisou, Dr. Richard V 25S 

Moir, James 295 

McGinley, Joseph J 327 

Moore, Rev. David W • • . . . 373 

Miller, Charles H 37S 

Mowlds, William 415 

Moore, Joseph K 419 

Miller, George Smith 421 

Marshall, J. Newton (62 

Miller, Francis 464 

Moyer, Jonas S 466 

Miller, John 467 

Murray, Charles H 47S 

Metcalf, Edwin 500 

Moore, B. F 516 

Mclnnis, Hugh, 529 

Moyer, Samuel C, M. D 555 

Martin, William 564 

Mather, Charles 568 

Mullen, Isaac 574 

Murray, Edward S 614 

N 

Nice, G. S 336 

Nuss, Edmund B . 491 

Nice, J. S ■ 5°3 

Neiman, Howard Y., M 1 >. 508 






650 



Index. 



O 

O'Rrien, William 10S 

P 

Perry, R. Wilson M4 

Poley, George W 252 

Preston, Mahlon, M. D 260 

Peehin, William R 263 

Price, Daniel 9° 

Potts, William W 92 

Pawling, George W . 41S 

Place, Albert R "49 

Pennington, A. J 3^6 

Phillips, W. R 559 

R 

Reifsnyder, Horace F I2 2 

Rambo, Joseph S '26 

Royer, Joseph Warren. M. P 13 1 

Rex, Jacob L '42 

Robinson, Thomas • ■ 143 

Rambo, Thomas J '62 

Roebuck, George R 188 

Roberts, Isaac 202 

Riltenhouse, William 120 

Reiff, Henry W 272 

Righter, John A 276 

Ritter, Hiram W.,M. I> 3°5 

Rosenberger, A. W 3 r 9 

Rogers, George W 341 

Rufe, Rev. Augustine H 3 60 

Rambo, Nathan 3 D 5 

Read, Lewis W.. M. D 366 

Reed, John Philip 83 

Reed, Willoughby H , M. D, Ph. G S5 

Regar, Howard K 86 

Ruby, Samuel Vernon, Ph. D 96 

Righter, George W 4°° 

Reinert, David F 409 

Reading, Dr. Thomas 445 

Roberts, Ellwood '55 

Rosenberger, Abraham S 4^1 

Rothemiel, Peter F 6 7 K 



s 

Schall, General John W 52 

Slingluff, John 58 

Spang, Othniel S 78 

Spear, John Crawford, M. D 90 

Stritzinger, F. G no 

Saylor, Albert G 116 

Swartz, Hon. Aaron S 1 24 

Supplee, Andrew 1 27 

Sullivan, William M 133 

Smith, Isaac W 151 

Shannon, Rev. Thomas F. . . : 155 

Sotter, Jacob C 152 

Steinmetz, Jacob R 164 

Saylor, A. R 169 

Schultz, William A 181 

Smith, William F 189 

Schellinger, Isaac M 192 

Slemmer, William 195 

Smyth, Samuel Gordon 220 

Schmidt, Nelson Frederick, D. I) 227 

Slemmer, Samuel 239 

Shoemaker, Albert 241 

Scatchard, Henry F 246 

Schultz, Edwin K 465 

Saurman, Thomas M 251 

Strassburger, Jacob A 2S0 

Supplee, Mark R 289 

Spatz, Irviu R 293 

Seipt, Anthony H 297 

Smith, Augustus H 30S 

Stahler, William 312 

Stritzinger, Lewis G 315 

Sholl, Harvey F., M. D . . . 321 

Shoffner, William H 32S 

Scheldt, Adam 336 

Snyder, Henry 33 s 

Strahan, Rev. Joseph A 343 

Seal, Thomas H 363 

Simpson, Albert D Si 

Schissler, AloysiusJ., M. A 82 

Shoemaker, Hon. Joseph A 407 

Smith, James B 421 

Shoemaker, William H 43° 

Slingluff, Joseph 39' 



Index. 



651 



Steiaer, Hon. I. Erb 305 

Saylor, Hon. Henry I) 349 

Streeper, I). H 472 

Stadelman, Herman R 474 

Snyder, Solomon 475 

ShulU, Daniel S 4 S 7 

Smith, George W 4«9 

Speaker, Christian 49° 

Somiesky, Richard 509 

Smyth, John G 5" 

Shaffer, William A 5'4 

Stetller, D. W 518 

Steen.JamesA •".... 519 

Stinson, Hon. Charles H 528 

Sehweyer, Henry A 530 

Shelly, Daniel Webster, M. D 533 

Shaffer, Levi R 541 

Seese, Samuel P., M. D 547 

Smith, Andrew J 561 

Shainline, Jonathan M ■ ' 566 

Shearer, David W 575 

Scheetz, Remandns 577 

Spangler, Rev. Henry T 619 

Slifer, Hedley Franklin, M. D 619 

T 

Tyson, Neville D 75 

Tyson, Jacob 136 

Thomas, Edward 209 

Tegtmeier, Christian F., M. I) 249 

Todd, I. Heston 264 

Thomas, Horace A K 2S5 

Treichler, Charles O. F 292 

Thomas, Benjamin 447 

Tracy, Henry M 396 

Todd, John, M. D. 536 

Theel, Gustavus F., M. D 546 

U 

t'mstad, J. R., M. D 123 

Uruer, Oliver N 12S 

V 

Yanghan, Rrnest M., M. I) 472 

Vaugban, William 502 



w 

Weand, Hon. Henry K 51 

Wanger, Hon. Irving Price 56 

Whitcomb, Harry H., M. D., Ph. D 66 

Whitby, Benjamin F 102 

Withers, M. Augustus, M. 1) 112 

Waage, Dr. Charles T 132 

Wills Family, The 161 

Weber, Charles Z., M. I) 173 

Welker, William A 185 

Weber, John D 190 

Wildman, Frank I! 253 

Wood, Hon. John 267 

Wood, Howard 296 

Wilkinson, Alfred 310 

Werner, Rev. William I? 317 

Weber, William C 350 

Weber, Mathias, M. D 379 

Wilson, Joseph M 417 

Wilson, Francis S., M. D 402 

White, J. Winfield 422 

Weber, Irviu S 425 

Weyand, John F ' ' 429 

Warner, Ralph M., Jr 470 

Wood, Hon. Alan, Jr 479 

Weinberger. J. Shelly, IX. D 523 

Walters, Alfred 534 

Wilson, Dr. Howard 543 

Wickart, P. O,, M. D 549 

Walters, Hon. M. H 552 

Wood, John, Jr 617" 

Weiser, Rev. Clement Z 61S 



Yost, Col. Daniel M 271 

Yocum, Horatio L 35 ' 

Yocum, J. Hagy 379 

Yost, John B 4°3 



Zimmerman, William I) 54$ 



APPENDIX r > 2 7 



652 



Index. 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 



William H. Buck. 

Dr. Henry Bol>l>. 

Hon. James Boyd. 

Dr. Hiram Corson. 

John H. Craukshaw. 

Samuel L. Cowclen. 

Dr. Thomas Davis. 

Dr. Henry Howard Drake. 

Dr. William H. Eck. 

Hon. Joseph Fornance. 

Dr. P. Y. Eisenherg. 

Gilbert Rodman Fox. 

P. K. Gable. 

Malhias Geist. 

Cyrus Q. Guldin. 

Dr. Henry G. Groff. 

Rev. J. H. Hendricks. 

Dr. Arthur A. Jloopman. 

Freeland G. Hobson. 

Samuel F. Jarrett. 

Rev. Thomas F. Shannon. 

Albrecht Kneule. 

Hon. Henry W. Kratz. 

Hon. A. Brower Longaker. 

S. B. Latshavv. 

Albert R. Place. 

S. Powell Childs. 

Isaac Landis. 

Dr. Thomas Reading. 

Howard K. Regar. 

Willonghby H. Reed. 



Joseph S. Rambo. 
David F. Reinert. 
Ellwood Roberts, 
General John W. Schall. 
A. R. Savior. 
J. A. Strassburger. 
Aloysius J. Schissler. 
Hon. Aaron S. Swartz. 
Rev. Joseph A. Strahan. 
Dr. John Todd. 
Jacob Tyson. 
Dr. J. R. Umstad. 
Alfred Wilkinson. 
Dr. Charles Z. Weber. 
Louis Kittson. 
Morgan R. Wills. 
Mary A. Wills. 
Ashley Pechin Hunter. 
Dr. Daniel R. Brower. 
Patrick Curren. 
Dr. Louis W. Read. 
P. Frank Hunter. 
Rev. Clement Z. Weiser. 
Hon. Charles Hunsicker. 
James Moir. 
Hon. Irving P. Wanger. 
William H. Slingluff. 
Hon. Henry Longaker. 
Nathaniel B. Keely. 
Dr. John G. Hersh. 



rd -iftg. 



D£C23\949 















o 






~ A 



Jl'5 






^ : 












•p • o -*> c c 



■^ 





















% 






V 






y -* 






-j- .v * I 







^ •<> 



-^ • ■ ° V ^ « C . 



t ' # 






*> 






.^ 









4 °^ 












A 

























LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

iiuuiiilllUIIlY" 




014 311 552 5 



mmS'- 
hbBbS 

Ima 

bSmm 



fiBi 



wHH 




